I have experience working with diverse populations, particularly with queer, trans, and non-binary community members and with people who have experienced trauma or attachment wounding.

Work with LGBT+ community members may look like us exploring your sense of self, terms that may feel comfortable for you, disclosure with others, your relationship with the broader LGBT+ community, transition options, and how you are impacted by the prevailing culture we live in. It could also look like us focusing on other areas with the knowledge that I am holding awareness and comfort in working with you as an LGBT+ person.

Many people have experienced some form of trauma, complex trauma, attachment wounding, and just plain difficult things. Whether you’re feeling impacted by something that took place in your childhood, ways in which your needs were not met in childhood or more recently, something that you are currently going through or have recently gone through, or something your ancestors experienced, I will be glad to hold that impact with you. We can get to know that impact better in a multitude of trauma-informed ways and at your own pace.

In diagnostic terms, I have worked with many people who identify with or have been diagnosed with C-PTSD, PTSD, or borderline personality features. If those terms feel like they capture something of how you move through the world, we may be a good fit. If those are not terms that you use, I welcome that and I welcome you. If you have been touched by trauma, harm, loss, or challenging relationships, we may be a good fit. When it comes to difficult experiences themselves, particular areas that I have a lot of experience working with are: emotional, physical, or sexual abuse, including in childhood and in intimate partner violence; sexual assault; bullying and peer violence; significant losses and grief; neglect and emotional neglect; experiences in the child welfare system; experiences of not being witnessed or cared for in important ways; the cumulative effects of micro- (and not so micro-) aggressions and minority stress; and generational/historical/ancestral/legacy trauma and other burdens. If your experience fits outside of these, it is still important and I’m still happy to work with you! I’m also happy to work with you if you are someone who has caused harm and wants support in exploring what led to it and how to shift your behavior in the future. Most of us have experienced at least some harm or hurt and most of us have caused at least some harm or hurt. My commitment is to work with you with care and consideration.

Whether or not you’re holding the marks of experiences that could be described by words like trauma, the ways in which you feel about or relate to others may feel intense, lacking, or painful. This could show up as trouble forming or ending relationships, difficulty with or questions about communication, wanting more or less closeness with others, or wanting to feel more fulfilled in your relationships. It could also show up when you are looking to connect with new people, or when they are looking to connect with you. I deeply value working with these patterns. We could explore your experiences around attachment and get to know what within you animates these. We could also examine what you want for yourself around communication, relationships, boundaries, and connection with community.

Additional areas that I can bring robust experience to support you with include:

• Depression

• Anxiety

• Strong emotions and sensitivity

• Self-harm and thoughts of wanting to die

• Experiences of marginalization or inequity

• Exploring places of privilege, particularly for descendants of early settlers and of people who enslaved others

• Navigating situations and identifying your needs as an autistic person and/or someone with ADHD (note: I do not use or draw from ABA)

• Increasing your connection with the natural world, having that connection be honored as a meaningful component of your therapy and your life, and grief about climate change and ecocide

• Exploring your identity or sense of self

• Working with people pleasing, perfectionism, and over-achieving

• Support letters for gender-affirming procedures

• Emotional support animal letters

• Being a therapist or a student in a mental health or social work field

• Loss and grief

• Acculturation stress and experiences of having lived in more than one culture

• Ancestral connection and working with your inheritance from the people and cultures you come from

• Supporting people in relationships in increasing closeness and vulnerability with one another and reducing challenging dynamics

I bring a strong anti-oppressive, queer, and trauma-informed lens to our work. This leads me to value informed consent, transparency, authenticity, and collaboration as foundational to meaningful therapy. I also maintain awareness of links between systemic, interpersonal, and individual difficulties and the ways in which each of these may impact you. I am specifically dedicated to providing anti-racist care that engages with the reality of white supremacist systems and culture.

I believe that everyone deserves a non-pathologizing and affirming therapy space. In my practice, this includes ADHDers, autistic people, people with borderline features or who have been diagnosed with these, people experiencing thoughts about ending their lives, people practicing polyamory and/or kink, people under the asexual umbrella, people engaged in sex work, and people or systems experiencing plurality or DID/OSDD. My commitment is not only to validate your experience but to hold it in its fullness.

My Approach

I frequently use four different approaches. The first is internal family systems (IFS). IFS provides a framework based in the idea that all of us have a number of parts that may have different experiences, feelings, or roles for us. This invites nuance and openness to the fullness of your experience. Using this model, we can notice what different parts of you are holding and offer presence and care where they are needed. We can also travel deeper into the inner workings of your experiences. I may invite you to connect with what is coming up for you through somatic (body-based), visual, or verbal channels. I have completed Level 3 training with the Internal Family Systems Institute and have served as a teaching assistant for nine IFS Foundations Courses for Trans, Non-binary, and Queer Clinicians.

Another approach I rely on is emotionally focused therapy (EFT), the primary approach that I use when working with relationships (these may be platonic, familial, or romantic/sexual). In relationship therapy, EFT can creates more closeness and shift relationship patterns that aren’t working. In individual therapy, EFT supports our witnessing and more deeply connecting with your experience. I have completed an LGBT+ focused externship training and an LGBT+ focused core skills training in EFT.

I also employ relational therapy, an approach that prioritizes the importance of relationships in your life, including the relationship that we mold in therapy. When this feels meaningful to you, I will invite you to explore our dynamics and what these bring up for you. I will welcome your input in the process of our work together.

If you are looking to explore or deepen your connection with the natural world or to engage with your responses to environmental destruction, we may use ecotherapy, an approach that centers relational connection with the natural world. This may help you feel a deeper sense of belonging, find more ways to be anchored in our greater ecosystem, or sit with grief around climate change and ecocide. I have completed an LGBT+ focused Level 1 Ecotherapy training with the Earthbody Institute.

At times, I may bring in additional approaches. This will depend on your needs and on preferences you may have about approaches that feel supportive.

I recognize that many therapy approaches and interventions draw from, and sometimes appropriate from, much older traditions held by numerous cultures across the world. I aim to hold awareness and respect around this lineage and also want to welcome aspects of your lineage and ancestral wisdom that you may want to bring into our work.