A trauma-informed therapeutic style rooted in equity and justice

I believe people heal in relationships. The therapeutic relationship between a client and a counselor is an intentional space where the client can have healing emotional and interpersonal experiences. I consider how power and privilege affect our relationship as counselor and client, as well as how power and privilege affect our worldviews, language, experiences, and understanding. Part of my work is to understand where you as the client hold power, where I hold power, and how we can work together to support you.

As a white counselor, I am acutely aware of how my racial identity may affect counseling relationships, and I am committed to creating supportive, effective therapeutic relationships with BIPOC clients. I strive to provide affirming care to clients of all body sizes, abilities, and disabilities. I am sex-positive and queer friendly, and I support asexual and demisexual clients, as well as those who are polyamorous, non-monogamous, and/or kink-identified.

Meeting You With Internal Family Systems

IFS is a therapeutic approach that says that each person has a core Self, as well as inherently positive parts to the personality that end up taking protective or pain-carrying roles due to trauma. By connecting body and mind techniques, in IFS we work to uncover and name all the different parts that make up your experience in order to relieve stuck feelings and outgrown behaviors associated with that trauma. I love IFS because it embraces the complexity of a person; I’m not helping people change themselves when using IFS techniques, I’m helping them to meet themselves.

I also have years of clinical experience working with narrative therapy, which involves helping clients re-story their experiences in ways that honor their identities, strengths, values, and resiliency. In addition, I am trained in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which was developed to help increase freedom of choice and the ability to participate in the present moment. I also use ideas and tools from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT).