What I Offer
Adjunct and single-session Brainspotting and EMDR
Relationship therapy for couples and multi-partnered relationships
Emotional Support Animal Assessments
Immigration and Asylum Seekers
Gender Affirmation Documentation
I draw from a variety of theories, including supportive, holistic, practical, anti-oppression, somatic processing, trauma-aware, relational, and liberatory practices. This includes EMDR, Brainspotting, creative arts, talking, and movement. In therapy we can work together as you identify and embrace both your strengths and challenges and move towards getting to where you want to go in all aspects of life. I start with a foundation of talk therapy and holding space, and add in other outlets and as we explore the best ways for us to work together.
Sessions are available using a variety of formats: Remotely using phone or video platforms, outdoors where we meet outside or stroll through the neighborhood, or in person. In sessions we can use a combination of talking, writing, typing and other means of communication that work best for us.
For ongoing therapy, we agree to meet and continue our sessions until we decide to take a break and/or end.
We can also meet to use EMDR or Brainspotting for a specific experience, or as an addition to your existing ongoing therapy. We can meet for 1-3 sessions, or work together to create a plan that incorporates your needs and situation.
Appointments
I hold sessions Monday through Wednesday 12:00 to 7:00 and Thursdays 11:00 to 6:00. I may have occasional one-time appointments open at other times for initial consults, and assessments. Sessions can be in-person, remotely, or both as scheduling permits.
Approaches
Moving Through Trauma
Trauma can mean so many different things. The experiences and impacts of one specific event, impacts of a relationship or series of relationships, complex family situations, former or ongoing oppression, family and ancestral histories, and the impacts of the many systems we might exist in (capitalism, colonialism, neurotypical expectations, community harm).
It can show up in many ways, impacting bodies, emotions, task completion, organization, sense of time and space, relationships, sense of purpose, ability to create and relate, and so much more. PTSD diagnoses, C-PTSD and Developmental Trauma labels might cover it, and they might not. Together we can explore what shows up for you, and ways to move through it all.
Sometimes folks grow up in or are connected to settings different from their chosen and mainstream communities, cultures, or environments and, leave, have left or want to change their relationships with these settings. This could mean communes, boarding schools or group environments, organized and high-control settings, family environments, immersive relationships, ritual abuse, "cults", and other groups that leave people feeling different than "the norm" or often making significant adjustments when a separation occurs. They could be safe or unsafe, and welcome/needed/unexpected exits. Together, we can explore and address connecting to both others and yourself before, during, and after these transitions or changes.
Sexuality, Gender, and Relationship Diversity
Therapy that welcomes how you play and relate and identify. Along with supporting sexual expressions of all kinds in therapy, I am a sex educator and long time advocate for sexual expression and exploration. We can navigate your relationships with sexuality, acknowledge and examine your own expansive sexual world, and address internal and external stigma and expectations. Folks from all corners of the rainbows and umbrellas are welcome, including people in the LGBTQIAA2S+ spectrum, trans and non-binary folks, non-monogamy and polyamory, sex work, BDSM and kink (edge play, power dynamics, etc) and identity-based communities (furries, littles, pets, etc.) Some identities and activities have more stigma, worries, and judgments than others, and we can address any challenges and judgments from the outside world as well as those that may come from inside us.
This is also a space to explore and include non-BDSM and non-sexuality or identity related psychotherapy for folks in these communities. Healing deepens when we can acknowledge and communicate about who we are, when it is relevant, and when it is less so.
Relationships with the outlets you have and the ways they show up can fluctuate over time. This can include alcohol or drugs, or other things that become important to you: take space in your life, like video games, sexual communities, creative practices.
Sometimes these things are welcome and contribute to your world, and we can explore opportunities to deepen your relationship with them. Have fun with what you love!
Sometimes our outlets can start to feel like they aren't contributing the same way. We can include harm reduction techniques to help you reconnect to yourself and re-frame your relationships with these outlets to fit your current world.
I am also familiar with 12-step models and we can include those practices with you if you have found they work for you.
Harm Reduction
Support Around Mental
Health Needs of Others
Sometimes our parents, families, partners, friends, and important people in our communities have mental health needs that can be really big, or can interact with our own.
Individual Therapy
Healing and growth are very individual processes, and I will work with you to identify and apply techniques with a flexible approach that best includes you and your history, communities, situation, style, and needs.
Couples and Multi-partnered Relationships
In therapy with couples and relationships, every person involved is important. We can acknowledge and address daily challenges, big decision making, ongoing hurts, stresses that build up over time, and moving forward to expand communication, connection, intimacy, and partnership. Relationships shift and change over time, we can explore how your relationship shows up and how everybody shows up in it. We can work towards accessing opportunities to move forward together, and bringing relationships to a close if and when that is what the relationship needs.
Relationships of all styles and structures are welcome. Monogamous, Non-monogamous, polyamorous, hierarchical, anarchist, triads, polycules, D/s, Mommy/girl and Daddy/boy, Alpha/pup, emotional connections, intimate connections, and on and on. All relationships can have strengths and challenges, and we can use therapy to address the needs of your unique relationship.