Communities I Serve
While I focus on healing the traumas that lead an anxious person to use perfectionism and people-pleasing as a strategy to calm themselves and feel more control, I have noticed that there are trends about what kinds of people tend to come see me.
It makes sense to me that any marginalized group of people will tend to use people-pleasing and perfectionism to stay safe, to try to prevent rejection, and to heal from “I’m not enough” messages that come with being part of those communities. You may continue to do those self-protective actions even after therapy has concluded, but what processing the trauma around it does is give you a choice in how you wish to respond and separate what you believe about yourself from how society treats you.
While I’m going to name many of these communities that I have experience working with, whose experiences I have more familiarity in understanding the layers of healing that we would likely need to do, and who generally get along with me, this is list isn’t all inclusive. If you question whether or not I’d be a good fit, set up a consultation call and ask me!
Neurodivergent People (read more here)
I wouldn’t say that I “treat” Autism/ADHD or the various other forms of neurodivergence (how your brain works is you, and you are not a problem to treat), but I have a good understanding of masking, executive functioning, sensory needs, communication differences, shame, and how to adapt therapy to you rather than expecting you to adapt to therapy.
I’m also neurodivergent myself and enjoy the way our sessions might look like a chaotic mess to someone else but would make total sense for us. I have been complimented on my ability to take a tangled ball of yarn within someone’s head, find patterns, and help focus us enough to tackle something meaningful, while also being flexible to follow the yarn wherever it takes us next. I keep up with the fast pacing of your mind, while being able to slow us down enough to not get lost.
LGBTQ+ People (read more here)
I wouldn’t say that I specialize in LGBTQ+ therapy, but one’s identity doesn't need to be the reason someone comes to therapy for it to matter. You shouldn't have to educate your therapist about your identity while trying to work on something completely unrelated. And there is a good chance that some of those traumas that you think aren’t related actually are, because it is part of who you are and your experience in the world. I’m part of the community too, and so being queer doesn’t need to be something you talk around or avoid bringing up.
Chronically Ill and Disabled People (read more here)
There are some therapists whose whole thing is treating chronic illness/medical trauma/disability, and that isn’t me. However, most people at some point face things like medical trauma, grief about changes within the body, internalized ableism, struggling with changes in one’s ability to be independent, and the psychological burden of managing a body that demands significant attention.
I myself have Type 1 Diabetes, POTS, and PCOS (PMOS now). So, I am keenly aware of how there are a lot of layers to being chronically ill, experiencing medical trauma, and living life with a disability. Those layers are inseparable from whatever traumas need to be processed. With how often one is expected to minimize health concerns, it can be helpful to have a therapist who already knows the impacts and is actively looking for how that shows up within you.
Teens (read more here)
While most of the people who see me are adults, much of my career within the field of mental health was focused on teens. Compared to adults, teens need a lot of support in figuring out who they are, what they want, and actually going for it. They may not know what they are feeling and need help even just noticing their internal experience and communicating that with another person. They also really benefit from someone who respects their autonomy, while understanding their current stage in life. Teens find me fun, cringy enough to not feel embarrassed around, and they value that I treat them like an equal who just needs time and explanations to learn mor about themselves. Even if they scoff at first, many teens eventually appreciate family therapy sessions with me where I help them build trust and better communication with their caregivers.
Professional Helpers (doctors, nurses, teachers, other mental health professionals, etc)
About 30% of my caseload at any point are people who help other people for a living. And that is because it impacts us! We usually became helpers at a young age when we were needed, and we take pride in it. It is who we are. But it starts wearing us away, we experience a lot of traumas on the job, and we can become bitter and disillusioned with the world and the systems that are supposed to support us. We try to find a sense of control by working harder, and that becomes an unsustainable cycle. Trauma work on those early moments where we had to help won’t take away your desire to keep helping. Instead, what it does is help you choose to help and not feel threatened when it isn’t enough. It allows you to feel okay giving what you can and see what you cannot keep giving in order to protect yourself.
Not all therapists feel confident enough to work with other mental health professionals, because they get scared that they will be seen as incompetent. I do enough regular therapeutic work on myself to recognize that the healing most mental health professionals need isn’t superior knowledge or techniques, but the courage to actually connect, hold space for another, and to be able to sit with the hard parts of the world around us. I already know that I’m enough and that I’m capable, and don’t get threatened seeing those parts of you trying to prove that to yourself.
Sex Workers and those in the Kink community
Most of my sex worker clients went to therapy before and stopped because their previous therapist kept assuming that their work was the problem, and it wasn’t. While a workplace or an industry can be harmful, that is true anywhere. I treat your work like any other line of work. The major differences I do see have to do with needing more support in setting boundaries with others, fears around the legal system, and exposure to other people’s trauma. In fact, I readily point out how those types of workplace concerns are the same for people who work within the field of mental health (I actually see a lot more similarities there if you ever wanted to hear an interesting rant). I mention this because you deserve to not have to hide a big part of your life out of fear, as your job is a part of your identity and experience, and that matters when it comes to processing trauma and getting out of patterns of perfectionism and people-pleasing.
What is kinky is socially defined, it is ultimately made up, and so unless you are telling me someone isn’t consenting to something, it’s fine with me, there’s no judgement. I’m also not going to assume a kink you have is from something traumatic that happened in your childhood (even if it is, replaying out aspects of trauma in a space that is safe is a form of reprocessing). When you bring this kind of topic up in therapy, what I’m more going to be looking for is feelings of shame impacts on functioning, or resulting changes within any relationships you have. I follow your lead and listen for what you might want support for within this realm.
Plural Identities (so working with people belonging to a DID system)
I am a trauma therapist, and while I wouldn’t say that dissociation is my top specialty, I’ve worked with a fair number of plural identities. Sometimes systems can get scared working with a trauma therapist, because there is often an assumption that integration is the goal. I don’t assume that is the goal. When I work with systems, I treat it like I would almost a family, just one that has difficulties communicating with each other, and that has a lot of traumas in their histories. Ultimately, I just want each person within the system to feel calmer, not feel traumatized, and to be able to communicate with each other effectively. We work together to figure out who owns what traumas, get each person comfortable with the process, and make sure to respect each person’s feelings and autonomy to the best of our ability (everyone being within one body makes it just a little more complicated than a family).
