Welcome! You made the first step of looking up a therapist. Regardless of family structure, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, race, or other minority identity, you are welcome. Though it’s up to you to determine whether I meet the definition of ‘ally’, I will always do my best to provide a welcoming, inclusive, safe space for all, and view therapy through a social justice lens. I’m also someone who’s experienced burnout, and body image + identity issues, and someone who’s gotten through it with deep and extensive self-care, reflection, and big life transitions. I get it – change is hard, but you already have what you need within you to make it happen. If you're telling yourself you should be able to get better on your own, that's really not true. It's a made up rule you're telling yourself and it's rooted in stigma. Everybody needs some help sometimes! My style has been called refreshingly honest, direct, and I've been told I have a good "BS detector". I enjoy helping people learn to become better at trusting their own intuition. I like helping people who want to start living differently by making big changes. There is a lot of laughter in my office.

What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?

In your first session, we'll go over some housekeeping issues and policies. The dry stuff. But you'll also have time to ask me questions if you have them; about my background, my philosophies, and approach. Generally I follow up on anything from your intake packet if I have more questions. I'll also ask you about what's going on recently that made you say "I'm ready to talk to someone right now". We'll discuss what has worked for you in the past (and not worked), and what are your goals for working together. In other words, what do you want your life to look like, and how is that different from how it is now? Unless you know right away that we're not the right fit, I usually recommend attending at least 2 sessions to see how you feel about working together.

Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.

I tend to be a pretty intuitive person, and highly sensitive. I tune in to what is going on with people pretty quickly, and I'm good at working through the details to see the bigger picture and make connections to larger themes of what's going on in my clients' lives. I think it's important to bring humor to my work. We talk about tough stuff, and laughing can be incredible medicine. I've also worked in a number of settings and bring all those skills to the room, including rape crisis centers, child abuse prevention, hospice, and hospitals. As a Social Worker, my style is eclectic. I'm less worried about which modality we're using and more worried about connecting with you, learning what your lived experience is like, and providing insight. Techniques used vary session to session, based on your needs, in the moment.

Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.

People who come to me are often asking themselves: Will it ever get better? What's wrong with me? Who am I? Is what happened to me violence? Will I ever make peace with my body? Why did my family keep this secret? Why can't I get over 'it'? What do I do, now that I know the truth? I've worked my butt off my whole life, so when is it my turn to feel better? I have extensive experience working with intimate partner violence and narcissistic abuse recovery, disordered eating, coping with emotionally immature parents, religious trauma, separating from high demand groups, burnout, new therapists, and traditionally marginalized people (BIPOC/LGBTQ/etc). Many of my clients struggle with shame, perfectionism, restriction, fat stigma, child and adulthood sexual abuse, or just plain feel like their lives are a mess. I'm an adopted person and have been reunited for more than 25 years. I also see people affected by family secrets, adoption/foster care, post adoption search/reunion, childhood orphanage experiences, and DNA discoveries. Many, if not most, of the folks I see are struggling in many of these areas at once, and are tired - down to their bones.

About Katy Perkins