i’m a sober queer and trans/non-binary (they/them) trauma-informed clinical social worker. i have a masters degree in gender studies in addition to my master of social work from smith college. i consider myself a radical feminist, queer elder, and deep weirdo. i consider myself a displaced southerner but love living in western massachusetts with my fat orange cat and crew of feral kids. i have judith butler and james taylor tattoos, and i like to think about the ways that popular culture ranging from queer theory to "NPR dad music" might inform the ways we make sense of our experiences out in the world. i am always excited to discuss relationship dynamics for poly/enm folx, i'm kink and BDSM knowledgeable and about half way through a social justice-oriented radical sex therapist training. i love working with folx living with HIV and HPV C, and i'm happy to work with folx in early recovery. i’m fat and excited to explore body positivity and/or neutrality, and i believe in HAES. (health at every size). i'm white and i'd love to process with other white folx around our tendencies to default to white guilt and complacency rather than antiracist actions. i’m open about being a mental health consumer AND provider and love acting as a therapist to other therapists, too. right now i’m particularly into processing ambiguous loss around the pandemic (what were you going to do with these years?). addiction (again, who and what did you lose in the process of turning your brain off with substances), infertility and pregnancy loss, chronic illness-- these are all either areas where i have professional or lived experience, or both!
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
i truly hope you will leave sessions with me feeling seen, heard, and relaxed by clarity around the areas you came to discuss in therapy. i think you will leave sessions with me with ideas about how to work toward secure attachments with loved ones, with clarity about your gender identity and sexual orientation in context of current relationships, with ideas about how to increase and maintain a high self esteem, with a sense of how you want to relate to substances/substance use in your life, and with the capacity to identify and manage blocks and patterns that prevent you from living authentically!
What treatment methods and tools do you utilize?
i'm a psychodynamically trained therapist comfortable integrating ACT, brief dynamic psychotherapy, CBT, DBT, EMDR, MI, and narrative therapy into our work together. we might be a good match if you are interested in exploring: addiction adoption adult children of substance users/abusers body positivity/neutrality chronic illness EMDR ethical nonmonogamy fatness (in)fertility foster care grief HAES Hep C HIV justice involvement parenting polyamory sobriety white guilt
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
i’m: sober, queer, trans, NB, fat, white, mom to adopted children, poly, sex positive, and trauma-informed! i think my lived experiences contribute to my greatest strengths and areas of specialty.