Welcome! You made the first step of looking up a therapist. Hang in there, you're almost there. 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 feel like their "life is a mess", and 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 right now 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.

About Katy Perkins