(she/her)
New to Grow
My name is Dushun Beckford-Torres, LCSW, and I bring 17 years of social work experience and 6 years of post-licensure clinical practice to every client I serve. I've worked with adults and adolescents navigating some of life's most challenging terrain - rebuilding confidence and motivation, healing from trauma, and sustaining recovery from addiction with meaningful supports in place. I use a blend of evidence-based approaches to meet each client where they stand. I use Motivational Interviewing to draw out each client's own reasons and readiness for change, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help clients identify patterns and build practical coping skills, and a Strengths-Based approach that centers every client's resilience, wisdom, and capacity for growth. Together, these tools create a therapeutic experience that feels both structured and deeply personal. My work centers on genuine human transformation. I have walked alongside clients who arrived feeling broken and watched them rediscover their strength, reclaim their voice, and build lives rooted in purpose and possibility. That journey of personal growth fuels everything I bring into the therapy session. I hold a deep passion for Black mental health and expanding access to quality, culturally affirming care for Black communities and other marginalized groups. I believe every person deserves a therapist who sees their full humanity, honors their lived experience, and meets them with both clinical excellence and genuine care. If you feel ready to do the work and want a therapist who will stand firmly in your corner, I am ready to offer the experience, the heart, and the commitment to help you move forward.
My goal as a therapist is create a space that feels safe, affirming, and free of judgment. The first session focuses on connection and understanding. I take time to hear each client's full story - their experiences, their hopes, and what brought them to therapy. Clients have shared that they leave that first session with a clearer sense of their own goals, an initial roadmap for the work ahead, and the felt experience of a therapist who genuinely sees them. That first hour sets the tone for a therapeutic relationship built on trust, respect, and shared purpose.
I bring a combination of clinical depth, cultural intelligence, and genuine human warmth to my practice. My 17 years of social work experience gives me a comprehensive understanding of the systems, barriers, and lived realities my clients navigate daily. I am able to help client's identifying strengths they often overlook in themselves and reflect those strengths back with clarity and conviction. I hold space with both structure and compassion, creating an environment where clients feel simultaneously challenged and deeply supported. My passion for service drives me to show up fully for every client, every session. I listen without judgment, speak with honesty, and believe in my client's potential even when they struggle to believe in it themselves.
My ideal client shows up with openness - willing to reflect, willing to practice, and willing to trust the process even when growth feels uncomfortable. I meet every client exactly where they stand and build from there. I hold deep commitment to serving Black clients and others navigating the compounded weight of systemic stress, racial trauma, cultural identity, and intergenerational wounds. I bring cultural humility, community awareness, and genuine affirmations and wholeness into every session.
Other specialties
I identify as
Motivational Interviewing
Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative, person-centered counseling approach that therapists use to strengthen a client's own motivation and commitment to change. As the therapist, I maintains four key stances: partnership, acceptance, compassion, and evocation.My role is to honor the client's autonomy throughout, with the client as the expert on their own life, and the therapist as a guide through the discovery process.
Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)
As a therapist practicing CBT, I work alongside clients to identify the connections between their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. Each session carries a focused agenda - we review homework, explore a core skill or concept, and set new practice goals together. This structure gives clients a sense of agency and progress from week one.
Strength-Based
As a therapist, using a strengths-based approach, I center what the client carries into the room: resilience, wisdom, survival, creativity, and capacity for growth. This framework shapes how I listen, how I question, and how I reflect back what I hear. I draw on strengths during goal-setting, crisis moments, and skill-building phases. When a client feels stuck, I return to documented evidence of their own capability. That evidence becomes an anchor.