Avery Navas-Harlow, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

I build my practice on a collaborative, curiosity-first approach. I strive to help my clients expand the way they view themselves so they can feel empowered to make choices in their lives that work best for them. I also view my clients' concerns through a systemic lens, which means I consider not only a client's individual experience, but also how the environment they grew up in and the people around them have impacted them. I recognize that clients have a life that exists outside of my office, so they may experience systemic injustice such as racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, ableism, classism, and any number of issues that I may not personally face. With this in mind, it is my personal belief that I cannot avoid talking about these topics in my office. It is also my personal belief that it is my role to dismantle systemic oppression in my practice as much as possible. One of the ways I do that is by acknowledging that I'm not the only expert in the room. While I may have therapeutic knowledge as a Licensed Marriage and (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT)) in Nevada, my clients are experts on their own lives. Because of that, it is not my role to tell them how they should live, but to offer options and insights.

While I often work with the queer community, I have proficiency in working with people from several walks of life. You may be a good fit for me as a client if you have a healthy curiosity about yourself and the world around you. You might also be a good fit if you feel stuck and unable to express yourself, if you tend to lean into humor, or if you’ve found more cognitive models of therapy frustrating and ineffective. Similarly, I often find that I work really well with men. As a transmasculine person, I come from a unique background in my own understanding of masculinity and manhood, and I find that it allows for gentler, more diverse conversations with my male clients about these topics.