Clinicians who offer sliding scale payment structures may offer lower or reduced fees based on an individual's ability to pay. Please contact this clinician for more details regarding their fees or sliding scale policy.My Approach to Helping
Are you feeling not right in your body or as if you don’t belong to the gender you were assigned at birth? Are you afraid to come out to someone you love? Did your partner or spouse tell you heshethey are transgender and you are left with confusion and fear? Are you a parent of a child who came out to you and identifies as LBGTQI and you don’t know how to process your feelings or take a deeper look within? Do you have a large body, get shamed by diet culture and want to embrace body positivity? Do you use substances and feel stigmatized by being called an “addict” with no hope for support? Do you use substances and are not ready to stop using, but want someone to talk to that will accept you where you are at? Have you tried to solve the problems in your life on your own and realized you need help from someone else?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then you have made the right choice by being here. And I know this is hard. You’ve likely been debating seeking help for months, if not years. But I’m so glad you found me and have taken the courageous step of being here.
These are some of the root philosophies that inform my practice:
Harm reduction means that there is no intervention too small to take towards change. Whether you are ambivalent or ready to start transitions in your life now, I can help you. I provide a safe space that is open, non-judgmental and available for you to bring your authentic self forward.
My framework is intersectional, which means that I recognize our various identities and power imbalances in different groups that we belong to, whether it is where we live, our income level, race, age, disability, body size, or gender identity, each paints the picture of our opportunities in life whether it is access to housing, food, jobs and whether or not we are targeted by law enforcement. Our identities define our access to resources and our diverse world views.
Resiliency and protective mechanisms in our systems bring me hope. Resiliency is a process that can be built.
My approach is strength-based, body-positive Health at Every Size (HAES), humanistic, person-centered, sex-positive and culturally relative.
Flexibility
We live in a non-binary relative world. Gender is not an identity that fits into a simple box of male or female, but more complex. People can be intersex, cisgender or other gender expansive identities. Body parts do not define gender.
There is not a one-size-fits all to any approach – whether it is body size, sexual orientations, gender identity, gender expression, therapeutic approach or culture. We have different levels of privilege that give us different inequitable access to resources and different perspectives about life. Health at Every Size (HAES) is weight neutral, body positive and dismantles the destructive diet culture.
Complexity
There can be two opposing truths at one time. Or many truths. You have many possible futures. When you are in a space of chaos with all or no structure, it provides an opening for creativity. Dr. Robert Biler said, “Creativity and growth occurs at the edge of chaos in the border zone of the unknown and known, where small changes lead to big effects.”