My Approach
“When we view living in the european mode only as a problem to be solved, we rely solely upon our ideas to make us free, for these were what the white fathers told us were precious. But as we come more into touch with our own ancient, non-european consciousness of living as a situation to be experienced and interacted with, we learn more and more to cherish our feelings, and to respect those hidden sources of our power from where true knowledge and, therefore, lasting action comes. ”
I see psychotherapy as a collaborative, creative process.
It’s a process that develops over time within relationship, and each therapy relationship is unique. Together we will discover what is helpful from my training for your lived experience.
Seeing ourselves, our patterns, our pain, and our potential clearly is not a process we can do alone. My approach is rooted in the belief that healing and growth is a “we” process not a “me” process. In the isolation of an individualist culture, we often lack the built-in ritual and community that facilitates such a process. Therapy can be a place to practice connecting both with a safe person and with all the different parts of ourselves in a supportive and focused environment.
As Smruti Desai says, systemic oppression and the harms of individualism cannot be solved by individual therapy. Still, we can use the therapy container to investigate our part in, and tend to the ways we are impacted by, oppressive heirarchical systems. It’s also a place where we can reclaim and practice our embodiment, our connection to feeling, our resilience, and our internal resourcing so that we can become the kind of people who build a better world.
I believe the therapist’s integrity matters deeply to the process, and I’m committed to regularly investigating and uprooting white supremacist and capitalist ideas of healing and well-being from my practice. I take a firm de-pathologizing anti-carceral abolitionist stance in my practice.
Some of the models I draw from include: relational psychodynamic principles, psychoanalytic principles, politicized somatics/generative somatics, trauma informed stabilization treatment, polyvagal theory, internal family systems, attachment theory, queer theory and systems theory, the wisdom of the body, of nature, and of creative process.
I am a member of the Northwest Alliance for Psychoanalytic Study and the Center for Object Relations, train in politicized somatics, and consistently pursue continuing education in trauma treatment across various modalities.
“ Nothing happens in isolation. There is always a squad, collaborators, a body that supports change occurring.”