First and foremost, I am a psychotherapist. As a practice, psychotherapy is about embracing messiness and exploring parts of the self that are lost, wounded, and needing attention. It’s about moving towards wholeness by embracing and loving on the parts of ourselves that are broken. It’s about cultivating an open, trusting space where someone can explore the beliefs they hold about themselves, others, and the world– and even challenge those beliefs.
In my own clinical work, I’ve come to understand that in many ways, gender-affirming care is antithetical to psychotherapeutic practice, because it tempts us to abandon curiosity and elevate one part of the self over others. In my experience, even many who remain transitioned have doubts, fears, and a layer of grief around the parts of their identity that they’ve lost or the ways in which medical intervention has altered their bodies. Often, there’s a deep sense of shame around this, and a feeling that one is betraying their community if they speak up. Repeatedly seeing these things in clinical practice is what led me to the understanding that we need to work with gender in a more expansive and nuanced way. We need to move beyond affirmation into curiosity and self-compassion.
My heart is to support those who feel left behind by the current care model. If you are a detransitioner, desister, trans-identified person struggling with identity, or parent struggling to help their child battle ROGD, then we may be a good fit. My approach blends parts work, EMDR, and other somatic strategies. Together, we’ll explore not just gender, but your attachment wounds, underlying traumas, and co-occurring mental health issues. A major emphasis of my work is helping people to develop adaptive coping strategies and change the daily behaviors that might be keeping them feeling stuck.
If this resonates, feel free to reach out for a consultation. I am always happy to answer any questions you might have and ensure we would be a good fit for each other. Please also know that I am currently an online-only clinician, and at this time I am only able to work with individuals residing in the state of California.