Liberation Psychology for Marginalized People

“A psychological disorder is an abnormal reaction to a normal situation;
but it may also happen to be a normal reaction to an abnormal situation.”
—Ignacio Martín-Baró

If you've experienced trauma, discrimination, oppression, or marginalization, you deserve to engage in therapy that makes space for the full context of your life and the world surrounding you. You may be an adoptee, a person of color, LGTBQ2IA+, disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent, or an intersecting combination of these identities. Your struggles did not develop in isolation. You are not a problem to be fixed. My approach to supporting healing centers on the tenets of Liberation Psychology, which recognize that your personal experiences are not separate from the larger world around you. 

Together, we can explore not only “What's wrong?” but also “What happened to you? What have you had to survive? What strengths have helped you get here?”  We’ll consider the intersections of your identities and experiences with compassion, reflecting on the ways your emotional distress, internal beliefs, and interpersonal patterns may be influenced by relationships, culture, politics, history, and systems of power. We’ll talk about how you’ve learned to self-protect in ways that may both help and hurt you.

Our work may include healing from trauma, navigating racial and cultural identity, exploring belonging and relationships, processing grief and loss, addressing internalized oppression, developing boundaries that honor your needs, and learning to engage in emotionally sustainable activism. 

Therapy can help you understand yourself and the environment and people surrounding you more deeply, develop self-compassion and self-advocacy, and move toward a life that feels more authentic and aligned with your values and needs. Healing is an ongoing and lifelong process of building self-trust; it may involve developing new skills, grieving what you deserved but did not receive, and reconnecting with the parts of yourself you've filtered as you. I invite you to pursue the therapeutic space you deserve, where your whole story is seen, your experiences are honored, and your strengths are recognized.

Learn more about service rates on my Fees and Insurance page. If my approach sounds like it may be a good fit for you, please submit a Request for Individual Counseling. When your availability aligns with an opening in my schedule, I’ll email you intake paperwork and we’ll schedule a complimentary 25-minute initial telehealth consultation. This gives us an opportunity to discuss what you’d like to explore in therapy and consider how our work together could best support you.