Culture & Identity

The cumulative psychological impact of racism is its own distinct form of trauma.  It may include overt incidents, chronic exposure to microaggressions, political stress, medical apartheid, or other instances of moving through predominantly white systems.  The work may involve radical acceptance, resistance in spite of injustice, or finding refuge and community.  Sometimes it is all of these at once and sometimes it is none of them.  Regardless, we value helping you find the ways to live your best life.

The process of understanding, accepting, and integrating a queer or trans identity can require support.  This work might be in early questioning, navigating coming out (or preferably, inviting in), managing family or community response, or doing the longer work of living out your values. Our hope is that this support leads towards more joy.

Even if these areas do not feel central to you, we understand that no symptom can be addressed nor any goal be achieved without at least incorporating context and culture.  We see psychotherapy through a multilevel and multicultural lens while striving for cultural humility.  Beyond tracking symptoms, we find it critical to address systems, relationships, cultural norms, and impacts of the dominant culture.

On the other hand, this does not mean that we artificially tie a symptom to a cultural component.  There needs to be a rationale that is clear and aligned with your lived experience.  For example, career stress may often be inseparable from white-centric expectations in the workplace, perfectionism may be related to needing to perform twice as well, and that which can be labeled ‘people pleasing’ from a westernized view of relationships may be a values-conflict between your collectivistic worldview while living in an country emphasizing individualism.

In practice, you will find that we aim to initiate incorporating culture into treatment.  That includes being curious about your experiences without making assumptions.  It also means that we take the lead in exploring how differences ‘in the room’ show up in your experience of therapy.  For example, early in therapy or other salient moments it can be valuable to explore what it would be like if the therapist presented to you as a different identity (eg gender, ethnicity).  This might not always mean we disclose a personal invisible identity to you, but we would certain explore its meaning and impact on you.

Ultimately, we expect incorporating what makes you who you are makes it easier for you to become who you want to be.