Spirituality Within Therapy

Spirituality : Belonging Beyond Binaries

Categorizing things in binaries may seem convenient, but rarely in life are things all good and all bad. Instead I invite my clients into a more nuanced read of the textures, influences, and lessons associated with our experiences. For many queer folks, spirituality and religion have intoned violence, exclusion, and fear. Equally as many have found refuge, healing, and new avenues of freedom in revisiting the spiritual tenants of interconnectivity and belonging. I believe in the human capacity to hold the both/and of hurt and healing in our meaning making systems and anchors of belonging… Whatever they look like, and however they need to change.

Clinical Values

I anchor myself in a belief that all of life is fundamentally connected. Human beings are innately wired for connection – to our bodies, to each other, and to our place within the natural world. Capitalism, colonization, and white supremacy foster scarcity, and create barriers to each of us experiencing a sense of enoughness in ourselves. In therapy, we slowly break down those barriers. 

The notion of being enough doesn’t mean you’ve “arrived” or don’t have work to do to change and grow. It does mean that coming to accept yourself where you are is essential to the healing you are longing for. My therapeutic approach situates this as the ground upon which we navigate our healing journeys.

It is here that my work is grounded:

  • In the daily practices of rehumanization

  • In discovering and taking up the space that is your

  • In recognizing the vibrant aliveness of each moment

  • In finding our preciousness in the landscape of time.

It is in these that we will discover the heartache, the growth edges, and the healing ahead. 

“ I believe in the human capacity to hold the both/and of hurt and healing in our meaning-making systems and anchors of belonging... Whatever they look like, and however they need to change.”

For Clients With Established Spiritual and/or Religious Values

I am familiar and friendly to religious-identified clients, as well as spiritual, agnostic, and atheist clients. I am Buddhist identified, and have extensive history and respect for clients using religious frameworks. This includes but is not limited to: Paganism, Judaism, Islam, Quakerism, Christianity, Catholicism, Buddhism, Sikhism and Hinduism. I also welcome clients utilizing 12-Step models or other methods of recovery, however you pursue or frame that process.  

As your provider, I welcome you bringing any/all aspects of your spiritual life that feel relevant to your therapeutic healing journey. It is entirely up to you how much of this work you want to explore and engage with. There is no right or wrong way!

For Clients Recovering from Religious Abuse & High Power and Control Groups (HPCG)

 It is a heartbreaking reality that many clients seek therapy to inventory, address, and release pain incurred from a coercive religious upbringing and/or HPCGs.

This transition can be especially challenging for neurodiverse queer folks, who may have relied on the stability and social routines that HPCGs structured in individual and community life. In separating from the HPCG, a client's loss of this measured way of being in the world requires its own mourning process as well. It's a complicated grief, to be sure.  

My positionality as an experiential clinician focuses my work with clients from HPCGs. My practice offers a space for honor (not banish) the spiritual instinct(s) driving the client’s humanity. I support clients who want to reshape their relationships with life, death, and belonging in the cosmos.

Some clients recovering from HPCGs are eager to nurture their spiritual side in new, healthier ways. Clinically, I am a spiritually-affirming therapist; as an experiential therapist, working with me involves an exploration of your values of belonging and perceptions of aliveness.

Others clients recovering from HPCGS want nothing to do with spirituality, and find safety in an atheistic approach. Many clinicians I've met who work with healing from HPCGs are staunchly atheist, and I’m happy to refer you to them. I truly support a client getting the support they are seeking -- but it's important to know that's not my orientation.