Feminist Therapy

Our society was founded by and built for Straight, White, Christian, Men. Our society is slowly evolving to be more inclusive of women, POC, people with disabilities, the LGBTQ+ community, and other marginalized populations. Empowering women involves deconstructing the toxic patriarchal culture that oppresses those that threaten the beneficiaries. Sessions are structured to identify personal strengths and build assertiveness by confronting social norms and gender roles.

We live in a patriarchal & capitalist society, there's no denying this. Constantly feeling the pressure of productivity, obligations & the expectations that we all be moving all the time, in a direction that makes rich people richer & powerful people more powerful? Yeah that sucks, you can't "coping skill" your way out of living in an oppressive environment. So I find it important & helpful to acknowledge this to reduce guilt/avoidance related to self-care or just saying eff you to the system.

I am well-trained in feminist psychotherapeutic practice with members of the queer community, racial/ethnic minority populations, and with women/womxn.

My roots and core values come from an intersectional feminist therapy perspective. My graduate program at Lesley University further reinforced these values and training.

I love feminist therapy because it is for all genders and all people: It analyzes power structures and their effects upon people. Each person's intersectional identity, along with their unique lived experience, is differently affected by the current politics and systemic structures. This model helps frame issues to show that they are likely externally caused, which can remove the feeling of self-blame. It also uses education, advocacy, and strength-building to encourage self empowerment.

As a feminist therapist, I strive for therapy relationships that are as egalitarian as possible while still acknowledging power differences inherent in therapy. We will pay attention to your unique identity while working to understand how oppression you have experienced has affected your thoughts, feelings and ideas about yourself. Feminist therapy is for everyone -- people of any gender, race, sexual orientation, age, or religion.

Let's be honest, systems of oppression are to blame here. I love supporting my clients in healing from systemic racism, sexism, fat-phobia, ableism, and queerphobia. You may not have control over these systems, but you do have control over how you show up for yourself in this sometimes fucked up world.

I am rooted in anti-oppression as the lens through which we can make sense of many of our struggles. I believe in depathologizing mental illness by correctly identifying external sources of distress rather than seeing your pain as a personal problem. I have and continue to educate myself on systemic and interpersonal oppression in order to better understand the experiences of marginalized clients and to prevent harming my clients through my ignorance.

My approach to feminist therapy involves integrating my own identity with the realities of living in society as a woman. I am passionate about working through the discrimination that women face, as well as exploring the intersectional identities that oftentimes compound the discrimination. I value social justice as a therapist, and actively incorporate it in all of my sessions.

I practice from an anti-oppressive and fat positive framework. I recognize how systems at multiple levels intersect and can impact someone's ability to thrive, or even survive.

I believe societal pressures and constructs impact every individual, and therefore, every relationship. Feminist therapy and feminist family therapy acknowledge how societal expectations, gender constructs, and personal biases can influence an individual's ability to connect with others and prescribe how they do so. As a feminist therapist, I can help you understand and examine how expectations from those around us influence our sense of self and how we show up in our relationships and lives.

My therapy is feminist in nature because I am always looking through the lens of feminism and anti-oppression when working with clients. For my clients who strongly identify as feminist, having a feminist therapist means you're not starting from scratch in explaining your worldview. For people who are less focused on feminism, I can help you see angles to your situation that you might not have noticed.

Check out my website for more info at UniquelyYouTherapyCollective.com

A feminist approach to therapy enables an egalitarian relationship between therapist and client, where the client is the expert in the room and we collaborate on treatment. My research in graduate school was on a feminist approach to working with survivors of childhood sexual abuse. As a therapist, I sought out a feminist supervisor and strive to learn as much from her as I can.

Identifying as female in our culture comes with so many landmines. Navigating relationships, work/life balance, parenting, misogyny, and so on. If you've clicked on this specialty, you know. I like to work from an feminist perspective to see how gender underlies other stressors. Feminism is intersectional, and if you identify as female (or on the feminine side of the spectrum) this space is for you.

My approach with feminist theory is primarily focused on understanding how the client's identities influence their experience in the world as well as within the therapeutic space.

The Feminist perspective in counseling focuses on the importance of empowerment, and awareness of systems of oppression that impact people of all genders. What you can expect here is to be treated with respect and to have the whole person that you are, all your identities and lived experience validated and welcomed in counseling. You can expect that we can talk about the differences between our identities and lived experiences in a safe and productive way.

My experience in utilizing feminist theory involves a deep commitment to creating an empowering, inclusive, and affirming therapeutic space where clients can explore and address the impact of societal dynamics on their lives. I am dedicated to helping clients navigate these complexities, find their voices, and work towards personal and collective empowerment.

My foundational treatment orientations center understanding a person within their unique context. In feminist therapy, we look at how your personal experience is shaped by your political context and systemic inequities you face. Prioritizing an intersectional feminist approach, I want to understand how your specific identity markers (e.g., ethnic, gender, SES, disability, religion, etc) shape your context, how you uniquely experience the world, and how the world uniquely experiences/treats you.