addyson tucker (they/them)

This felt like the best option for a category that isn't listed, increasing self-compassion, improving self-worth, and minimizing our responses to internalized and externalized shame. Though most of my work is focused on individuals struggling with stress, anxiety, depression, and relationship concerns, I believe in focusing on the strength in vulnerability and moving toward living a life more consistent with our values, setting boundaries, and meeting our needs.

Relabel this category as "Gender Dysphoria" instead as I believe that gender identity is inherently not a 'problem.' Gender binaries and societal expectations for gendered people is the problem. I offer gender affirming treatment through counseling, occasional group work, and offering referral evaluations for those seeking affirming medical care/surgery/hormones.

This is probably the best term to describe an awareness of privilege and oppression in my work, navigating those pieces as they arise in my work with individuals from various backgrounds and lived experiences, those managing microaggressions and experiencing oppression related to their intersecting identities, and still aiming to create understanding and a healing space for them to feel heard, understood, cared for, and not have to explain everything about their background or be stereotyped.

By using integrative, it describes my approach that is largely grounded in interpersonal theory (see description below), feminism & social justice/liberation, a trauma-informed and self-compassion lens, and seeing therapy as a collaborative process.

Through an interpersonal lens, I am focused on the process of our interactions, the dynamics in your relationship with me and others, the ways in which you might have subtle or more significant reactions to things that happen and how to become more aware of those shame triggers, patterns, behaviors, and symptoms to improve your self-awareness, respond gently to practice self-compassion in difficult moments to healing and improve your responses over time.

I work with members of the LGBTQIAKP+ community, am an ally to sex workers, HIV/AIDS friendly, and am sex/kink/BDSM friendly as well. Your concerns don't have to be focused on this part of your identity, but many clients find it immensely helpful to have a clinician who 'gets it' and whom they don't need to spend a ton of time explaining their identities to. I also work with folks around their sexual identity, dating & relationships, + navigating family dynamics and the decision to disclose.

Rather than 'body image issues' I would relabel this as recovering from the anti-fatness and diet culture, as well as moving toward radical body acceptance and fat liberation. NOTE: It is beyond my experience and expertise to work with those who are experiencing significant disordered eating, body dysmorphia, recovering from eating disorders, and/or other forms of body/food/exercise-related symptoms.

Everything happens within a larger context/system, and often that system is based in settler colonization and white supremacy. My justice-focused lens helps to hold those pieces that feel challenging when we're navigating a world that isn't set up to support everyone in an equitable way. That often includes intergenerational and racial trauma being passed down within families, as well as ongoing anti-fatness, anti-transness, and anti-Blackness.