Griffin Smith (She/Her)

My therapeutic approach is considered SwS, “Sassy while Supportive”. I will be both compassionate AND direct in our work together. My goal is to balance making sure you feel understood by me (especially when you haven’t felt this with others in your life) and also encouraging you to be accountable for the ways you perpetuate cycles and patterns that inhibit your growth. My goal in therapy is to work together to form a strong and collaborative, secure relationship that can serve as a model for your relationships outside the therapy room. Sometimes experiences and or relationships in our lives interrupt our ability to function effectively, and we may become stuck in fixed patterns and beliefs that get in our way. In more therapeutic terms, I will often use insight oriented approaches like Gestalt and Relational Psychodynamic as a framework for helping you develop awareness of your patterns and exploring the origin of your patterns, that way I can support you in changing patterns.

I do this work because I want to give you a space to show up and develop your most authentic self while also be held accountable. My desire to become a therapsit began during my own journey having to navigate the existential woes, identity crises, constant shame spirals and relational difficulties I experienced. Growing up, I struggled to reconcile cultural/ religious shame with my sexual identity, my desire for sex and the ways I engaged in sex. Those experiences drew me to working with sexual shame, sexuality, and sexual issues. Part of my healing journey has consisted of advocating for and and making space for my intersectional identities and the nuances and complexities that frame the way I see the world, working through difficult relational challenges, and aligning myself with my values.