Colette Gordon (They/them)

There are 2 big pieces to relational (cultural) therapy for me. 1. I believe that everything is embedded in culture and that everything exists in relationship. I work to be humble, sensitive, and attuned to you and the broader context surrounding you. I work to focus on your relationships, your beliefs about relationships, and how you have survived and maintained relationships to support you in your therapeutic goals. 2. Therapeutic growth happens in the context of a genuine and authentic relationship that we build together. To do that, I let my personality into the room. What does that look like? Well, I am soft, warm, and deeply empathetic. I’m generally expressive and can get pretty excited. I’m goofy and often laugh at the absurdity of our world. I am not shy about the impact on my politics on my work. And I swear. If that sounds like a good fit for you, let’s talk!

There are 2 big pieces to relational (cultural) therapy for me. 1. I believe that everything is embedded in culture and that everything exists in relationship. I work to be humble, sensitive, and attuned to you and the broader context surrounding you. I work to focus on your relationships, your beliefs about relationships, and how you have survived and maintained relationships. 2. Therapeutic growth happens in the context of a genuine and authentic relationship that we build together. To do that, I let my personality into the room. I am soft, warm, and deeply empathetic. I’m generally expressive and can get pretty excited. I’m goofy and often laugh at the absurdity of our world. I am not shy about the impact on my politics on my work. And I swear.

I am not here to ask you to give up anything you need. I strive to honor what care, coping, and surviving look like for you at any given time. I want to support you in exploring any goals you have around changing behaviors and help you make changes that serve you better. And I strive to approach this work with respect, compassion, flexibility, and determination.

My approach to feminist therapy is about looking at power. I strive to be attentive to my power and reduce the power differential involved with my being the therapist. I think people are often struggling due to harm of oppressive power based in domination. Part of my work is to support your empowerment: the kind of power that comes from within and collectively and allows you and yours to make change and impact your lives. I want to work with you to support, nurture, and grow mutually empowering relationships. I take a relational feminist approach and see therapeutic goals as rooted in moving towards connection and increasing mutuality in relationships rather than focusing on independence and separation. Working collaboratively and paying attention to the larger social, cultural, historical, economic, and political context surrounding your life will shape our work together.

I am queer and trans and committed to working in my communities. I understand these labels broadly and I know that sharing them does not mean we have the same experience. I want to make room for your experience of queerness, particularly as it relates to your experience of sexuality/asexuality, race, gender, ability, size, and socioeconomic status.

I am trans and committed to working in my communities. Yes, I can write letters to help you access gender affirming health care. And I know that trans and gender affirming therapy is about so much more than that and different for all of us. I work to stay grounded in your experience, your story, your life, your identity, and your family, culture, and communities with all things gender.

I believe that systems of oppression and privilege broadly and uniquely impact every aspect of our lives. I believe that they are at the root of much of our suffering and disconnection from each other. While systemic change is beyond the scope of therapy, therapy can help to navigate the trauma of oppression, to reduce internalized oppression, to shift your participation in systems of oppression, and to support you in any work you are doing to fight oppression.