Virtual relational therapy & couples counseling at the Black Sheep Collective
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Asking for help is a strength and takes courage and commitment. We aren’t taught how to hold our emotions or form secure attachments in our society. Relational therapy teaches participants how to understand and communicate emotions, address attachment wounds and underlying trauma, and show up for each other differently in the relationship.
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Feeling stuck in a cycle or pattern that feels impossible to break? Relational therapy will help you identify those, often intergenerational, patterns and interrupt them to form new, healthier outcomes. Therapy helps relationships become “unstuck” and move into something more satisfying and fulfilling for all people involved.
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Tired of always fearing the worst in your relationships? Always convinced others are headed out the door, abandoning you, yet again? Find security in your relationship(s) through therapy and learn to provide a secure base for others to feel safe. Finally show up for your deepest attachment wounds and let them heal.
All of my pain is a spider
I’ve learned not to crush
with the heel of my shoe
but to guide with a page
of my journal
into an empty glass
asking questions about its life,
its purpose, as I walk
careful out to the garden
and rest it down on the earth.
My pain, how happy it is
to leave me whenever
I treat it kind.
— Andrea Gibson
Licensed Therapy in WA State
I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist Associate (LMFTA), trauma therapist, and sex therapist, providing telehealth therapy in Washington State. I am currently accepting therapy participants who also live in WA State. I primarily work at the intersections of relational, sex, and trauma therapy and focus primarily on intentionally and multiply marginalized populations such as queer & trans, neurodivergent, fat, chronically ill and/or disabled folx, and people of color. I also work with sex workers, kinksters, & people recovering from sexual trauma or domestic violence. I have many clinical interests-reach out if it seems like we would be a good fit!
Soon to be accepting some insurance, but currently private pay only. Keep checking back for updates!
Relational Therapy
Couples (including ethically non-monogamous polycules)
Families (teen/adult child & parent(s), siblings, etc.)
Note that I do not see anyone under the age of 13.
Friends
Neurodivergent Relationships
Queer/Trans Relationships
Kinky Relationships
Trauma Therapy
Complex, chronic, childhood, intergenerational, attachment, and systemic traumas
Eating Disorders (primarily with folx in larger bodies & fat folx)
Religious Trauma & healing from High-Control Groups (cults)
Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)
Self-harm & suicidality
Sex Therapy
Gender/Sexuality
Kink/BDSM
Sex Work
Consent
Body liberation, pleasure, & self love
Sexual exploration
Sexual communication
Sex & Disability/Chronic Illness
Sex & Neurodivergence
Sex & Body Transitions (i.e. HRT, menopause, surgery, weight fluctuations, etc.)
Desire/arousal discrepancies
Recovery from purity culture & sexual shame
Out of Control Sexual Behavior (OCSB)
Harmful masculinity
Sexual Trauma/Abuse/Assault
Getting Started
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Beginning therapy together is an important decision and this 20 minutes is for us to decide if we are a mutual fit! Ask as many questions as you want and tell me about what brings you in for therapy and what your goals are for working together.
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Our first session will be an in-depth mental and physical health inventory, trauma history, sharing information about your relational and support systems, your strengths, activities/hobbies, setting goals, and getting to know each other. Expect lots of questions! Consent-based, and at-your-pace, you are in the driver’s seat with what you choose to share, your “diagnosis,” and what goes in your records. Relational systems/couples will have a joint intake session.
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After the initial 90 minute joint intake, relational systems will each need to meet individually with the therapist to assess for safety and other issues that may arise on an individual basis. This is also a chance to delve a bit more deeply into each individual’s personal history a bit more.
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Questions have been answered, goals have been set, we know each other a bit more, and it’s time to begin our work together!
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We offer so much more than just therapy! Get involved in our community events, come to a community healing group (healing is best done in community anyway), have us in for a mental health training at your workplace, book a sex ed training for your teens or family. You are welcome here and we are happy to have you!
Therapy tailored to your needs:
Session available as often as you need them: biweekly, weekly, every other week, monthly, etc.
Sessions available as long as you need them: 15 min.; 30 min.; 60 min.; & 90 min. sessions available
In-person Marathon (2-4 hour) Relational Sessions available upon request
Virtual, HIPAA-compliant, telehealth available anywhere in WA State
Therapeutic Approaches
Feminist & Decolonizing Therapy
Liberation Psychology
Internal Family Systems (IFS/ “parts work”)
Somatic therapy
Polyvagal Theory
Attachment therapy
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
Gottman Couple’s therapy
Solution-focused therapy
Narrative therapy
Self-compassion
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Fat Liberation/HAES/Anti-Diet/Intuitive Eating/Body Trust lenses
Harm Reduction
As a therapist, my job is to treat mental health symptoms. According to the medical model of diagnosis in the United States, in order to provide “appropriate treatment” for symptoms, the provider has to provide a diagnosis. Having a diagnosis allows providers to select the “right” treatment for that diagnosis, which is all that insurance companies will pay for—not a penny or intervention more than what is deemed “medically necessary” to treat the diagnosis.
In direct contrast to the medical model, I believe that our mental health “symptoms” develop as a natural consequence of living under violent, end-stage capitalist, genocidal, eco-cidal, patriarchal, white supremacist, and colonialist systems of oppression and not because individuals develop pathology or that something is “wrong with someone” because they are having problems coping under these systems. I struggle to give a diagnosis, because I do not believe that your anxiety, depression, addiction, people pleasing, etc. are happening because there is anything wrong with you. I believe that living while watching the live-stream of genocide, human-engineered famine, ecosystem and climate destruction, the direct targeting of ourselves and loved ones, the demise of our political system, and the beginning of a third world war causes anxiety, depression, addiction, people pleasing, etc.
In addition, we are encountering unprecedented levels of fascism and unchecked technological advancement. Intentionally marginalized populations are being targeted, including their personal health information (PHI). Big tech and big government are after our data. Know that I take precautions with your data including storing it in a HIPAA compliant manner and using minimal information and descriptions in treatment plans and note taking.
I have chosen to reconcile these risks & differences in a couple of ways:
I let you choose what diagnosis you want on your electronic health record system (EHR) (pending you meet DSM-5-TR diagnostic criteria) and leave off the ones you don’t
I will have a discussion with you about the risks of each diagnosis in our current political climate relative to your unique intersectional identities and help you make an informed choice about what’s on your chart
Nothing goes on your chart or in my notes without your permission or knowledge-no surprises
I keep simple, minimal notes of what we do in session with no identifying details
I also offer a coaching model of working together-not at all diagnosis-based and able to be accessed from anywhere in the U.S. We can focus solely on your goals and growth. Learn more about Coaching here.