This is where I am probably supposed to say I'm a licensed clinical social worker who specializes in gender-affirming care, neurodivergent self-advocacy, and trauma processing. That is all true, but I'll get into that info on a separate page.
I want to take this page to explain my philosophy on why I approach things the way I do.
Social Work
People have different ideas of what "social worker" means. In my case, it doesn't have much to do with governmental or social service organizations. I do more individual therapeutic work to work towards both healing a single person and broader goals of social liberation.
In other words, I'm a therapist with extra training in seeing a person as part of many larger systems. Someone may fill multiple roles in a family, be a community member, work alongside colleagues, participate in regional activities, and even interact with all the living and non-living non-humans of our world.
We do not have the option of seeing a person as a single creature who can provide everything they need for themselves. We are social beings who affect each other's lives constantly. So when I am working with clients, I am considering how their environment shapes them and how they shape their environment. Therapy turns out to be a wonderful opportunity for exploring both.
About Autumn
This probably isn't what you were expecting out of the About Me section. The reason I wrote it anyway is because I think it tells you a lot about whether or not we seem like we would be a good fit.
For example, I like to challenge norms and am wary of power and its potential for abuse. I believe that therapy should be centered on the client, not the practitioner. I also think that there are more important things in life than being polite. I suspect there are very few absolutes and no cure-alls.
And perhaps most of all, I do not want to fix you. Because you aren't broken. Your brain and your body have fought with claws and teeth to keep you alive. And sometimes the things that protected you before don't work later on. Or sometimes people don't teach you what you need to thrive. Other times, people deliberately teach you harmful things because it makes things easier for them.
That doesn't mean something is wrong with you. It means you may feel motivated to change your strategies.
Moving Forward
We don't have the power to change everything on our own. So what I can offer is to be another person with training and tools to figure out what is within your control to change. And that can go a long way.
For the things we can't change, we can work together to figure out what to do next. Sometimes it's learning to manage the anxiety of things we can't control. Sometimes it's acceptance of some harsh circumstances so you can devote your resistance to places that can budge. Sometimes it's processing past and current events to keep you healthy enough to keep fighting.
And yes, sometimes it's putting a band-aid on a deep and infected wound for now. Because maybe it won't fix everything, but it'll keep the dirt out so we can survive another day and fight and rally for the world we need (and the world that needs us). Hope is the medicine that can get us there.
It is so easy to give up. It's okay to be terrified, it's okay to be furious. I'm all those things, too, because that is our bodies telling us to do something. And if you don't know what that something is, then maybe somebody like me can help you figure out how to channel those feelings into action that doesn't fall on old habits that harm you or others.
Thank you
You've read a very long explanation of something you probably didn't think you were going to read. I'm grateful for your patience. In session, it will be your space and your time to do with what you want, and I usually do a lot less talking.
I hope you are as well as can be in such troubling times. You have so much to offer this world, even if that is just towards healing yourself. You are a part of the world, so when you change your life, you change the world. And it will ripple out in ways you can't even imagine. I wish you all the best, and let me know if I can help.
