Licenses, Training, Professional Involvement

I strive to value and invite my patient to bring as much of their selves and identities (e.g. race, ethnicity, sexuality, gender identity, spirituality, ability) as they deem fit into the therapeutic process.  I recognize the multiple intersecting identities and communities of belonging as being deeply integrated into your sense of self and experience within the world.  Significant parts of my own identity include being a white, gay, able-bodied, cisgender man (he, him, his).  Engaging identity is complex and often fraught with vulnerability, not-knowing, misunderstanding, power, privilege, oppression, and othering experiences.  Identity also carries with it infinite meanings that add color, texture, and richness to experience.  In some respects, I am always an outsider to my patients’ lived experience; however, in regards to communities of belonging, I certainly reside outside of many of the communities that shape my patients’ lived experiences.  Engaging an ongoing process of dismantling the ways in which white supremacy and other supremacy cultures shape/d my own personhood is a value I strive (and often stumble) towards.  I seek to relate with aspects of identity with humility, curiosity, openness, and honesty—seeking to know and own my own limitations, privilege, biases, and gaps, while also remaining committed to being impacted and responsive to the lives and experience of others in and outside of the office.