A strength of mine is a trauma informed approach. When I worked in chronic homelessness, it was my job to support people who had difficulty maintaining and accessing stable relationships. I worked at places that were known for supporting folks who had been kicked out of other services, whether those reasons were fair or not. These folks were dealing with a lot of relational trauma, including trauma from systems meant to support them. I’ve learned to tolerate a lot of distress and be present with folks through that. There has been very little behaviour that I’ve witnessed and been confused by. There is always a function to a behaviour, even when it looks irrational or dysfunctional.

Understanding behaviour, or having curiosity for what function it’s serving/why it’s coming up, is one path towards connecting in with the prefontal cortex. Additionally, meeting ourselves with compassion so it feels less confusing, scary, or shameful when confronting the behaviour we want to change, can help with actually making that process more tolerable and create longer lasting changes.

I also care to provide people with education on what therapy I’m using and getting consent along the way. I want folks to know when they move on from working with me what services they got, what worked for them, and what didn’t. I care to be transparent when I don’t know something and where I am at in my learning. A therapist’s education in a lifelong journey, and since I officially graduated I’ve been completing about 2-3 trainings a year.

Another strength is my background in activism and advocacy. I’ve been a part of a collective advocating for a sexual assault support centre, I’ve run workshops to reduce homophobia and transphobia on campus, I’ve been a part of protests, and spent my career trying to make systems considerate of all peoples it serves.

As someone with ADHD and who identifies as bi-gender, I bring this lived experience into my skills set when working with neurodiverse and LGBATQIA2S+ clients. While categories can be restrictive, I find my identities allow me to see others through a broader lens. Having to breakdown my own gender identity to make space for my multitudes within masculinity and feminity, aids me in supporting people defining for themselves what it means to be a woman or man, or some other gender identity. My ADHD hyper focus and special interest is understanding people. Hence, I also greatly enjoy working with people who do not share these same identities as me.

For more information on my approaches, you can visit my blog.