Hi there! Thanks for reading this post. To start off, my pronouns are she/her, and when you come in for an initial consultation, I’ll ask you for yours. Whoever you are, I want to help you to live more fully, be truer to yourself, and to explore experiences and feelings about gender in a genuine way. My focus is around helping every client find more authentic, affirming, and joyful relationships with themselves and others.

The road toward oneself is fraught with insecurity and pain. Questions like “who am I?” and “where do I fit in?” and “what do I have to offer?” are questions healthy people continue to return to again and again in the process of becoming themselves. If you’re in the process of exploring the Gender Gumby (or the Gender Unicorn), you more than know that the road toward selfhood requires additional energy, thoughtfulness, tolerance for ambiguity, and perseverance. Additionally, concerns about physical safety, about the strength of relationships and one’s place in a community, as well as concerns about the “best” way to actualize oneself can make the process of transitioning both awfully testing and gorgeously freeing.

From the decision to tell just one person about what’s going on… to anticipating what gender means to you in this moment… to thinking about trying hormones (or not!)… From choosing how to play with society’s “rules” regarding your gender… to recognizing whether you have “proof” enough that you are who you are… to exacting the kind of privacy you want at work or school… From figuring out how to appeal insurance denials… to existential considerations around passing… to thinking about whether to share your experience… Transitioning is a process of noticing, experiencing, learning, questioning, discovering, planning, feeling, and growing.

And gender, of course, is likely not the most crucial or stressful part of your life right now. There’s always so much more going on!

Regardless of your reasons for pursuing therapy, it can be helpful to share your experiences with a nonjudgmental professional willing to walk beside you as you figure out who you are and what you want.

I’ve been fortunate to have attended several workshops on gender by Portland’s SMYRC/Bridge 13, have taken graduate coursework on TGD identities, and choose to continually read and learn about gender as both a construct and a concrete reality. I am familiar with the WPATH’s 7th edition Standards of Care and am appreciative of the current SOC’s move away from using therapists as “gate-keepers.” I do not want finances to prevent access to medical care, so I’m also a pledge-signer with the Gender Affirming Letter Access Project. (Here‘s a video I made on the history of gender affirming surgeries with information for therapists on how to write an ethical, affirming letter of recommendation for surgery.)

Via WPATH’s general education initiative, I’ve completed an additional rigorous curriculum. WPATH certification indicates that a provider has a working understanding of the multidisciplinary care team and the translation of the Standards of Care into practice. The extensive 50-hour core competencies-based training program includes course work and mentorship, before passing a certification exam. WPATH certification rewards those members who are committing to stay on top of both the current evidence and consensus in the field through continuing education. It is the gold standard of trans-specific healthcare certification.

Since 2013, I have co-authored several letters of recommendation for medical gender confirmation, and am familiar with that process. I also know that many people aren’t seeking physical changes as a part of their journey.

I am open to your unique expression of self and gender, and I welcome all aspects of your experience.  Hello!