My job is to support people on their own journeys.  This means that I trust people to know themselves best and work to help my clients develop even greater self-awareness.  It's not my job to tell people who they are or who they should be.

I also see my role as facilitating communication, understanding, and mutual respect between clients and their families and loved ones.  For parents of non binary and trans teens this can include:

• education about gender identity and expression
• information about child development and related parenting strategies
• teaching the family loving conflict resolution skills

There are 3 key things I want to share-

1. Gender is a matrix- although many people are comfortable with a gender binary (or spectrum) of masculine and feminine, this doesn't seem to fit a lot of people who identify strongly with both masculine and feminine aspects of themselves or who express themselves outside the conventional boundaries of masculine and feminine.
2. Gender is fluid- gender identity and expression change over time and across environments.
3. Gender issues are not a symptom of a mental health problem.

I spent an early chunk of my adult life identifying as a lesbian and an even larger chunk identifying as queer.  Before I got my Master of Social Work degree, I did undergraduate and graduate work in gender studies.  I was particularly interested in how individuals and communities constructed different boundaries and different definitions of lesbian, queer, masculine, and feminine.  Then, about 15 years ago (still before I was even working as a therapist) I had a partner who came out as a transman during our relationship.  I supported him and participated in his therapy and medical process as much as he wanted me to.  Dismayed by the few choices he had for gender therapy, and even more dismayed that none of those choices were queer/non binary friendly, I decided to support others who wanted to do their gender in their own way.

Fortunately, today there are more therapists who understand non binary identities.  I have had many non binary and trans adult clients over the last decade.  I have also seen some young people as clients.  Since returning to work after having a child in 2015, I am quite excited about continuing to work with adults and supporting non binary and trans youth and their families navigate their gender journeys.

• Individual counseling- individual sessions can conducted be in my office or online*.
• Relationship counseling- couples sessions focused on supporting each person in the relationship
• Family consultations or counseling- either in person or using through videoconference technology*, parents or the entire family can participate in counseling sessions.
• Consultations with school officials-  to increase your child's satisfaction and success in school I can meet with teaching and administrative staff at your child's school.
• Referrals to medical professionals- at your request, I can help you find a doctor whom you can consult with about medically transitioning
• Letters for hormone therapy and surgery- as appropriate, I can write these letters as part of the therapy process.

*please see the FAQ on online therapy for more information about this option

Yes, in select cases I do offer online sessions.  All you need is a computer with a high speed internet connection in order to use this service.  Reach out to me and I can talk with you more about how this works and whether online sessions would be a good fit for you.

45-50 minute sessions are billed at a rate of $110.  90-100 minute sessions (which are sometimes helpful for family meetings) are billed at $220.

I only accept a few insurance plans (Caresource and Medicare), but I can give you more information about accessing your out-of-network insurance benefits to help manage the costs of therapy.

Sliding scale fees are also available.  If you'd like to know more, I'm happy to go over options with you.