Fostering a healing environment that is inclusive, flexible, & empowering, where individuals can grow, create community, & actively challenge oppressive systems
About Soul Reflections
I decided to create Soul Reflections for a lot of reasons. I see such a need in my community and I wanted to use my training to support. I was also looking for the ability to practice with client's well being at the forefront, not with company policies, license demands, or just generally with capitalism being centered. I have done extensive work in unlearning the surveillance and control behaviors taught in counseling programs. I have learned from many organizations and individuals how to practice in a liberatory frame work with client's lived experiences and needs being the most important information to inform our work together. No surprise here, but companies don't like. I got fed up trying to fight my employers to ensure client safety, so now I'm doing it my way,
What is coaching?
I am a licensed therapist, so why am I marketing myself as a coach? What difference does this make? ALL the difference. I have the training and experience to provide high quality care. I work as a coach so that I am not bound to a certain state to provide care and so our work is not bound to a license. The benefits to this are: we can always see each other, even when you travel, I am not bound to the same expectations around suicidality, we are able to do the work you need and not be limited to insurance requirements, you have more autonomy and freedom around diagnoses, there aren’t session notes about your journey that can be used against you, and I use my skills as a coach to help you take what you learn in therapy to the next level.
I provide both therapy and coaching so if you need either or both, this is a good place for you to be!
My Approach & Values
I find this to be both an easy and complicated question. I am a person who doesn’t believe in therapy as it was created and intended. My approach is relational, trauma informed, anti-oppressive, anti-system, and I am guided by harm reduction, anti-imperialist, transformative justice, anti-carceral, and disability justice values. Therapists are trained to be cops and I believe ACAB always. I have committed to practicing outside of those demands. Part of that is in my desire to not take insurance and be a “life coach” instead of a “therapist”.
As a therapist, I do not subscribe to one theory. I believe there is value in many theories. I always start with a person-centered approach given the value I place on client’s lived experiences as the most important pieces to inform our work. People are going to have varying needs with varying accessibility concerns. I believe in shifting how I do therapy based on each individual. Things that influence this are personality, view of the world, accessibility needs, lived experience, and intersecting identities. I also believe people should have a say over what diagnoses they officially take on due to the barriers that arise with diagnoses. People should be able to have informed consent on what it means to have that diagnosis. I take into great consideration the identities that people hold in society, including sexual orientation, gender identity, disability status, immigration status, socioeconomic status, among others. My practice is centered around serving people with marginalized identities. I look at how the individual may be impacted by systems, social interactions, and cultural upbringing to inform the ways that healing and a growth journey might look for an individual.