I am an intern with Tribeca Therapy’s internship program. Currently in the process of obtaining a Master’s Degree from New York University, I admire Tribeca Therapy’s social justice values and non-diagnostic approach to therapy. Through the extensive expertise of the Tribeca Therapy team, I am eager to develop as a therapist for individuals, couples, and families.
I believe that being a therapist dedicated to social justice is about more than acknowledging the pervasive impact of our multiple intersecting identities. Instead, it takes a willingness to step into the reality of another’s unique experience. In addition to a Master’s Degree, I am also working towards an advanced certificate in LGBTQ Mental Health. I recognize how, like BIPOC, LGBTQ individuals, couples, and families face disproportionate barriers to not only accessing care but accessing quality care that appreciates the unique challenges LGBTQ people confront in the world. Drawing on Tribeca Therapy’s values, I aim to provide affirming and anti-racist therapy for all individuals, couples, and families with an appreciation for how we are all impacted by culture, including normative cultural pressures, in our experiences and interpersonal relationships.
While emotional suffering is intensely personal, its impact can extend well beyond to other systems in our lives, including our relationships, families, and communities. I came to this understanding while working at a child advocacy center in Birmingham, Alabama. Offering children and teens and their families a safe place after abuse, I learned, while sitting with parents, that when one family member is hurting, all the other family members hurt in their own way. As a therapist, I acknowledge how these systems not only impact our individual emotional struggles, as well as the dynamics within a couple or family, but our understanding of both ourselves and others.
While pursuing my undergraduate degree, I assisted in research about the experience of dating and sexual violence in young adults and its connection to childhood experiences in the hopes of developing better prevention measures. Through this research, as well as working with teens in victim advocacy, I became acutely aware of how young individuals’ emotional needs are often not taken seriously, including depression, anxiety, body image, gender and sexual identity, substance use, dating, and sex. I’m inspired by Tribeca Therapy’s work with teens and young adults and hope to strengthen my skills in building relationships with young patients in which their joys, grief, anger, and challenges are seen as not only very real but an essential part of shaping who they are.