Mx. Kel Pattison

“Pain is important: how we evade it, how we succumb to it, how we deal with it, how we transcend it.”

-Audre Lorde

I have always been interested in healing. As a young person who felt things deeply and perceived the world in unconventional ways, I often wondered what it would be like to work with my brain instead of fighting against it. When I learned that I was neurodivergent as an adult, my whole world opened up as I gained language for my experiences and developed tools to better navigate the world around me. Additionally, my experience as a non-binary trans person living with chronic health conditions has taught me how to be creative as I find ways to survive within traumatizing systems that were not built for me.

As a therapist, I strive to create an accessible and caring space where you can feel comfortable showing up as your authentic self. I like to co-create the rhythms of our sessions together, checking in over time about what feels supportive and what doesn’t. I hope that our sessions can be a place where you feel both supported and challenged in moving toward your goals and dreams while acknowledging the traumatizing systems that often create barriers. My approach to therapy is relational and client-centered, and I view the therapy as collaborative while ultimately respecting you as the expert of your own experience. I tend to customize my approach to each person I meet with, but some of the practices I use come from Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), somatics, creative arts, and liberation psychology.

I have had the privilege to learn in a variety of settings over the years, including legal and medical advocacy, violence intervention, restorative justice, community groups, and a doctoral program in clinical psychology. I have experience working with anxiety, depression, chronic health conditions, grief, loss, LGBTQIA2S+ identity, neurodivergence, trauma, and PTSD. I am particularly passionate about working with gender expansive, neurodivergent, and disabled people, though anyone who resonates with my approach and specialties is welcome to reach out.

Outside of work I enjoy reading, drawing, birding, astrology, tarot, and cuddling with my wonderful cat.