All Gender Identities (Special Focus on Women)
There are so many beautiful ways of being.
My lived experience as a female-identifying person has been a significant strength in working with and relating to other women, while tenderly holding that our lived experiences are never all the same. That being said, I have found that I am able to deeply connect with the lived experience of many women who struggle with anxiety, and who may find it hard to feel a sense of internal security while navigating life’s uncertainties throughout different stages of life and personal development.
We live during a particular time where we have collected and internalized many generations worth of messages relating to gender, worth, definitions of “success,” and how a person “should” be. We are also living in a time in which we are constantly exposed to rapid trend cycles, picture-perfect lifestyles, and exclusionary beauty standards that may feel inescapable.
And yet, we also live in a time in which there is much more conversation about differences among people, about ways of existing beyond what is considered “good” or “bad”, “right” or “wrong”, beyond binaries of all kinds. Many of us are having more conversations around de-stigmatizing the diverse ways people can simply be. I will continue to have these essential conversations in the therapy room.
We can work together to question, examine, and expand upon beliefs around where one “should” be at certain ages, how far someone “should” be professionally, how we “should” fit in with others, exploring and de-constructing these “shoulds” in an effort to find more self-acceptance. We will also integrate how potential support systems and communities can be essential to living a connected life in which a sense of self can be further developed by a feelings of togetherness and truthful belonging.
