Culturally Responsive Therapists
Committed to creating space for intergenerational healing, racial justice, and wellness in our communities.
TEXAS | COLORADO | FLORIDA
You don’t always feel safe being your true self.
When you’re used to being marginalized, are bogged down by the go-go-go of daily life, or have been forced into certain “boxes,” you forget how to trust yourself. Therapy is about having a space where you can step into and embody the true version of yourself — the one that is nourished, creative, adaptive, and empowered.
Because you know that if life is going to feel different, you’ve got to do something different.
We believe that, deep down, you already know what needs to change — therapy is simply about helping you identify it and apply it to your life.
That’s why our approach to therapy is focused on autonomy: helping you discover the skills and abilities within yourself so that, eventually, you no longer need therapy. Our job is to work ourselves out of a job, helping you feel empowered, confident, and connected in your life.
We want to support you in unlocking and discovering your own gifts, then learning to live them out in a way that aligns to your unique values, identity, and goals.
Meet Our Team
Working With Us
From the moment you begin working with us, therapy with our team is focused on being collaborative. We start by ensuring you are matched to the therapist who is the best fit for you, taking into account your lived & professional experience, style, and overall approach.
We’re not going to sit in sessions and “tell” you what to do — we’re here as a guide, but you’re in the driver’s seat. If there’s something you need support with, tell us. This is your space to fully express yourself in the way you might not be able to elsewhere — at work, with your family, or in your relationship. Our team also incorporates creative, engaging methods into therapy that help you gain deeper insight and connection to yourself.
Play Therapy
The practice of play therapy requires extensive specialized education, training, and experience. A play therapist is a licensed mental health professional who has earned a Master's or Doctorate degree in a mental health field with considerable general clinical experience and supervision.
Play therapy is an approach that is often used with children, although we use with adults as well. We know that due to the stressors of life we don’t always have a space to play out concepts and ideas we have struggled with. The curative powers inherent in play are used in many ways. Therapists strategically utilize play therapy to help individuals express what is troubling them when they do not have the verbal language to express their thoughts and feelings (Gil, 1991).
Sandtray
It’s difficult to view things objectively when we’re living in the middle of them. Sandtray provides space between you and what’s going on, so you can objectively see worlds and systems that are at play in your life and what areas you want to lean into. This process allows space to safely process.
Ketamine Assisted Therapy
In order to heal our historical and generation wounding, we need access to our ancestral healing abilities. Psychedelic medicines / plant medicine is one avenue to access your inner healing abilities that has been used for generations, and has continually been stigmatized.
Tree of Life Counseling Center provides Ketamine assisted Therapy (KAP) sessions to clients working with our providers and integration sessions to those who are looking to process what has come up for them in their own medicine journey.
Our commitment
Being culturally responsive means…
… Honoring differences, respecting diversity, and working toward equity, fairness, and social justice.
Our team understands some of the challenges that marginalized and oppressed groups face. White supremacy and systemic oppression are challenges and obstacles marginalized identities face daily, and they can be insidious in nature. At times, you may feel bogged down and overwhelmed due to these systems that you are forced to navigate.
We’ll take these challenges into account in our work together: How can you affect racial justice while also trying to navigate these systems safely? How can you find meaning and purpose in the things you can’t change? How do these systems affect your ability to interact with others, yourself, and your community?
… Acknowledging your experience.
No one can tell you what you are or are not thinking, feeling, or experiencing. Whatever you bring into therapy is real, valid, and deserving of understanding and respect.
… Continuing to learn.
Racial justice work is never complete. Each of us is committed to continuing to deepen our understanding of systems, injustices, and challenges our communities face. We do this through professional associations, working towards decolonizing supervision and the therapeutic process, collaborating with others in the mental health community, investing in our own personal growth and development.
“Healing does not occur in a vacuum. We also need to begin mending our collective body. This mending takes place in connections with other bodies: in groups, neighborhoods, and communities.”
– Resmaa Menakem: My Grandmother’s Hands
Healing our trauma begins with our bodies and ends with changing the world!
When we choose to heal, this has a ripple effect and an impact on others around us. We can help others to settle their bodies and heal their trauma once we have healed our own.