About
Hi :) My name is Kiki (I use she/they pronouns). I am many things but most importantly I am Love. I think we all are, but somewhere along the lines we forget this core identity. In some of my other identities, I identify as Black, queer, female & gender-free, married & ethically non-monogamous, primarily able-bodied while navigating chronic illness/healing, spiritual (de-converted Christian), and a person who is privileged in terms of sizeism, ageism, colorism, texturism, and nationality. I have my masters degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, and have spent the past 10 years in various roles supporting folks healing from sexual wounding and expanding towards sexual liberation.
Like many, my journey as a therapist began very young in my family system as an only child with young parents navigating poverty, unhealed wounds, unmanaged mental illness, and relational strain that created significant trauma to my child self. Navigating familial, racial, religious, and sexual trauma have always been at the core of my own wounding’s that have needed tending. That pain transmuted into a deep desire to hold space for others. I am elated to discuss the deepest sorrows of someone’s life as well as the juiciest moments of pleasure and joy. I am deeply grateful that in my life I have experienced a type of healing that helps me remember my sacredness, and that I get to facilitate the same “remembering” for others.
Outside of my passion for holding/creating sacred space for others, I find the most pleasure in the moments where I am deeply embodied - things like gardening, swimming, writing, cooking, kitchen dancing, deep belly laughing, cuddling, walking, flirting, thrifting, tea drinking with cuties, long phone calls, shibari, road trips, watching the same shows 100 times, and everything in between!
My Approach to Therapy
My belief is that our deepest healing occurs through the wisdom of the body. The body is also the place where much of our pain and suffering has been stored. I approach therapy from a desire to see folks move from constriction (pain/trauma) into expansion (pleasure/liberation/alignment with self), and I believe we do this by recognizing the barriers that exist in our lives, finding the ways in which trauma has been stuck and stored within us, and gently moving through that stagnant pain by first establishing safety and recalibrating the nervous system. Healing is a slow, intentional, and subtle process; it is quite literally the opposite of trauma which is often described as “too much, too fast, too soon.”
I tend to work in the middle space that honors both ancestral wisdom (i.e., lineage, dreams, inter-generational stories/wounds/patterns, plant medicines, symbolism, natures guidance, intergenerational resilience, etc.) and integrates the use of westernized clinical tools from modalities like Person Centered Therapy, Somatic Experiencing, Internal Family Systems (“parts work”), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and mindfulness practices. As a therapist who seeks to operate from an awareness of the harm systemic oppression causes many folks with marginalized identities, I stand in the belief that just because something is deemed “clinical” does not mean it is the best healing modality - I believe it is important as a clinician to be attuned to each individual client, and be able to adapt to your needs. The therapeutic relationship is meant to be a space of safety, collaboration, & imagination, not another disempowering oppressive system where you are voiceless.
