Specialties
At Walnut, we define therapy in a few simple ways. First, therapy is a space that is constructed by the presence of a strong, trusting relationship. The more consistent this relationship (meaning meeting time, space, length, and predictability), the more it presents the opportunity for relief.
The intention of this trusting and consistent relationship is that it makes whatever has felt unsayable, sayable. We believe that therapy is a place where you can practice saying things, being things, and exploring things that have never felt possible before.
It is ultimately through the exploration of new feelings that we become less afraid of our own internal landscapes, leaving us freer to explore ourselves, the world around us, and our relationships. For us, therapy is the act of talking, feeling, and being with another person in a way that feels new, possibly frightening, and eventually liberating.
This list is not exhaustive. If the specific support you're seeking isn't listed here, please get in touch via info@walnutpsychotherpapycenter.com.
Individual Therapy
We are constantly seeking realignment with client centered treatment that affirms identity, trauma, and life stressors as real and complex. We are more than prepared to support a wide range of struggles and concerns, such as, but not limited to: gender dysphoria, gender identity, identity exploration, racial identity, trauma resolution, grief, sexual identity, and life transitions. For a better understanding of our philosophy, please refer to Our Approach.
LGBTQ+ affirming care
We hold fast to the belief that compulsory cis-heteronormativity, and compulsory binaries in general, are a deeply harmful construct. We see subversion of normative identity structures as a sign of health and resilience and we are here to help you on your journey, however that may look for you. We don’t subscribe to simple concepts about being in or out of the closet, about falling into a gender binary, or to the necessity of nuclear family structures. We are here to support you in living as close to your truth as you safely and comfortably can.
Trauma Informed Care
We conduct therapy in such a way that treatment will not become retraumatizing. With that at the helm of our work, we keep the following ideas in mind:
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We are consent driven in everything we offer; constantly seeking your feedback and input and prioritizing your safety.
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We step away from the idea of therapist as expert and defer to the expertise of our clients’ lived experiences. We unpack power and try to move with transparency.
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We are aware that oppressive systems create harm and we are consider how the systems you have interfaced with, throughout your life, have affected your psyche. We aim to position ourselves outside of that harm.
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We focus on creating secure, predictable attachments that form over time. A trusting relationship is the foundation of this work and we work hard to preserve the therapeutic bond.
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We support collaboration, we want you to be involved in the construction of your healing. We value your voice, your choice, and your strengths.
Depression
Support
To truly make sense of how things are in the world right now, we expect many clients to experience depression. We know that the baseline of mental health functioning has moved into a place where functioning is harder all around. At Walnut, we think of depression as both a diagnostic and psychiatric phenomenon, as well as a socio-cultural response to current living conditions. We are here to think about how systems around you are harming you and making it harder to move through the world. We are also here to understand how depression functions, uniquely, in each of your own minds. We are oriented to both remedying depression through attachment based therapies and tolerating depression, because we know how long it takes to treat. We are in no rush for you to feel better, but we do want you to feel better and we will hold that tension alongside you as you journey into your therapy with us.
Therapy for
Anxiety
At Walnut, we understand the power of anxiety on overall functioning. We take both the symptoms of anxiety seriously, along with the symbolic nature of those symptoms. We are interested in helping our clients form a deeper understanding of their anxiety, while also helping them to manage it in their daily lives. We see anxiety as a natural byproduct of living in a capitalistic society that focuses on constant productivity. We know that the need to be viewed as a productive member of society has a debilitating impact on the psyche. We also see anxiety as an expected outcome of marginalization and struggles around identity. When society continually gives messages that your existence is unwelcome, it can become anxiety provoking to merely exist. We think of anxiety as something that can arise organically in the mind or as intergenerational language that is spoken within families. We are here to form complex understandings of your anxiety with you, while also trying to help you form simple responses to the unrelenting nature of being anxious.
Support for Parents of Trans Kids
We are 100% committed to the affirmation of trans identity in children and we know this is a journey for their parents as well. If you are interested in supporting your child as they explore their trans identity, we are here to partner with you on your journey. This means guidance around navigating medical services, social transition, interfacing with school systems, and helping you understand where your child falls along the gender spectrum. We are also interested in helping parents to understand the intersection of neurodiversity and trans identities, while affirming children in both of these identities.
Embracing Neurodiversity
At Walnut, we embrace neurodiversity and neuroqueerness as essential pieces of our clinical orientation and political stance. We take seriously the psychological toll that masking has on your life, and work to create safe spaces for unmasking and affirmation of all neurodivergent traits. We honor the need for stimming, the importance of your interests and areas of expertise, your complex sensory needs, and the intersectionality between queerness, trans identity, and neurodiversity. Furthermore, we fully validate the legitimacy of self-diagnosis, while also helping you find accessible means for formal diagnosis if you feel that would be helpful.
We consider our work to be political. Ableism in our field has been used as a weapon against neurodivergent communities. That is even more true for neurodivergent BIPOC people who have been further oppressed by the intersection of ableism and race or have experienced that adequate care is made inaccessible by our broken healthcare systems. That is a pattern we are seeking to break in each therapeutic pairing at Walnut. Many therapists at Walnut openly identify along the neurodivergent spectrum, accompanied by neurotypical therapists who are committed to stopping ableism within the mental health field. We are here to co-create healthy and non-pathologizing relationships with you, and to provide treatment that doesn’t make you feel inept, but rather helps you feel confident and whole.
This list is not exhaustive. If the specific support you're seeking isn't listed here, please get in touch via info@walnutpsychotherpapycenter.com.
