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About Me, the Person.
Animal lover. Laugher. Loud, in all the ways.
My full first name is Maiya, but I tend to go by M. I use they/them pronouns and am in the LGBTQ+ community. I am an artist, writer, and intersectional feminist. And yes, there's some spicy neurodivergence going on with me, too.
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During the pandemic, our neighbor kitty rehomed herself to us! It's been about four years now, and she has yet to rehome herself to somewhere new. We've named her Tamsyn after the Valkyrie on The Lost Girl series because she is quite the hunter and fighter! She is an indoor/outdoor cat, but she mostly hangs out with me in my office or on any available window seat. She will occasionally jump up on the desk for a cuddle and to remind me it's almost dinner time. My hope is to one day be able to have an Emotional Support Animal in an office space where my clients come to get some safe touch and loves, but this little one is not a cuddler, so this will be a long while yet.
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Social justice has always been important to me, but being born and raised in a very small, very white, very Christian, very rural place (we're talking 92% white, 1500 people on a good day, lower to middle class), it wasn't something I was taught in school or by family. Going to college was pivotal in learning more about my own privilege, weaknesses, and minority statuses.
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Bored of the tedium and drama of High School, I did Running Start at South Puget Sound Community College then got my Bachelor's at The Evergreen State College. It became clear early on that I wanted to work in Sociology and Psychology; in part, yes, because it came easy to me, but also because I was just fascinated with the overt and covert ways of communication, indoctrination of belief and value systems, and expectations in social interactions. So, I found a local program at Saint Martin's University to obtain a Master's Degree in Counseling in order to learn even more about how to help folks understand the structures they are/were a part of, and how to break out and away from systems that are not serving them.
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It was during my time at SMU that I came out to myself and my family as queer while knee deep in studying to become a therapist. As it turns out, you really can't train to be a therapist and not learn a WHOLE lot about yourself in the process... Even if I hadn't ended up loving being a therapist so much, I have zero regrets about pursuing higher education. I know that I am a better person and provider because of it, in large part to the classmates and professors that pushed me to be better and brighter.
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About Me, the Therapist
The journey I've taken to become a therapist.
The basics.
I began working with clients in 2014 in an internship working with kiddos and their families at Greater Lakes Mental Healthcare in Lakewood, WA. Afterward, I took a full time position there working with adults, doing group therapy, and seeing a few families until I was ready to launch my own private practice in 2018.
Although I loved how working at an Agency enabled me to work with a team and helped me learn to work with literally anyone and everyone with randomly assigned clients, I wanted to start specializing in working with those of minority statuses; especially those with multiple minority statuses and People of Color. Starting my own business has allowed me to do just that.
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Why minorities?
I'm sometimes asked why I have built my niche in working with minorities. Multicultural competency (aka being a Woke provider) is a very underdeveloped area in the field of healthcare at large. If you haven't noticed it yet, the majority of mental health therapists are Cis-Het-White Females who tend to work with other Cis-Het-White people. I can and sometimes do work with this category of folks, but they are not my typical client. Rather, I utilize my multicultural competency to provide therapy to folks who (let's face it) very rarely get a space to be their full self and who finally get a break from Code Switching or having to provide cultural context or back story to their therapist to make sure they understand how something may be deeply affecting them. All of their identities are able to be present, validated, and represented in our sessions. While that does mean sessions can be more intense with me because both of our full selves are present rather than only the carefully cultivated, deemed acceptable parts of self we're allowed to share, it also means that our work can be far more productive together.
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We need more people who understand the struggle and that the struggle is real. Oppression. Is. Real. It shows up systemically, internally, and institutionally. I'd rather be available to work with clients who need providers who know, acknowledge, and work within these truths to help people address and overcome these barriers and treat their needs holistically than have all my clinical availability already filled by folks can be treated and helped by literally anyone. Makes sense, right?
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I'm not interested in perpetuating majority cultures and treating people in a one sized fits all treatment modality. Bleh. I want to treat folks as uniquely as they are, and support them in pursuing what matters most to them, not to what White Patriarchal culture and norms tell them they should be doing.
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The credential blurb:
Unless you're also in the field, you might not know what the letters after my name mean. Here's the breakdown of what they represent, in case you're curious.
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LMHC- Licensed Mental Health Counselor: this means I am licensed by the state of Washington to legally and ethically provide the highest standard of care to my clients.
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MHP- Mental Health Professional: this means that I have been working with folks in a therapeutic capacity for at least two years.
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NCC- National Certified Counselor: this means that I meet the highest national standards of care as well as to our states standards, and will likely pick up multiple state licenses over my career.