Chelsa’s practice is rooted in Person-Centered Theory, Dance/Movement Therapy, and Mindfulness.  Recognizing that everyone has the innate ability to be healthy and whole, Chelsa creates a nurturing space for growth.  She meets her clients in the here and now by working with their specific strengths to build confidence, self-worth, and self-reliance.  Rediscovering the skillful use of Movement and Intentional Breathing, the individual learns to ground, connect with their inner self, and tap into the healing knowledge of their mind-body wisdom.  Individually or in concert, these practices support growth and development by promoting self-awareness, safe exploration of difficult feelings and emotions, and expansion of self-esteem and a core sense of self.

In addition to DMT and Counseling, Chelsa offers support through an Earth-based spiritual approach to personal growth and development; Intuitive Guidance, internal wisdom through deep listening to guide and support choices and actions; and energy work using Reiki (Universal Life Force) and Candle Magic (element of fire) to facilitate transformation.

Chelsa trusts herself and her clients to always work toward health, healing, and wholeness, creating a strong mind, body, and spirit.

Olivia (she/they) is a graduate from the Counseling Psychology master’s program at The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology. Olivia is a white queer person who grew up in the Philadelphia suburbs. She has an undergraduate background in Women’s and Gender Studies. In the therapeutic relationship, Olivia values consent, fluidity, respect, and the resistance of historically harmful structures of hierarchy. She believes the systems we live in impact us deeply and are relevant to our work together. Olivia is invested in the formation of affirming therapeutic alliances that can help clients move toward what is next in their own exploration and healing.

As a therapist I am interested in the ways therapy can be used as a tool for transformative change for individuals and communities. I view talk therapy as one of many tools people can use to pursue healing and connectedness, and am interested in other such tools, including: music, movement, plants and nature, ritual, art, food, community, connection to ancestors, spirituality, magic, and justice work. I hold a Master of Social Work, and have a background in gender and sexuality studies and visual art.

My approach to therapy is largely relational and psychodynamic. I center the relationship between therapist and client, and bring warmth, thoughtfulness, curiosity, humility, and laughter. I work to offer insights about patterns in your life and to join you in exploring the roots these patterns stem from. It is my aim for us to collaboratively create a space where you feel seen and held as we work toward a vision of wholeness you have for yourself.

I am a white, queer, non-binary person (they/she) who thinks a lot about the pervasive effects that the systems we live under have on our own internal worlds and relational structures. I am attendant to the powerful ways in which our identities shape our life experiences and dictate how we move through the world, and I am interested in exploring how power dynamics connected to our identities show up in the therapeutic space and inform the work.

Amy DeSmidt, (she/her) is a Marriage and Family Therapist who takes a relational, collaborative, trauma-informed approach. She views therapy as a place of co-healing where clients can bring their authentic, vulnerable selves and be seen in their full humanity. She also believes that therapy is inherently socio-political, as our experiences and struggles are shaped by our cultural contexts, systems of oppression, and dominant narratives of our society. She centers this in her work with clients and holds space for the intense, messy, joyful, challenging, vulnerable, and transformative nature of the therapeutic process.

Amy is trained in Internal Family Systems (IFS), EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) and Emotionally Focused Therapy. She attends to the impact of trauma, childhood attachment, systemic marginalization/inequity, and intergenerational family dynamics in her work. She partners with her clients to develop deeper insight into how their past informs their present, change old patterns that keep them confined, and ultimately, gain more access to their healthy, grounded Selves.

Amy identifies as white, cisgender, queer, and currently non-disabled. She finds joy in strong coffee, bodies of water, and small moments of profound connection with others. She currently works and lives in Philadelphia.

Hi! My name is Nicole Banales (she/her): I am a Mexican-American, queer, temporarily able-bodied, cisgender woman. I am a part-time student at Bryn Mawr’s Graduate School of Social Work and Social Research, and I am completing my advanced year as a clinical intern at TCP.

Through growing up in a bordertown between Mexico and the US, I embrace questions of identity and belonging, especially around culture and sexuality. I provide therapy in English, Spanish, and Spanglish. Prior to TCP, I have worked with survivors of domestic violence and within the immigrant community in Philadelphia in case management and organizing work. I believe that the personal is political and that there is much work to be done to provide access to therapy that is affordable, honoring a person’s culture, and in a person’s preferred language.

My work as a therapist and social worker focuses on a psychodynamic/psychoanalytic lens. I incorporate harm-reduction, trauma-informed care, and relationship-building into my practice. I also embrace dream work as a form of understanding our unconscious and ancestral parts.

Welcome! My name is Lucia, and I am a graduate from the Clinical Mental Health master’s program at Villanova University. I am a cis, straight White woman and a child of Spanish immigrants. I’ve previously worked as a community organizer in the nonprofit sector, and I value providing quality, affirming, and empowering care. I am bilingual in Spanish and English. I see therapy as an equal partnership where we will work together to achieve your own personal definition of mental wellness. I am committed to providing therapy with a gender expansive and antiracist framework. I favor theoretical orientations that are relational and focus on building an equal, respectful, and affirming therapeutic relationship.

In my work with people I aim to trouble the notion of therapist as expert by centering local knowledge, and to aid in the recovery of experiences that have been overlooked or otherwise un-storied.

I am currently completing a year-long training in narrative therapy with Jill Freedman and Gene Combs. Narrative work pays close attention to stories, power dynamics between service providers and people, and the social construction of meaning.

From 2010 until 2019 I spent six years at psychology book publisher New Harbinger Publications, two years as book reviews editor at Psych Central, and earned a masters degree in social work from Edinboro University. During that time I was immersed in therapies geared toward behavior change including acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) and dialectical behavior therapy (DBT).

I have written extensively through the images of Tarot, symbols and old stories, and am the author of Tarot for Change: Using the Cards for Self-Care, Acceptance and Growth.

My name is Thunder (they/them), and I’m a biracial Black fat queer, trans, COVID-conscious, neurodivergent, chronically ill and disabled student therapist currently working towards my M.Phil.Ed in Professional Counseling. I received a B.S in Psychology and a B.A in Sociology from the University of Florida in 2016, and my M.S.Ed in Counseling and Mental Health Services from the University of Pennsylvania in 2021. I have clinical experience working one-on-one with clients at the Attic LGBTQ+ Youth Center and as a community crisis response counselor, as well as in facilitating communal healing spaces and creative workshops.

I’m a facilitator, a healer, a writer, a partner, and a friend who loves rain, working with clay, sunflowers, and exploring what living liberation now looks like. I’ve lately been learning how to be with these waves of apocalypse grief, relearning my body and pace, and having deeper conversations with sick and disabled loved ones about the crip spirit and honoring the sacredness of disability. As a community member and as a therapist, I am committed to the collective work of unhooking from the frenzied pace and individualism of white supremacy culture and embracing slowness and non-linear healing. As someone who is impacted by intersecting systems of oppression, I understand how hard it can be to heal in the context of an unsafe world. My goal as a therapist is to be your partner in our time together and to support you in processing and grieving the impact of these systems, exploring and moving towards alignment with your core values, developing grounding rituals and relationships with ancestors, and connecting with and offering gentleness to your inner self. I center Black and brown, LGBTQ+, and disabled clients, and am interested in Internal Family Systems, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Somatic Experiencing approaches.

My identities as a queer, genderfluid, South Asian (Indian Muslim) immigrant are inextricable from my therapeutic approach, rooted in decolonization and anti-oppressive practice. I believe that our experiences are shaped by more than just the interpersonal; they are produced by larger sociopolitical and historical contexts. My background lies in working with survivors of partner abuse who have experienced a non-consensual pattern of power and control. This framework of power and control shapes how I understand each of us navigating colonialism, capitalism, patriarchy, and white supremacy, particularly when we hold marginalized identities.

Just as harm occurs in the context of relationships, I believe that healing too can only happen in relationships. I strive for genuine connection in my work, having divested from the notion that the therapist is the expert. I’m interested in exploring with you what care looks like in community with one another, prioritizing collaboration and non-judgment.

Therapeutically, I believe that it is equally important to understand how we came to experience the world as we do (insight) as it is to address the impacts on our body through the mind-body connection (experiential/somatic). My practice engages:

• Psychodynamic theory, an approach that explores the impact of our personal and cultural histories.
• EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), a technique that addresses traumatic memories and their effects.
• Attachment theory, a focus on how our relationships from early childhood influence our relationships today.

I also pull from Internal Family Systems (IFS) or parts work, and somatic therapy which engages our bodies.

I center survivors of partner violence, queer and trans people, people of color, and immigrants in my work, and look forward to creating a therapeutic space together with abundant room for vulnerability, healing, and joy.