Born and raised in Philadelphia, Kimberly Ashby is a Black, queer, cis-woman psychotherapist, artist, activist, and doctoral candidate in counseling psychology at Boston College. She received her M.A. in counseling theories from Boston College and her B.A. in psychology and comparative ethnic studies from Columbia University. Kimberly has provided psychotherapy and social justice/inclusion outreach and facilitation at a number of college counseling centers, including those at Drexel University, Massachusetts College of Art and Design, Wellesley College, and Salem StateUniversity. Kimberly also has experience as a mental health case manager, working primarily with racial minorities and low-income populations with serious mental illness. Kimberly’s clinical interests include working with individuals and communities with marginalized racial, gender, and sexual identities. Kimberly has a number of clinical foci,including working with individuals processing identity development, individuals who have experienced various forms of trauma, particularly sexual violence, and individuals with mood disorders, anxiety, and relationship challenges. While Kimberly uses an integrative approach, drawing from psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral perspectives, she identifies as a feminist, relational/cultural therapist who aims to form healing relationships and who thinks critically about the impact of systems of power and oppression on people’s lives. Kimberly has a background in facilitating various forms of outreach centered on social justice, anti-racism, racial identity, and mindfulness meditation.

Siam is a candidate of the Mental Health Counseling program at the Psychology Department of the Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. Siam identifies as a queer, non-binary, AFAB immigrant. Acknowledging both the class and socioeconomic privileges they hold, Siam moves through spaces with openness, humour, and empathy, seeking always to understand others with grace and an appreciation of their own experiences.

Building from a foundation in cognitive-behavioural approaches to psychotherapy, Siam operates from a strengths-based, existential approach and works alongside clients to build their self-love, self-efficacy and distress tolerance as they create meaning of their life events. Valuing autonomy and appreciating clients as the experts of their own lives, Siam incorporates CBT techniques into narrative therapy work to help clients question unhelpful and inaccurate stories that have perpetuated across their lives, and supports them with rewriting and rehearsing narratives that paint a more accurate, less hurtful picture of their existence.

Recognising that people operate within and can be constrained by their social locations, Siam’s overall goal is to work with clients wherever they might be currently, helping them create safe spaces where they feel free to live, love and breathe.

Varney is a clinical social work candidate at the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice. She identifies as a white, queer, ciswoman and uses she/her pronouns. Varney sees the therapeutic relationship as a space to begin healing and seeks to foster a collaborative, affirming and challenging environment. Varney’s approach to therapy is client-centered, trauma-informed, and relational. She draws from psychodynamic, feminist, and attachment theories. Varney recognizes how systems of oppression affect our lives in conscious and unconscious ways and seeks to incorporate a social justice lens to all her work.

Varney is interested in working with clients to identify and process past experiences that may be affecting their lives in the present. She also strives to help clients recognize and reflect on how current relationships and patterns of behavior are playing out in their lives. She is particularly interested in identity formation, life transitions, relationship issues, and family systems. Varney believes that clients are the experts on their own experiences and seeks to support clients in forming their own narratives.

My name is Kay and I am a white, trans, queer, licensed clinical social worker who is interested in the ways that authentic connection, collaboration, and accountability bring us closer to ourselves and each other and strengthen our communities. My approach to therapy is rooted in an ethic of social justice that emphasizes your right to claim and embody your purpose within a life that resonates with your definition of personal, social, and political empowerment. In our work together, my goal is to support you in moving through the world in whatever body, self, and community feel like home, in your ability to endure and resist the forces of power and oppression in society, and in your right to be safe. Whether it’s your aim to manage anxiety and stress, build a healthier relationship with your body and self, engage in healing around traumatic experiences, or develop more rewarding relationships, I provide a non-judgmental space in which we’ll work together to explore those things that feel hardest to manage alone.

I use a variety of therapeutic modalities, including relational, narrative, and feminist theories. In addition, I am trained in and excited about engaging EMDR and Somatic Experiencing as alternative ways to connect with, process, and heal from trauma using the inherent wisdom carried within our bodies.

Forogh Rahim is an Afghan refugee and a queer identified Muslim woman. Forogh immigrated to the U.S. with her family as an adolescent and lived in California before relocating to Philadelphia for her studies. Forogh is currently a 3rd year doctoral candidate in Drexel University’s Couple and Family Therapy program. She joined TCP in February of 2019 to complete a clinical internship.

Forogh completed her undergraduate studies at the University of California, Davis, where she majored in Biopsychology. She earned her master’s degree from Palo Alto University in Marriage and Family Therapy. Forogh has 4+ years of clinical experience working individuals of all ages and families. In her work, Forogh has focused on serving ethnic minority and economically disadvantaged families and communities.

Forogh draws from her own experiences of being marginalized and from her education to understand the intersection between living on the margins and mental/relational health. She utilizes this understanding between social marginalization and health to build strong therapeutic relationships with her clients and implement a holistic framework to understand client concerns.

Kate is interested in helping clients think about how past experiences and relationships may be affecting their lives today, and supporting clients to shift patterns that no longer serve them. Her clinical practice is informed by a range of modalities, primarily pulling from psychodynamic, feminist, relational, attachment, and trauma theories. She works to bring a somatic approach to her practice, meaning she is conscious of the mind/body connection and can help clients build internal awareness around that relationship, especially in relation to trauma. Many of us have complicated relationships to our bodies, or may feel disconnected from our bodies, and Kate is interested in exploring that relationship and working towards healing.

In addition to her work at The Therapy Center of Philadelphia, Kate also works for an intervention, treatment, training and education program working to stop harmful behavior and intimate partner violence.