Jessamyn Wesley

Gender and sexuality are historically located, socially crafted, infinitely complex, personally specific, and deeply embodied; distinct yet interlaced. I’m personally and professionally committed to those along the spectrum of sexual and gender diversity, and have extensive experience with clients who are LGBQ+, trans, non-binary, and/or intersex. Aspects of gender and sexuality may be peripheral or central, but fundamental recognition of their reality can be vital and healing.

Listening to unease and discontent can shift our relationship to inherent pains and discomforts of living. Awareness of the impact and implications of beliefs, values, and actions allows us to be deliberate in how we show up, engage with ourselves and others, and participate in our lives and the world. Cultivating honesty with ourselves, drawing in spiritual and philosophical threads, illuminates purpose and meaning, moving towards ethical alignment and greater congruence and integrity.

Feminist therapy extends beyond gender to incorporate examination of inequity of power, emphasizing context and historicity, and the inseparability of personal and political realities. Feminist therapy recognizes the subjectivity of created knowledge, interrogates domination and marginalization, disputes pathologizing of deviance and difference, challenges binaries, purity, certainty, and dichotomies.

Feminist therapy extends beyond gender to incorporate examination of inequity of power, emphasizing context and historicity, and the inseparability of personal and political realities. Feminist therapy recognizes the subjectivity of created knowledge, interrogates domination and marginalization, disputes pathologizing of deviance and difference, challenges binaries, purity, certainty, and dichotomies.

Feminist therapy extends beyond gender to examine inequity of power, emphasizing context and historicity, and the inseparability of personal and political realities. Feminist therapy recognizes the subjectivity of created knowledge, interrogates domination and marginalization, disputes pathologizing of deviance and difference, and challenges binaries, purity, certainty, and dichotomies.

The inextricability of personal and political realities calls us to explore distributions of power in our lives, and cast a wider frame of context and historicity to comprehend ourselves. Questioning the social construction of systems and the beliefs they generate disrupts their hold. Humility fortifies my capacity to grow as a therapist, as I resist pathologizing deviance and difference, challenge binaries, purity, certainty, hierarchies, and dichotomies.

Imbuing food and eating with fear, morality, profit, and disconnection normalizes the spectrum of disordered eating. Fostering distrust in our bodies encourages regimenting, commodifying, objectifying, and problematizing our physical selves. Experiences of food and our bodies are tangible and visceral realities, as well as symbolic in meaning, and inextricably woven with our social locations. Beliefs in body, food, and fat justice, and weight-neutrality guide me.

We internalize systems of domination in our bodies and psyches, recreating them towards ourselves and one another. Silence and denial are integral to the perpetuation of racial inequity and domination. Tolerating discomfort to tease apart the harm caused by racial injustice builds capacity to make mistakes and remain engaged. In exploring how whiteness shapes and informs our lives and relationships, examining subconscious beliefs, practice moving away from complicity in our role within systems.

We are all informed and shaped by layers of cultural contexts, inseparable from our material and psychological realities. I engage in relentless interrogation of psychology's false neutrality and unacknowledged cultural influences, and practice self-reflexivity towards the role my social locations play. Attention to how our perspectives, experiences, and selves are culturally mediated recognizes the complex nuances beyond theories and simplistic categories.

In processing the immense emotional and psychological consequences of the climate emergency, we can turn towards the reality that we are entwined with the water, air, and land. Rather than evading fear, we can channel our dread and despair to create effective and sustainable change, transforming resignation into collective action. As we grieve for devastation, we can remain embedded in courage, retain persistence through obstacles, and build shared bravery and justice.