Kate Mageau (she/her/hers)

I am an IPV/DV survivor. I went to support groups at a DV advocacy agency, and I loved the experience so much, that a few years later, I returned to the agency to run the groups as a volunteer. This inspired me to become a therapist, and now I counsel IPV/DV survivors and run counseling support groups. I help people understand what happened, and empower people to find their self-esteem to move forward. I wrote an educational memoir about my experience that is available on my website.

I am a bisexual, cisgender woman with lived experience in the kink community. I enjoy discussing the ways kink can heighten a person's sexual and affectional experiences, and/or their relationship(s). Kink can be a healthy way to express oneself, creatively, emotionally, and physically. Sometimes it can be a way to work through unresolved traumas, and sometimes it is simply for fun. It's important to thoroughly communicate desires, boundaries, and expectations before all play scenarios.

I became a therapist later in life, so I have worked in a variety of jobs and industries. One was working at YMCA, where I taught college exploration. At another job, I helped students find scholarships and write college essays. As a DV counselor, I have helped people explore what comes next in their lives, which is often a career change. It can be emotionally beneficial to have a career that brings joy and independence, and there are numerous resources to help people find what that is for them.

I love feminist therapy because it is for all genders and all people: It analyzes power structures and their effects upon people. Each person's intersectional identity, along with their unique lived experience, is differently affected by the current politics and systemic structures. This model helps frame issues to show that they are likely externally caused, which can remove the feeling of self-blame. It also uses education, advocacy, and strength-building to encourage self empowerment.

Society, our families of origin, and negative relationships can create narratives that people can inadvertently retain as self-talk and otherwise truth. Narrative therapy helps to look at other ways people can write the stories of their lives -- those they tell themselves and share with others. There are fun insightful and empowering activities (not all written) to encourage people to see their strengths and positive experiences in life, so they can make decisions to lead the lives they desire.

Finding meaning, direction, and purpose in life can be some of the greatest sources of anxieties for a person. Existential therapy looks at a person as a whole, in a humanistic context, to look at all the factors affecting a person and how those manifest into anxiety. It centers on deep, introspective discussions to help a person learn how to search for answers to meaning in life, to choose the way they want to live, and help people find connectedness to the world - ultimately reducing anxiety.