Nick Vaske (he/him)

I have spent years working specifically with adults with severe mental illness including bipolar disorders in varying stages of recovery. I view bipolar and unipolar depression on a spectrum and enjoy teasing out the nuances of how bipolar presents in a variety of ways. I also have lived experience with bipolar disorder that I can draw from when it is helpful to relate, while also recognizing that everyone's experience is unique.

I am a queer-identified person and member of the LGBTQIA+ community. I have worked with adults and youth in both inpatient and outpatient settings around their sexual orientations and gender identities to build knowledge, understanding, self-compassion, and appreciation for how wonderful they are, find community, and better cope with a society that is often oppressive.

My graduate training is primarily in narrative therapy, and my approach is to engage in self-exploration by taking an outside, curious perspective of ourselves and our stories, gain greater insight into the events that have shaped us, enrich our stories by recognizing our resilience, and use that knowledge and perspective to better define what we would like our futures to be.

We do not live in isolation, and our relationships to others and to our communities and culture influence us in many ways. Relational therapy aims to understand how the relationships in our lives and cultural/systemic forces shape who we are, and how we are doing in turn influences our relationships. The therapeutic relationship offers a direct experiential opportunity for us to explore and work on relationship dynamics.

Rather than having one solid personality, we have multiple internal parts or subpersonalities that developed to help us cope with intense situations and have taken on extreme thoughts, feelings or behaviors. This can look like getting flooded suddenly by anxiety, an internal debate that goes in circles, a highly critical voice, an addictive behavior, or a physical sensation. With IFS, we work to get to know and appreciate our parts so they can take on more helpful roles in our current life.

I enjoy helping both teens and adults on their gender identity journey. I'm happy to help explore gender and how that intersects with other aspects of your life. I have also spent years writing letters of support for individual seeking gender affirming HRT and top, bottom and reconstruction surgeries. I am also happy to help people seeking gender-affirming surgeries such as radical breast reductions or gender nullification.