Yasmin Jordan (she/her)

I was first introduced to Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) as a former client taking trauma-informed therapy. As someone who had a hard time coping with big emotions or overwhelming experiences, DBT's framework and skills allowed me to take a break from overwhelming and often overstimulating sensations that I was experiencing physically and emotionally. While studying social work, and clinical practice, I explored DBT further through my studies, practicum, and now private practice.

I approach therapy and explore one's identities and relationships through a parts framework from family systems. In my studies and practicing clinical work, I facilitate and collaborate with the client throughout the process of connecting emotions, sensations, thoughts, and actions, which through exploration the client can find insight, understanding, or themes that pop up. What messages do internal voices, statements, and mirrors reflect on you, and where do they come from?

I love the open, collaborative process of motivational interviewing. It allows clients and the therapist to work together. There is no judgment. It is rooted in curiosity, exploration and if possible, understanding. Meeting my clients where they are, I ask open-ended questions to facilitate dialogue and exploration that may prompt insight, direction, and connections for the client. It is rooted in tapping into the client' intrinsic qualities and inner strengths as the experts in their own life.

Learning is endless. One must be political to have a world free of cultural and systemic oppression. I became open to organizing work straight out of grad school, where I worked with mothers in a head start center. I continued my learning after leaving the organizing world and engaged with others on social media, growing my knowledge and praxis in liberation work. In my approach, I facilitate and co-learn and co-create with clients. You are the expert of your own lived experiences and story.

Grief, loss, and bereavement are a world of their own. It is an ocean of emotions and sensations with waves that may be gentle or strong and choppy where we lose our footing as if consumed by it. It also provides insight into what is lost: a loved one, a community, home, land, memories, routines, and safety. How do we cope? We are told we grow around our grief, and if we are to grow, it means having a support system that allows for all the experiences that come with loss.

Many have experienced PTSD in parts and points of their lives. The core of trauma work is safety, respect, dignity, and affirming humanity in the therapeutic relationship and space. You deserve a therapeutic space and dynamic where there are no surprises, no judgment, and you are not pushed to do, say, or decide anything you are not ready for. As a therapist, I'm with you if you are activated, triggered, or over-stimulated by physical sensations. There's no judgment, only support.