Nurture Abundance
Mental Health Therapy to Help You Thrive
Experience What it’s Like to be Seen and Celebrated as Your Whole Self
I’m Kawa, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker who provides teletherapy to adult residents of Oregon. I identify as a queer, multiracial (Japanese, Chinese, White), sex positive, body positive, kink friendly, cisgender woman. I love gardening, my cats, and my BIPOC and QTPOC community.
My mother died when I was 16 and my world shattered. Therapy was an important part of picking up the pieces and making sense of my identity. As someone who has both seen a therapist, and provided therapy to others, I know what it’s like to be vulnerable and how hard it can be to grow, stabilize, and change. I will provide gentle, honest, and non-judgmental support throughout our work together.
I graduated from Portland State University in 2016 and have worked in Community Mental Health (mental health therapy for adults who are also experiencing poverty and trauma) since 2015. Prior to becoming a therapist, I worked in the nonprofit world for 10 years on issues including reproductive justice, anti-racism, LGBTQIA+ rights, pain management and advocacy, and making social justice work intersectional.
Working with me, you will get the support and nurturing that you need to live the full life you've always dreamed of.
You Are
You are someone that lives an alternative lifestyle. You don’t fit into society’s norms and maybe you don’t even want to. You may be BIPOC, LGTBQIA+, QTPOC, kinky, polyamorous, ethically non-monogamous, intersectional, or neurodivergent. There can be great joy and pride in being different, but difference can also be met with oppression. I know what it’s like to feel othered, how it can effect self esteem, your ability to connect with others, and can lead to trauma, isolation, sadness, depression, anxiety, anger, grief, hopelessness and confusion.
I want to help you reclaim your power. I believe that there is healing in telling your truth loud and proud. I want to listen to your story. I want to validate your existence, help you reconnect with your own values and worldview, your joy, motivation, and community. I want to see and celebrate you as your whole, intersectional, and beautiful self.
Symptoms you might be experiencing
Anxiety Depression Trauma Negative Self-Esteem Grief Loss Hopelessness Emptiness Anger
Difficulty Communicating Lack of Connection Overwhelm Oppression Confusion Pain Low Energy
Tools I Use In Therapy
Anti-oppressive practices
Attachment-Based Therapy
Centering BIPOC/LGBTQIA+ experiences
Client-Centered Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Critical Race Theory
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)
Feminist Theory
Grief processing
Healing from internalized oppression
Schedule a Consultation Today
Social Justice practices
Strength-based Therapy
Systems Theory
Trauma Informed Care
Unlearning white supremacist culture
Anti Oppressive Practice and Therapy
I am committed to being anti-racist and anti-oppressive in my life and in my work as a therapist. I help clients heal from and identify shame and trauma and other symptoms of oppression. I make space to actively explore white privilege, economic privilege, gender privilege, passing privilege and additional forms of privilege in session and in my own life. I am a life long learner and will do my best to not ask you to “teach me” about your identities as part of our work together. I educate myself, and I know I’m not perfect. I am open to feedback, reflection, and admitting I’m wrong.
We may not share the same identities, but I have a foundation of understanding my own “otherness” and hope you won’t feel you have to start at square one with me.
Anti Oppressive Therapy also means trying to minimize the power dynamic between you and me in our sessions. I have specialized training, yes, but you are the expert in your own life. I want to harness your expertise and support you in the growth you want to achieve.
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“As they become known and accepted to us, our feeling and the honest exploration of them become sanctuaries and spawning grounds for the most radical and daring of ideas”
- Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider
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“We are fully dependent on each other for the possibility of being understood and without this understanding we are not intelligible, we do not make sense, we are not solid, visible, integrated; we are lacking.”
-Maria Lugones, Pilgrimages, Peregrinajes
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“A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives - our skin color, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longings - all fuse to create a politic born out of necessity. Here, we attempt to bridge the contradictions in our experiences...We do this by bridging and naming our selves and by telling our stories in our own words.”
-Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, This Bridge Called My Back
