Charlie Blackmar (He/Him)

My Background and Approach

As a therapist my goal is to support you in your healing journey. I approach therapy with curiosity and authenticity. I believe therapy is collaborative. You are the expert in your own life; my job is to help figure out what’s going on. I want to learn about your experiences. I also believe deeply in the power of therapeutic relationship as a key part of healing and discovery. With a warm, trusting, and supportive therapeutic relationship, you can start to explore underlying issues and patterns impacting your wellbeing. Beyond the therapeutic relationship my approach is trauma informed and draws from cognitive behavioral, narrative, and values based approaches. All of this is a fancy way of saying lets figure out what’s going on and some possible solutions that work for you. Over time we can move deeper to explore underlying experiences, history, and patterns in your life.

My Personal Beliefs and Interests

I spent over fifteen years in community mental health working in a variety of direct care and organizational leadership roles. This experience deeply informs my practice. I believe everyone deserves access to high-quality and compassionate mental health care. I also recognize the huge impact social determinants of health have on care. Therapy is an important part of the puzzle but it’s not the only part. I believe in compassion, empathy, and courage. Therapy takes courage and can be scary. I always affirm and validate this. I believe in anti-oppressive practice and the importance of recognizing power, privilege, and positionality. I recognize that our society has problems and that racism, sexasism, ableism, homophobia, transphobia are all very real and may be impacting your mental health. I also believe people have remarkable strength and resiliency.