Jane Flanagan (they/them)

My Approach to Helping

My approach is integrative, creative, experiential, and expansive. Different from traditional talk therapies, I may invite you into guided mindful awareness to explore your experiences from your whole self— in your integrated body-mind. To express and process what is found, we may use art media like drawing, painting, movement, drama, sculpting, collage, and more. Even when exploring past or future, I orient to how you are in relationship to these in the present. The end of sessions lend time for integrating, resourcing, and transitioning. I may offer practices or resources for between sessions, as much of healing work takes hold in our daily pattern shifts. My formal education includes: a BA in Anthropology, an MS in Primatology, and a Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling. Some training areas that inform my practice include: Hakomi therapy, Tamalpa's Life/Art process, expressive art and movement, nonviolent communication, somatic trauma healing, and mindful awareness.

My Personal Beliefs and Interests

The intersections of your unique identity, experiences, hopes, and present state are are vital to who you are and how you heal. All parts of you— your history, body, values, relationships, and struggles— are real and welcome here. The systems and cultures we exist within shape our experiences of marginalization, oppression, privilege, resource, resistance, and all else in our lives. Our identities and strategies develop from these, and I aim to honor you for who you are, from where I am. I believe that when we can be supported to feel safe and present with our full experience, we can begin to be in relationship to ourselves in new ways, opening up pathways for healing and connection. This may be through providing a missing experience, expanding modes of communicating, re-patterning through developing practices, or simply expressing something that needs to be heard, seen, or felt in a safely held container. Curiosity, authenticity, and nonviolence are always part of this container.