Portland Therapy Center
Jason Schaefer

Jason Schaefer (he/him)

Professional Counselor Associate

MA

Tired of masking? Late-diagnosed or just feel like a misfit? Therapy with me is for the weird, the wired, and the worn the fuck out.

Client Status

accepting clients

Contact

503-893-5283

Portland, 97209

Email Website

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $150-$195

Provides free initial consultation

Practicing Since: 2021

Services

  • Individual
  • Group
  • Relationship

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket
  • OHP Open Card

My Ideal Client

I work with adults who’ve always felt off-script — maybe late-diagnosed ADHD or Autism, maybe still unsure. Queer, trans, deep-feeling misfits welcome. If you’re tired of people-pleasing, over-masking, and wondering why connection feels so goddamned hard, we can unravel that together. You don’t need a neat label or perfect self-awareness to start. Just curiosity — and a little willingness to stop pretending.

My Approach to Helping

You won’t find a rigid therapy model here. I don’t do worksheets. I don’t treat you like a broken machine in need of fixing. I listen. Closely. I reflect. I offer metaphors, stories, and sometimes my own experiences — not to hijack your session, but to meet you in the gray space where healing actually happens. I work best with people who want to dig deep into who they are and how they move through the world. You don’t have to be in crisis. Maybe you’re just finally ready to stop contorting yourself to fit a life that never felt built for you. We’ll untangle that urge to disappear, decode your patterns, and start uncovering who you are beneath the masking and survival strategies. I meet people with respect, curiosity, and zero pressure to perform. You don’t have to “do therapy right” here. You just have to show up.

My Values as a Therapist

I don’t believe healing means becoming more “normal.” I’m not here to help you conform or fix yourself to fit a broken culture. I believe in deep, liberatory work — the kind that honors your weirdness, your contradictions, your hunger for something more authentic. I value honesty, irreverence, and mutual respect. I see therapy as a space to unmask, unlearn, and fucking exhale. I’m fat, neurodivergent, and queer-aligned, and I don’t believe in neutrality. If you’ve spent most of your life studying how others move through the world just to survive, I get it. This space is for you to stop performing and start exploring who you really are. No persona required.

Techniques I Use

Specialties

  • Depth Therapy External link

    This is not a surface-level tune-up. Depth therapy explores the unconscious patterns, metaphors, and buried stories that shape how you move through the world. It’s about going beneath the scripts you were handed and finding what’s actually yours. We work with dreams, symbolism, and the wisdom hidden in your stuckness — not just to function better, but to live more authentically.

  • Psychodynamic  External link

    Psychodynamic therapy looks at how your early relationships, unconscious beliefs, and defenses still echo in your current life. Together we’ll unpack how past survival strategies show up in your present — not to judge them, but to understand them. Insight, reflection, and curiosity are central here. This isn’t quick-fix work, but deep change rarely is.

  • Humanistic  External link

    I see you as a whole person — not a diagnosis, not a symptom checklist. Humanistic therapy is grounded in respect, presence, and your inner drive toward authenticity. I don’t treat you like a problem to be solved. I listen, I witness, and I reflect as you come into deeper relationship with your own truth.

  • Attachment Theory External link

    Your early experiences shape how you connect, trust, and respond in relationships — including the one we build in therapy. I draw from attachment theory to help you understand your patterns, feel safer in connection, and unlearn the old scripts that keep you stuck in push-pull cycles or emotional shutdown.

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Autism External link

    I work with adults who’ve been diagnosed late — or suspect they might be autistic but never fit the stereotypes. If you’ve spent a lifetime masking, mimicking, or feeling like you’re on the outside looking in, we’ll explore how to unmask safely, claim your identity, and build a life that actually fits. No pretending, no pressure to “do it right.” Just space to be your full damn self. And if you’re still figuring out who that is, even better.

  • ADHD External link

    Forget the productivity hacks. I work with people who are tired of beating themselves up over “executive dysfunction” and wondering why life feels like one endless to-do list they can’t keep up with. We’ll explore how your brain actually works, untangle shame, and figure out how to live in a way that respects your energy, rhythms, and truth — not some neurotypical blueprint.

Contact Jason

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