Portland Therapy Center
Kat Canada

Kat Canada (they/them)

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

LCSW, LICSW

I offer relational, radical, and collaborative psychotherapy to children, teens, and young adults under 30. I also see parents and families.

Client Status

accepting clients

Contact

971-200-5254

Email Website

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $50-$200

Provides free initial consultation

Practicing Since: 2018

Languages: English

Services

  • Individual
  • Family
  • Child
  • Teen

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket
  • Out of Network
  • Aetna
  • MODA

My Ideal Client

I work with folks who want to understand themselves (or their kids) better, wish to explore their identities in an affirming space, want more satisfying relationships with others but aren’t sure where to start, or who want to feel safer in their mind and body while navigating our overwhelming world. Many of my clients are trans, queer, neurodivergent, 2E, or experience other intersecting forms of marginalization, and struggle with trauma, dissociation, suicidal thoughts, and self-harm.

My Approach to Helping

I provide individual therapy and can offer family therapy and parent sessions when needed. I work from a primarily relational psychodynamic lens, balanced by community and systems-oriented perspectives, such as critical race, queer, and liberation-centered theories. When it is helpful, I am also able to draw from and integrate a variety of other modalities as needed-- such as existential or values-centered practices-- and I use transformative justice/community accountability and Collaborative Problem Solving practices when supporting families in resolving conflicts beyond hierarchical or punitive ways of relating. I have had advanced training through WPATH for gender-affirming care and can help with letters of support when needed. I have also completed additional training in play therapy with young children, as well as psychoanalytic psychotherapy for clients who wish to go deeper in our work together.

My Values as a Therapist

As a queer and trans person myself, I’m aware that many of the concerns I support people with can inform one another and overlap, and I am here for you in your full complexity. Therapy can be transformative when it helps us discover or reclaim ways to honor your curiosity, liveliness, and connection in relationship. I can help by listening carefully, encouraging deeper processing, engaging playfully, and sitting together with the wild and tangled energies of your experience.

Techniques I Use

Specialties

  • Psychodynamic  External link

    I maintain my footing in sessions by working from a modern psychodynamic perspective, which helps me be available to pay attention to the various ways you might show up in a session, including dynamics that are rooted in past experiences or ways of being that seem contradictory, ambiguous, or surprising. This means I view you as the expert of your life and work to become an expert in listening and offering back what I hear for your consideration.

  • Psychoanalytic  External link

    I have advanced training in interpersonal psychoanalytic psychotherapy through the William Alanson White Institute, and my ongoing engagement with contemporary/relational psychoanalytic theory supports my practice.

  • Family Therapy External link

    I have training in family systems theory and utilize this, as well as Collaborative Problem Solving, transformative justice, and relational psychodynamic/psychoanalytic principles to support parents and families (including separated or blended families, polycules, or other expansive family structures) with a variety of needs. I particularly enjoy supporting families with "launch" related needs or concerns for emerging adults.

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Child or Adolescent Issues External link

    I provide integrative, relationally focused psychotherapy to children, teens, and young adults, with specialized experience supporting neurodivergent and/or LGBTQIA+ kids and youth. I have significant experience supporting children and teens who have experienced trauma, family disruptions, anxiety/mood concerns, and self-harm or suicidality.

  • LGBTQ Issues External link

    I am a queer & trans provider who offers affirming care to other LGBTQ+ folks. I believe we have the best shot at understanding ourselves when we have space to both know who we are in our journeys and still surprise ourselves along the way. Therapy can provide a safe-enough container for confusion, ambivalence, surprise, and delight to emerge when this complexity gets to co-exist with the sovereignty we each hold over our self-definition.

  • Autism External link

    I can provide affirming support to autistic, AuDHD, 2E, and/or otherwise neurodivergent people from a disability justice and equity lens.

Contact Kat

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