Portland Therapy Center
Sasha Strong

Sasha Strong (they/them)

Licensed Professional Counselor

PhD, LPC

I help queer, trans, non-binary, and Autistic folks overcome life challenges using embodiment, mindfulness, and spiritual integration.

Client Status

not accepting clients

Contact

503-498-8124

4531 SE Belmont Street

Suite 316

Portland, 97215

Email Website

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $250-$300

Provides free initial consultation

Provides telehealth services

Practicing Since: 2015

Languages: English, Français

Services

  • Individual
  • Group

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket
  • Out of Network
  • Columbia Pacific CCO
  • Jackson Care Connect
  • OHP CareOregon/HealthShare
  • PacificSource
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My Ideal Client

Are you looking for therapy that can support you in the uniqueness of who you are? We all have rough times sometimes, and this world is complicated! I'd be happy to help you integrate all the dimensions of your being in a personalized process that suits you. In addition to working with trans, queer, non-binary, gender-diverse, neuroqueer, and Autistic adults, I enjoy helping therapists and therapist trainees integrate their personal work and their professional identity.

My Background and Approach

My view of therapy is grounded in the perspective of brilliant sanity: all beings have an innate wakefulness that underlies any suffering and confusion. I use Hakomi, IFS, DBT, humanistic, and trauma-informed approaches to help you find a new relationship with your basic goodness. I like to co-create an individualized approach to therapy by drawing on what I have studied and practiced and adapting that to your preferences and interests. Basically, I think that what we should do in therapy is what works best for you! I work from a neuro-affirming, anti-oppression, and non-pathologizing stance. While I am open to providing you with a diagnosis if you wish (and we may need to do so in order to bill insurance), I operate in a strength-based model that celebrates your resources, resilience, and wisdom.

My Personal Beliefs and Interests

I'm interested in building queer community and helping queer and trans folks overcome stigma, erasure, and internalized oppression. I try to use my academic status and professional position to advance equity and access for queer, trans, and multiply marginalized folks. I think providing access to care is much more important that gatekeeping around gender. I'm also interested in psychedelic assisted therapy, harm reduction, and cognitive liberty. I view these medicines as powerful tools for healing, and I'm interested in helping people integrate these psychospiritual experiences. I'm a late-identified Autistic person with low support needs and I enjoy helping people unmask / learn to mask strategically and on purpose. I believe in and enjoy the emancipatory power of pleasure. This includes touch, sexuality, and the many fun things we get to do as human animals. I enjoy cycling, camping, hiking, cooking, and reading. I speak French, and I'm learning Spanish.

Techniques I Use

Specialties

  • Hakomi External link

    I use Hakomi to help you access the wisdom of the body in the present moment, and to overcome your obstacles in a non-violent way that respects the organicity of who you are. Hakomi can involve touch, but doesn't have to, and touch is always totally consensual and optional. I trained in Hakomi from 2010 to 2018 and completed a post-Master's internship at the M.E.T.A. Counseling Clinic in Portland, OR under the supervision of Donna Roy.

  • Internal Family Systems (IFS) External link

    Self-energy can be a very powerful way to access healing and wisdom. I'm an IFS-informed therapist, and IFS fits in well with my experiental, somatic, and mindfulness-based psychotherapy training. IFS views having internal parts as normal and natural. In this view, all parts have wisdom and an important 'part' to play, and IFS helps people harmonize their inner relationships with parts, the Self, and the 'inner family.' I love IFS and I find that it works really well for some folks.

  • Mindfulness-based External link

    I use mindfulness to help clients extend curiosity, openness, acceptance, and love towards their experience. I trained in Contemplative Psychotherapy, which integrates mindfulness, counseling, and Buddhist psychology. I am interested in embodied, full-person approaches to mindfulness— not the spiritually bypassing type. ;). I view mindfulness as supported by meditation practice, but also accessible through other attitudes and practices, such as interpersonal neurobiology.

  • Relational  External link

    The therapeutic relationship is an opportunity to explore relational dynamics in a new, experimental content. My training includes attachment-based, interpersonal, and experiential approaches to using the therapeutic encounter to give clients new options for showing up in relationships and with themselves. My clients matter to me, and I try to communicate that by participating in a healing relationship in which we each get to show up as we are, without demands.

  • Transpersonal External link

    For clients who are interested, I integrate spirituality and transpersonal perspectives into therapy. My graduate training has included experiential and didactic coursework on transpersonal psychology and integrative approaches to healing. This orientation helps me provide support with psychedelic integration and working with extraordinary experiences

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Gender Identity External link

    Do you need a letter, or support on your gender journey? You've come to the right place. I identify as nonbinary/genderqueer and transfemme, and I understand the complexities of gender and transition. I've completed professional training in gender-affirmative care and I have extensive experience working with trans, non-binary, and other gender-diverse folks. I get it, and you shouldn't have to educate your therapist about gender!

  • LGBTQ Issues External link

    I practice affirmative therapy with queer folks, and I have worked with all sorts of clients, including lesbian, gay, bisexual/pansexual, trans, non-binary, queer, genderqueer, Two Spirit, poly, and kinky folks. I love working with my community. I'm a founding member of the Oregon Association of LGBT Issues in Counseling and a member of TPATH.

  • Autism External link

    I'm an #actuallyautistic therapist. I've struggled a lot in my life with issues that are better explained by the neurodiversity paradigm, and I'm really interested in helping clients gain freedom and flexibility around masking, self-understanding, and self-acceptance. I'm on my own path of neurodivergent healing, and I'd be happy to share with you some of the things that I have found helpful. I also have experience helping AuDHD folks, although I don't personally identify with that label.

  • Personal Growth External link

    As humans, we have the ability to heal and grow throughout the lifespan. I'd like to help you reach your full potential and deepen your sense of being a fully human being, whatever next horizon is calling you now.

  • Spirituality External link

    Have you had important transpersonal experiences, yet you struggle to weave them together in your life? I can help! There's room for all kinds of meaningful experiences in our human journey. I'd be happy to help you make meaning and integrate your spiritual and entheogenic experiences with your everyday life.

Contact Sasha

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