Portland Therapy Center
Whitney Summerer

Whitney Summerer (she/her)

Professional Counselor Associate

MA

Supervisor: Sarah Patee, LMFT License #: T2075

Therapy for couples & individuals navigating relational complexity, ENM/non-monogamy, communication struggles & disconnection.

Client Status

accepting clients

Contact

5034546311

917 SW Oak St

Suite 417

Portland, 97205

Email Website

At a Glance

Me

Rate: $100-$200

Provides free initial consultation

Practicing Since: 2022

Languages: English

Services

  • Individual
  • Relationship

Insurances Accepted

  • Out of Pocket

My Ideal Client

My ideal clients are curious, insightful people interested in deepening their self-understanding and improving their relationships. Whether navigating ethical non-monogamy/polyamory, relationship challenges, grief, life transitions, or questions of identity, my clients value vulnerable exploration both inside and outside of session. I welcome creatives, LGBTQ+, neurodivergent folks, and non-conformists.

My Approach to Helping

My approach is warm, relational, collaborative, and depth-oriented. I help individuals, couples, and relationship systems understand the deeper emotional patterns underneath conflict, anxiety, shutdown, resentment, grief, or disconnection. Rather than focusing only on surface-level communication tools, we explore the attachment needs, protective strategies, family patterns, and core beliefs shaping your relationships and sense of self. My work draws from attachment theory, Emotionally Focused Therapy, family systems, psychodynamic therapy, narrative therapy, somatic awareness, and IFS-inspired parts work. I am LGBTQ+ affirming, neurodivergent-positive, sex-positive, and affirming of polyamory, ethical non-monogamy, and diverse relationship structures. My goal is to help you move toward deeper clarity, self-trust, emotional connection, and a more genuine sense of belonging within yourself and your relationships.

My Personal Beliefs and Interests

I believe therapy is most powerful when it makes room for honesty, complexity, and meaningful connection. My work is rooted in attachment theory, family systems, feminism, anti-oppression values, and a deep respect for each person’s lived experience. As a queer, polyamorous person myself, I understand how important it is to have support that is affirming, nuanced, and free from assumptions about what love, family, identity, or healing “should” look like. I am especially passionate about supporting LGBTQ+ clients, bisexual clients, polyamorous and ENM clients, neurodivergent folks, creatives, and people who do not fit neatly into conventional boxes. I became a therapist because I believe our stories, relationships, grief, identities, and early experiences shape us deeply, and that healing often begins when we can understand ourselves with more compassion, context, and choice.

Techniques I Use

Specialties

  • Emotionally Focused External link

    I use EFT to help clients understand the emotional patterns underneath conflict, distance, and disconnection. In couples work, this often means identifying the negative cycle partners get caught in and helping each person express the softer attachment needs underneath defensiveness, withdrawal, criticism, or shutdown.

  • Attachment Theory External link

    I use an attachment lens to explore how early relationships and past relational experiences shape the way clients seek closeness, safety, reassurance, autonomy, and repair. This helps clients better understand their protective patterns and build more secure ways of relating to themselves and others.

  • Family Systems External link

    I look at clients within the larger context of their family, relationships, culture, and life experiences. Family systems work helps us explore inherited roles, communication patterns, emotional rules, and generational dynamics that may still be shaping present-day relationships.

  • Psychodynamic  External link

    I use psychodynamic therapy to help clients explore the deeper roots of recurring patterns, emotional blocks, and relational struggles. This often includes looking at unconscious beliefs, early wounds, defenses, and the ways old relational templates get repeated in current life and love.

Issues I Treat

Specialties

  • Relationship / Marriage Issues External link

    I help clients understand and shift the cycles that keep them stuck in conflict, distance, resentment, or emotional disconnection. Together, we work toward clearer communication, deeper intimacy, more secure attachment, and more meaningful repair.

  • Polyamorous and Open Relationships External link

    I provide polyamory- and ENM-affirming therapy for individuals, couples, and relationship systems navigating jealousy, boundaries, attachment needs, communication, agreements, identity, and repair. My goal is to help clients build relationships that are honest, sustainable, and rooted in consent, care, and emotional clarity.

  • LGBTQ Issues External link

    I offer LGBTQ+ affirming therapy that honors the complexity of identity, relationships, family systems, belonging, grief, sexuality, and self-trust. I work especially well with queer, bisexual, polyamorous, neurodivergent, and non-conforming clients seeking support that feels nuanced and non-pathologizing.

  • Loss or Grief External link

    I support clients moving through grief, ambiguous loss, relational loss, family estrangement, identity transitions, and major life changes. My approach helps clients make space for what has been lost while also finding meaning, continuity, and connection as life changes.

  • ADHD External link

    I support clients in understanding how ADHD can shape emotional regulation, communication, conflict, follow-through, sensitivity, and relationship dynamics. My approach is compassionate, practical, and focused on reducing shame while building insight, structure, and more supportive relational patterns.

Contact Whitney

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