Mission & Core Values
Why We're Here:
Resilience Counseling LLC is a group private practice committed to providing effective, trauma-informed care to communities historically marginalized within our healthcare system. We prioritize creating a collaborative and non-judgmental space for BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and other marginalized communities to understand and improve their mental health within the capacity of an out-patient setting. Intentional about Disability Justice; we reject the idea of the therapist as a "blank slate" and instead embrace our intersectional identities and related experiences as therapeutic tools. While we can't always change dysfunctional & broken systems, we will help you navigate them and fight for you along the way.
Together, we work with our clients to navigate challenging times and cultivate hope for the future. The capacity to heal lives within us all- and we all deserve acceptance and feeling valid in the care that helps us find it.
The capacity to heal already exists within you.
While our clinicians have different specializations, we all adhere to a set of core values that brings us together as a group.
Below are some seeds we hope to plant:
Principals of Practice & Core Values:
1
Anti-Racism
Resilience Counseling LLC seeks to provide a safe place for BIPOC clients to care for their mental health; through an ongoing commitment to recognizing and actively unlearning racist ideologies. Resilience Counseling LLC is also committed to hiring and listening to BIPOC clinicians. We believe that Black Lives Matter.
2
Health At Every Size (HAES)
You can be healthy at any size, and body size does not reflect health (or lack thereof). We are anti-diet culture and take care to monitor clients for signs of disordered eating. *Please note we are not an E.D. treatment facility, and may need to refer out folks with active eating disorders for more intensive treatment.
3
LGBTQIA+ Affirming
Founded by a Queer clinician, Resilience Counseling LLC is strongly allied with the LGBTQIA+ community. Select clinicians specialize in LGBTQIA+ concerns & offer extensive experience working with trans & gender non-conforming folks.
4
Trauma-Informed
Simply put, our services are informed by the fact that clients have likely experienced some kind of trauma in their lifetime. While going through trauma does not mean you have PTSD; we practice in a way that focuses on creating emotional safety. Select clinicians specialize in the treatment of PTSD, and offer a trauma-informed version of Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) for PTSD.
5
Cultural Awareness
Staying curious is key; we can try to learn as much as we can about cultures different from our own, but we'll never know everything about everyone. Instead, we focus on staying open to learning, committed to listening, and accepting of all the different intersections of your identity.
6
Sex Positive
Kink and Poly affirming; we're a no judgment zone here. Resilience Counseling LLC also welcomes sex workers to our practice because sex work is real work.
7
Harm Reduction
Harm reduction is often defined as "any positive change". When someone engages in high-risk behaviors, we value working with them to reduce their level of risk while also striving for positive change. We usually hear about harm reduction as it relates to substance use, but the same logic can apply to many other risky behaviors or situations too.
When I created my own practice and later expanded to a group employing other clinicians; I never expected what I'd come to find and where it would eventually take me. Taking on these ventures gave me first-hand experience with common business, managerial and clinical practices; finally understanding how it all functions together shone a light on how systems of oppression are embedded within my own profession. I began to reflect on the counseling practices as reflective of society at large, its' origins, and the functions it serves today. To not perpetuate harm, clinicians must continually reckon with the dark, corrupt foundations that the mental health industry is built upon: White Supremacy, Patriarchy, and Capitalism. In response, I largely let go of my aspirations for owning a successful group practice and have shifted my focus entirely. Reoriented towards the collective and away from individualism; restructuring the business was necessary to keep its integrity. While I am continuing my clinical work with clients, I am also moving forward with clearer motives and goals for expansion. The power of the collective is both spiritual and practical. It is time to reclaim our inherent right to heal in connection with each other, through community, and protected from those who profit off our isolation. Psychotherapy is the modern invention of white men. Healing is ancient, and it belongs to us all.
-Lindsay Sherman, LCPC
Truly a ground up operation, I created Resilience Counseling in Jan. 2019 and initially saw clients out of my home office. By Jan. 2021 I began hiring clinicians to build Resilience Counseling into my dream, a group practice. Yet little over a year later, I had to accept that my dream of group practice was not at all what I wanted or had envisioned. I came to understand that under our Capitalist system, the foundation of the current employer-employee relationship is a silent agreement and acceptance that each party will dehumanize the other. I realized that as long as I was in the role of an employer, my humanity, my existence as a person; would only seen by a small minority of the team I had hired. For most I was not seen as a human being, but instead as a company with endless financial resources. I entered group practice passionate about creating the workplace culture and environment that I could never find earlier in my career. This lesson, among others, were incredibly painful lesson to learn. I realized would've had to radically change how I viewed and treated employees, disconnect emotionally, and ultimately, sacrifice my core values and the clinical standards of care I uphold for clients, in order to continue on as a group practice in a sustainable way. I tried every route possible to make the group work. I re-structured, re-hired, re-wrote policies; but I ultimately had to be radically honest with myself. I cannot exist separate from my humanity. I had to walk away from a business I sacrificed nearly two years of my personal life to build. Yet, I am moving forward with the integrity of the values I initially founded this practice on still intact. Pain and hardship can gift us wisdom in return if we allow it. I've chosen to embrace this wisdom, and will hold it close to guide me as I bring Resilience Counseling into our next chapter.
I accepted that having a group practice was never meant for me, but a series of lessons I needed to learn along my path. Building up and running a group practice on my own, and on multiple occasions having folx I trusted and paid well actively work against the wellbeing of the practice, the and on multiple occasions seeing the clinicians I wanted so earnestly to create a positive work experience for me to the brink mentally, physically, spiritally, and financially; the sacrifice and hardship I experienced during this time gifted me wisdom in exchange. By later closing down the group practice I had sacrificed much to build, I maintained the integrity behind my reasons for creating a practice at all.
As we move into this next chapter, I hope to share the wisdom and insight I gained through this experience to help clinicians who are ready for independent practice but lack the guidance on how to do so. I aspire to shine light on the parts of the mental health industry that need to change, and cultivate a community invested in creating these changes.
Number 8: Ethical Practice
Therapists at Resilience Counseling LLC are held to high standards, and clients will always come first. Putting clients first is the first ethical code for both counselors (LPC and LCPC clinicians) and social workers (LSW and LCSW clinicians) in our professional code of ethics. We take that seriously here and hold folks accountable to it. Our clinical team regularly engages in clinical consultation and ongoing education as part of their agreements to work here. While clinicians manage their own schedules, we make sure clients have had a minimum of 6 months of consistency before any therapist can change their schedule that would require the client to change clinicians.
We're passionate about learning new models of therapy and improving our skills as clinicians; but we practice with integrity first and foremost. If we say we're an expert in a specific area we mean it, and we'll never use those kinds of labels just to book appointments.
And lastly- we'll never ask a client to do something we're unwilling to do ourselves. Relationships are built on trust, and clients generally get the most from therapy when they have a strong relationship with their therapist.
On De-Colonizing Mental Health
Psychotherapists at Resilience Counseling LLC are equipped to help without causing harm; harm that is rooted in the willful ignorance of white supremacy and euro-centric views within mental health. We are committed to de-colonizing mental health through continual learning, listening, and unlearning beliefs imposed by people, powers, and industries that benefit from having folks under their control.
A Few Terms:
BIPOC: Black, Indigenous, People Of Color
LGBTQIA+: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, Asexual, Plus more
HAES: Health At Every Size