I'm a pagan, and I want to support people in their spiritual practices as part of therapy. This grew out of my training through Embodied Awareness, a transpersonal psychology program. Transpersonal work treats spirituality as part of the psyche, and approaches trauma through spiritual trance states, which can be remarkably effective, especially for people with a spiritual bent.

I'm also an ex-Christian. I was part of a movement called Armenianism, which holds that God respects free will and that we're in relationship with God, which is the opposite of Calvinism's predestination, for any theology nerds reading this. I identified as a mystic Christian and was drawn to the writings of Jean Piaget, Thomas Merton, and Father Lawrence. Practices like silent meditation and listening prayer have stayed with me. People carrying spiritual trauma tend to find their way to me, and I think I'm a healing presence for them.

I'm also a practicing Quaker. We sit in silence together, in the meeting hall or over Zoom, for an hour each week, sharing what feels worth sharing. The practice is to meditate, wait for something worth saying to surface, distill it to its essence, then stand, speak briefly, and sit back down so the group can hold it in silence. Quakers are pacifists, often leftist in their activism, and rooted in deep listening and democratic process. The aim is to bridge divides rather than deepen them. It's a welcoming tradition.