Gene-Leigh Wheeler, MS, LPC Verified listing

I am a liberation therapist at Chosen Path Collective, and a bit of a fangirl for Frantz Fanon and Ignacio Martín-Baró. I’m a Black Queer woman with a baking problem, and a bit of a green thumb. I believe that there is no way in the world that the totality of our mental health can be summed up by a DSM diagnosis – particularly if you are a marginalized individual.

I once had a doctor tell me ‘I am going to give you these meds. Take them. You are going to have panic attacks for the rest of your life. You may have them every day or not. You may not have another one for 30 years. Who’s to say?’ And she got on an airplane and went on vacation to Italy for 6 weeks. And she didn’t tell me who was covering my case.

Now me, being a graduate student in psychology, knew that this wasn’t how this was supposed to go. I never wanted anyone that worked with me to feel as afraid and overwhelmed as I felt in that moment.

I believe that when working with folks, one has to take into account, not just the person in their entirety, but all-encompassing situations that may impact functioning, understanding, being, and existing.

Validation of someone’s lived experience is key. Deep breathing is cool, but that doesn’t help with cops are *actually* out here killing Black people by the thousands. It’s awesome when we can journal, but that doesn’t stop ICE from snatching people off the streets. It’s sure great that we can make lists of our coping skills, but the Trans people are losing rights left and right.

If we as therapists are unwilling, and unable to take the totality of a person into consideration, including their environment, oppressions, and marginalizations, we only get a very small part of the story.

How can I hope to help someone if I can’t empathize with their concern of ICE, fear of the police, or the elimination of rights? All of those things (and more) directly impact mental health. There is no amount of deep breathing that will take these things away. But that does not mean that they are unimportant.

I am informal. I curse a lot (unless you ask me not to). I am not above being corrected, and I expect that from clients. I engage folks side-by-side, and not in a hierarchy: I work *with* you, you have hired me to do so. I am knowledgeable, but you are the expert on you. No one knows you better than you know yourself, and I will die on that hill.