Katherine Zebertavage

Therapy is a process. When looking for a therapist, you want someone who can see your goals and provide insight into how they can become reality. Therapy isn’t something that you can just come into one session and be magically healed. When I say therapy is a process, I mean, that therapy comes with challenges, but also rewards. If you can be completely open and honest in this process, I can promise that I will not only work to be a guiding light in this fog you are walking through, but also someone who is going to challenge you and help you bring your inner dialogue out.

When I am working with a client, I will bring strategies that you can implement, challenging questions, and overwhelming support. There are going to be days where you may feel like giving up on your ideas, dreams, or passions but I want to remind you that resilience isn’t just about being able to take pain, but resilience is fighting for a future you want.

I work with a multitude of specialities including beauty standards, colorism, stress from the political climate, trauma responses, parenting and how your childhood impacts this, social anxiety. Some of the specialties that I focus on are Beauty standard/colorism. We live in a society where European standards seem to be the beauty standard but beauty comes in different shades as well as different shapes. It’s not society‘s job to tell you what makes you beautiful, it’s your own job to remind you that you are beautiful the way you are And how you interpret that in your day-to-day life. Identity also plays a part in my specialties. Being a biracial woman myself, I hold space for Multiple aspects of identity. Every person you know has intersectional pieces of their identity and what I work on is understanding those pieces and how they work to frame your decisions, choices and life.

Working through trauma experiences can be difficult. Things that you may not even think to be triggers such as certain sounds you hear, a song that plays at a restaurant, or even the smell of a cologne can completely change your mood. I specialize in working through trauma experiences due to incest. Especially if these experiences are continuing to impact you through the role of a parent. As a parent, you’re already going through mental gymnastics, whether or not you should let your kid out to be at a sleepover party or finding that they have a group of friends that were similar to yours as a kid. Rather than internalizing these fears, I want to create an open discussion where we can process your feelings and thoughts, give you validity to your emotions, but also give you the better understanding that all these emotions still impact your child.

Lastly, in the climate that we’re in, politics should not be an issue we avoid. Whether you are on the right or left side, there are things that are happening in current news today that may be impacting you emotionally, financially, and maybe even physically. As your therapist, I’m here to not only just listen to you but also give you the chance to have your voice heard even if you have family with opposing views, friends with opposing views or even neighbors.

The therapeutic process does not need to be one that is shortened by fear. Coming into a therapy session, I want you to feel like you have room to talk and that someone is actually listening. This isn’t just an hour of your time that you hope your therapist is making it a safe space but it’s an hour of your time that you were working towards a goal, something that you want in life. I don’t want to just create a safe space for you, I want to help you create a space where your inner thoughts can be heard, validated and respected.