“I am buoyant and expansive and uncontainable—but i always was so, only i never knew it!”
Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
Hello! I am Nisha, and I am excited by your interest in my practice. It will be my honor to journey with you, as you discover your truest self—the most authentic expression of you. But first, a little about me—
As a clinical social worker and psychotherapist, I help clients uncover areas for growth. With a compassionate gaze, clients are able to see themselves clearly, and engage with the parts of themselves they may have shunned and shamed. Clients learn to hold space for the complexities of their human experiences and deeply feel the full range of emotions. I teach clients the gifts of vulnerability and the power of self-forgiveness, utilizing an eclectic blend of modalities. But most importantly, I am guided by the client— your knowledge and your experiences. The latter truly embodies my philosophy of clinical practice. Oh, and for that, I must briefly reminisce on what the Rwanda locals reflected about their experiences with Western mental health experts:
"Their practice did not involve being outside in the sun, where you begin to feel better. There was no music or drumming to get your blood flowing again ... so that the entire community could come together to try to lift you up and bring you back to joy. There was no acknowledgement of the depression as something invasive and external that could actually be cast out again. Instead, they would take people one at a time into these dingy little rooms and have them sit around for an hour or so and talk about bad things that had happened to them. We had to ask them to leave "(Solomon, 2014).
Like the locals of Rwanda, I truly believe healing properties exist in nature, as they do in our foods. But more importantly, it is my belief that failure to hold space for your entire self can result in a marginalizing of who you are, and the strengths that you bring to the therapeutic encounter. It is precisely for these reasons that therapy must encompass the whole person. It must begin with self-knowledge, situated in the historical, physical, and cultural contexts in which you exist.
As a non-judgemental observer, the healing begins with my witnessing and inquiry into your inner being, in relation to your external world, as informed by you. It's now your turn......
Let’s begin, shall we?