Katie Kirby

Psychotherapy Specialities and Approaches

I provide individual psychotherapy for adolescents (age 14+) and adults who are dealing with:

• navigating life with a chronic illness

• relationship difficulties with family, friends, and/or significant others

• improving self-confidence and your relationship with yourself (including topics such as imposter syndrome, perfectionism, prioritizing others’ needs above your own, being self-critical, low self-compassion, low self-confidence, etc.)

• grief

• trauma

• life transitions

• mild to moderate depression

I also have experience working with anxiety, stress, suicidal ideation, self-harm, and disordered eating.

Through our work together, my clients learn to better understand themself, their emotions and their needs; approach themself with more compassion; have greater capacity to experience a full range of emotions; and take steps forward to savor more of the good stuff in life.

I support clients in being able to do this by learning to turn towards themself with curiosity, acknowledge and honor their strengths, and befriend their nervous system. I am here to deeply listen and hold space as each client embodies their truest self more boldly.

I provide trauma-informed, culture-centered and strengths-based therapy. I believe these perspectives are key for providing an empowering, de-shaming, non-pathologizing therapy experience. I’m not here to tell clients what’s wrong and what they need to fix; I’m here to walk beside clients as they identify what’s working and what’s not.

I am also currently in the Somatic Experiencing Professional Training Program (SE). SE is based on research about the mind-body connection and encouraging increased awareness of one’s full body experience in the moment. This can help individuals to be able to regulate habitual survival responses, develop capacity for self-regulation, and increase resiliency. This training plus an extensive knowledge of polyvagal theory has only strengthened my belief that learning to connect with and understand our nervous system is key to building our capacity to know ourselves and to navigate the difficulties of every day life.

The Loom Therapy welcomes individuals of all races, gender expressions, sexual orientations, ages, sizes, and abilities.