Liz Goodwin, MSW
- Individuals, couples and families
- Depression, anxiety, grief and loss
- Same-sex relationships, sexual orientation, sexuality and gender
- Life transition and career planning
- Domestic violence, sexual assault, trauma, PTSD, historical trauma
- Impact of racism, sexism, homophobia, classism, and other areas of social oppression
Orientation
My goal is to create an affirming and useful therapeutic relationship that will be supportive in your self-discovery. I bring a mix of approaches to meet you where you are and support your growth and recovery. These include cognitive behavioral therapy, psychodynamic, mindfulness and somatic awareness techniques. Symptoms, I believe, have within them wisdom about your unique way of coping as well as your unique path to healing. I see therapy as a place to discover that sense of knowing. I am interested in helping clients explore childhood patterns, relationship struggles, negative messages and behaviors, and other patterns and systems that contribute to distress – to discover more helpful ways of being and relating. I have a collaborative and interactive style. I am comfortable with the more concrete, problem-solving work, emotion and body awareness, as well as depth exploration. Depending on where you are, I will strive for a helpful balance between challenge and support. Providing affirming and socially aware psychotherapy is a focus of my practice and I am interested in how social oppression impacts your life. Together we will support your awareness, skill building and empowerment. I may offer readings and exercises to help integrate our work into your everyday life and I check in often to assess how therapy is going.
Background
I earned my MSW at the University of Washington last June and completed my advanced clinical internship at Sound Mental Health in outpatient therapy. My primary areas of study were trauma, including historical trauma, psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapies, addiction recovery, cross-cultural perspectives, social oppression, and expressive arts and human development. Prior to receiving my degree, I worked as a community organizer, counseled with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender communities as well as with women and co-led community-based cross-cultural projects.
In addition to private practice, I am an anti-oppression educator and consultant. In this work, I draw on Dr. Leticia Nieto’s model, Beyond Inclusion, Beyond Empowerment. With organizations, teams, and community members, I build awareness about dynamics of societal oppression, their impact on the workplace, interpersonally and intrapersonally, and teach skills for how to create anti-oppressive environments as well as how to become empowered and aware.
I am currently involved in several projects bridging social justice and psychology. In partnership with Dr. Leticia Nieto, I am co-writing her book that will bring her model into publication. I am active with the National Association of Social Workers as well as Washington State Society for Clinical Social Workers. I receive ongoing training in somatic awareness, mindfulness and meditation and self-relations, a therapeutic model founded in the work of Milton Erickson.
Insurance
I do not currently accept insurance. I do offer a sliding scale.