MEND Seattle
MEND Seattle provides quality, reasonable-cost mental health counseling to individuals, couples and groups. We are a collective of healers with diverse educational backgrounds and identities committed to an anti-oppressive and liberatory approach to therapy. We emphasize serving the QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color) Community.
MEND Seattle values intersectional feminism and liberatory practices as a guide in our work of building a dynamic social justice mental health organization. We are committed to consistent critical thinking, reflection, and understanding of how systemic power structures work on us to shape our intrapsychic lives, our interpersonal relationships, and MEND’s institutional realities. We believe that critical social theory and an anti-oppressive lens are essential tools to personal and collective transformation. As a team, we aim to center our QTBIPOC (Queer, Trans, Black, Indigenous, People of Color) voices and needs in the community.
Featuring:
Therapist Staff:
Erin Arney, LMHCA
she/her | black | cis | spoonie
Erin’s therapeutic work focuses on promoting health equity by collaborating with clients to create healing spaces. She believes in the integral connection of the mind, body and spirit and use decolonized approaches to help people cultivate resilience and nurture their own self-healing abilities. Erin appreciates the importance of environment and socialization in the healing process and focuses her practice on facilitating understanding and acceptance to create change.
Alejandra Morris, MA, LMHCA
they/them | biracial latinx | queer | nonbinary
Alejandra is a queer and nonbinary, biracial Latinx, transracial adoptee. They believe the decision to enter therapy takes courage and hold it as a sacred privilege to sit with someone’s story. Therapy is a collaborative dance between client and therapist, so their hope is to co-construct a brave space to explore the complexity that your particular identity and experiences bring into the space. Their areas of clinical interest include attachment; gender/sexuality and racial identity formation; grief/loss; chronic illness/medical trauma; and other forms of trauma. Alejandra holds a Master’s of Counseling Psychology from The Seattle School of Theology and Psychology (2020).
Natalia Pierson, MSW, LICSWA
she/her | black biracial | cis
Natalia believes therapy should center on an individual’s strength and bearing witness to the resiliency of the human spirit. Her goal is to create a safe space where a person can bring their whole and authentic self into each session. Natalia earned her Master’s in Social Work from Texas State University-San Marcos. She has worked with individuals involved in the criminal justice and child welfare systems, and who have experienced homelessness. Natalia utilizes a person-centered, strengths-based, solution-focused approach to therapy.
Intern Therapists:
Allison Young
she/her | asian american | multiracial | queer | cis
Allison is currently completing her Master’s in Social Work at the University of Washington where she works from an intersectional feminist, antiracist and social justice lens. Her therapeutic approach centers around genuine human connection; she values open-mindedness and direct honesty during sessions. Therapy is YOUR space to unpack and process parts of your identity and experiences toward a better understanding of yourself. Her priority is to empower you by trusting that you are the expert in your own healing process and support you along the journey of self-discovery and introspection. Her passion for couples and family work stems from creating a safe and equitable environment to encourage healthy communication between individuals who deeply care for one another.
Fausto Guillén
he/him/his | first-generation mexican american | heterosexual | cisgender
Fausto is a graduate student in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Seattle University and has a finance and fitness background. He believes that therapy is a place to be our true selves and have our voices heard. Fausto uses a holistic approach that draws from Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Psychodynamic Therapy methods. Combined with alternative therapy options such as movement, breathwork, and meditation. Whether you are looking to deepen your emotional intelligence, move through grief, remove barriers to your full potential, untangle unhelpful narratives and core beliefs, or gain a greater sense of meaning in your life. Fausto understands that there are multiple paths on the journey, and he is humbled to be present for your process.
Jas Harcum
they/she | black native/afro-indigenous | shinnecock nation | bisexual | queer
Jas is completing their Master’s of Social Work at the University of Washington with a Clinical Mental Health concentration. Through their education, work, and volunteer service, Jas has worked extensively with immigrant and refugee communities, in crisis intervention amidst the pandemic, and has facilitated QTBIPOC processing groups. They believe in a person-centered approach to therapy that acknowledges systemic barriers to wellness as well as encourages empowerment and [re]connection. She is passionate about working with Queer and Trans folks and Black, Indigenous, and folks of Color.
Jill Seo
she/her I korean american I cis
Jill is a transracial Korean adoptee who appreciates the challenges and joys of embodying complex racial and ethnic identities and navigating the unknown. She believes that therapy is a collaborative process where narratives can be explored and placed within a cultural context to support healing, growth, and liberation. Jill has a background in therapeutic bodywork and is working toward completing her Master of Arts in Psychology at Seattle University. Her therapeutic approach is client-centered, and she has received training in integrative existential psychology, crisis intervention, and maternal mental health.
Mariah Rojas
she/her/they | mexican & filipino | cis | female
Mariah is a cis woman of color and the daughter of an immigrant. She is completing her Master’s degree in Psychology at Seattle University where they utilize a philosophical framework. With her therapeutic presence Mariah hopes to foster a collaborative environment where people are able to show up authentically and reclaim their agency. She will use a liberatory and integrative approach to therapy and is interested in working with people who occupy minority identities. She hopes to create a consciousness around healing that trickles into intrapersonal relationships and throughout communities.
Mia Montenegro
she/her | filipino | bisexual | cis
Mia sees therapy as a safe space to share your story, to be authentically you, to grow, to heal, to explore, and to create the changes you are seeking to make in your life. As a bisexual woman of color, she is dedicated to working with QTBIPOC folx, as she understands the experience of navigating a multiplicity of identities based on different contexts and stages of life. Her clinical background is rooted in narrative and humanistic therapy and she’s currently training to be a licensed marriage and family therapist in the Couples and Family Therapy program at Seattle University.
Nefeteria (Nefie) Bolin
she/her | black/native/creole/white | hetero | cis
Nefeteria (Nefie) is a first generation student and ciswoman of color pursuing a masters degree in marriage, couples, and family therapy at Seattle University. She believes therapy to be a process that helps people recreate the narratives of their life story. She believes in discovering the humanistic side of people and knowing who they are at the heart to understand what’s important to them and how it shapes their personal identity. With empathetic teaching, active listening, and compassion, she hopes to provide a safe space for people from everywhere to share their stories authentically with no judgement or shame.
Nkemdirim Onyejiaka (“Nkem”)
he/him they/them | black/african/african | hetero | cis
Nkem is a heterosexual cisgender male who recognizes the innate need to collaborate with others to achieve wholeness through inner thoughts and self-realization. He sees you as possessing the ability to make choices to achieve positive life changes that can impact your environment, family community and other culture. As a Master of Clinical Mental Health Counseling student at the University of Phoenix, Arizona, Nkem recognizes the opportunity through his training in individual and group therapy studies that the family and society has a connection to the individual wholeness. This Humanistic, and Motivational interviewing therapies makes it possible to focus on individuals experiencing fear/anxiety, loss/grief, clinical depression, separation/divorce, and other issues affecting immigrants seeking self-realization. Nkem believes in the uniqueness and qualities the human possesses as their cultures presents a driving force to complement each other and is important to complete the circle of being human. Indeed, all creeds are welcome through a holistic outlook through counseling as a non-judgmental environment permeates.
Sanya Nijjar
she/her | south asian/punjabi | cis
Sanya is a first-generation South Asian female immigrant who believes therapy is a collaborative and creative process. Sanya values complexity in personal narratives and believes that relationships and systems such as religion, culture, gender, sexuality, race, class, and nationality make us who we are. Having lived in two different parts of the world has allowed her to understand the complexities of mental health intersecting with our identities. She is currently completing her Masters in Clinical Mental Health Counseling with a focus in social justice at Seattle University. Her passion comes from advocacy work as she enjoys working with QTBIPOC, immigrants, refugees, and womxn of color who are striving towards authentic self-hood.
Sasha Duttchoudhury
they/them | south asian american | nonbinary | mixed class background
Sasha is excited to support you in your commitment to your healing journey. Together we will embark on a playful, compassionate, and dignified exploration of your experiences, narratives, relationships, and visions for the future with the goal of cultivating healthy avenues for authenticity, vulnerability, and growth to blossom in your life and beyond. Sasha brings to this partnership 6+ years of experience leading conversations and mediating conflict around race, gender, and class, experience as an academic counselor, and current and ongoing coursework through the University of Washington Masters of Social Work program (to be completed in June 2022).
Seaward Hayes
she/her | korean & irish | second-generation american | hetero | cis
Seaward is a third-year graduate student in the dual track Master of Nutrition and Counseling program at Bastyr University with four years of experience providing nutrition, mental health, and substance use counseling. As a counselor, Seaward considers the whole person within their context including the biological, social, psychological and spiritual aspects of being because she believes that healing is a unique and comprehensive journey. To facilitate growth and understanding, Seaward uses modalities such as mindfulness, person-centered therapy, motivational interviewing, and trauma informed care. Seaward strives to partner with you in creating a collaborative, therapeutic space to explore what you need to heal and move forward in your life with greater confidence and purpose.