Alex Hoffman, LCSW

As a clinician, I am guided by the values of radical empathy and compassion. I believe that it is in community that we come to understand ourselves and the unhelpful patterns that hold us back and keep us stuck. This is why I am convinced that creating a safe enough space for you to grow into your own knowing of what a positive change could be—as defined by you—requires an authentic, collaborative, and honest therapeutic relationship. While I bring formal education, field experience, and my own lived experience to our work together, in the end, you are the expert on your life.

I believe that the only useful definition of a life well lived is an inherently expansive one.

As a kinky, polyamorous, Neurodivergent/Mad, queer person, I understand how hard it can be to live out that expansiveness in a value-driven way, especially in a society that is built on heteronormative, capitalist, patriarchal, white supremacist, settler-colonial ideals. Unfortunately, we are all impacted by these and other harmful systems. To honor this reality, I believe in taking a harm-reduction and anti-carceral approach that leans into your self-identified values to help you move through these larger systems. This approach allows you to mitigate as much harm as possible while leaning into your self-defined progress and joy.

In the therapy space I draw on harm-reduction and anti-carceral principles of non-coercion, compassion, collaborative care to dismantle the hierarchy of expertise. Because I have worked in the field of mental health for over a decade, and in multiple different settings, I have come to understand that a one-size-fits-all approach to therapy is impractical at best and can often cause real harm. I hope that the space we cultivate in the therapy room can invite you to explore the fullness of yourself, including your strengths, your struggles, and—especially—your shameful parts. I try to cultivate a space you can enter without fear of judgment, where we can work together to help you build a sustainable relationship with your coping strategies. I am here to help you uncover that deep knowing that you already have. Honoring that a life well lived for me will not be the same as a life well lived for you.