Brittany Kleinschnitz

My name is Brittany Kleinschnitz (they/them). I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner living in so-called Portland, Oregon, on the lands of the Multnomah, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Cowlitz, Tualatin Kalapuya, Molalla, Chinook, Wasco, and other tribes.

I am also early in the process of becoming a BLSW Supervisor, and I am currently trained to provide supervision for interns.

I specialize in somatic trauma therapy, ecotherapy, attachment therapy, mindfulness, compassion-focused therapy, and grief work. My main populations include folks in recovery from both acute and Complex PTSD, attachment/developmental trauma, and generational and systemic trauma. I also enjoy working with folks around ecological grief and anxiety and exploring personal identity in relationship to community and culture. As a social worker, I take a critical lens to the ways power and oppression impact an individual's experience. My queer and non-binary identities inform a focus on supporting LGBTQIA+ and gender non-conforming clients, though I work with many populations.

I work at the intersections of environmentalism/ecology, somatics, spirituality and healing traditions, and healing justice frameworks. I seek to support folks in "re-membering" their unique place of belonging in the web of life.

I am a white, queer, non-binary, able-bodied, middle class person. I am dedicated to my own personal and professional work related to unlearning and undoing harms on both micro and macro levels.

I fundamentally believe that our core wound is severed belonging - from one another, from the Earth, and from ourselves. This happens through trauma, loss, and living within oppressive social, cultural, and economic systems. Through my work, I hope to create a container for you to explore what it means to remember your belonging and return to a meaningful connection with life.

My work is grounded in anti-racism, decolonization, and social and environmental justice. I believe the structures that systematically perpetuate colonization and white, cis, hetero patriarchy perpetuate crises of belonging. Because decolonization is not simply a metaphor, I also actively participate as best I can in supporting my local community and pushing for land return and reparations for historically oppressed groups.

I use a deeply relational and strengths-based approach. This means that our relationship is of primary importance in the therapeutic process, and I aim to be very frank, personable, and direct in sessions. It also means that I believe you have many inherent strengths, some of which are born from your most difficult experiences. I hold your story as a sacred privilege to hear and be part of, and I treat you with empathy and compassion, while still holding you accountable to your goals.

My practice is guided by transpersonal and humanistic psychology. Transpersonal psychology incorporates the spiritual and transcendent elements of the human experience, and humanistic psychology acknowledges that you are the expert on said experience and hold all of the "answers" you're seeking. Our work together allows those answers to come to the surface.

After learning more about your current life and history, we will set clear and attainable goals for our work together. Our first sessions may include getting to know you and your nervous system, learning about my style as a therapist, setting mutual expectations for therapy, and psychoeducation related to somatic therapy. From here, we will begin implementing what we've learned.