Charla Malamed

My work is based in the understanding that body, psyche and spirit are unitary and that our suffering and joy in any of these areas leads to suffering and joy in the others. My work is trauma-informed and attachment-based. I regularly use mindfulness skills and techniques from Internal Family Systems to assist my clients in developing their ability to expand their awareness, self witness, and integrate parts that have been dissociated.

My work is informed by an understanding of how systems work, how our embeddedness in systems can lead many of us, particularly those who are members of historically marginalized communities, to hold burdens of suffering that are not of our own making. These burdens might be unhealed traumatic wounding from our ancestors. It might be collective trauma from legacies of oppression or domination. Therapy and rites of passage are a powerful way to transform this suffering into empowerment, community, transformation, and liberation (both individual and collective).

I was born and raised in California and Cape Town, South Africa, and very much identify as a west coaster, even though I've lived on the East coast for many years, because of jobs, community, education and other good reasons.

I hold an MSW from Smith College School for Social Work and completed a Fellowship at Cambridge Health Alliance/Harvard Medical School. I am trans/genderqueer and have experience and expertise working with the trans and queer community, particularly with adolescents and emerging adults (which often involves working with parents). I am sex and kink affirmative, and love working with all manifestations of relationship, including queer groupings of partners.

I integrate psychodynamic techniques, somatic skills, mindfulness skills, and Internal Family Systems. My work is trauma-informed, attachment-based & insight oriented. I specialize in queer & transgender issues, adolescent & emerging adult development, identity development, mood disorders, life transition, existential questioning/alienation, embodiment, & relationship challenges.

In psychodynamic psychotherapy, we explore personal and collective trauma, current, past, and trans-generational; we develop insight into family relationships, getting at the roots of anxiety, depression and confusion; we integrate parts of ourselves that have been split off; we learn to regulate psychosomatic distress; and we practice relational skills in real time. We learn to differentiate between ourselves and others, while simultaneously becoming more skillful at finding our people. We gain insight into why our lives look the way they do, we explore what it is we want, and we learn how to make positive changes. I integrate Internal Family Systems (getting to know the parts of us that make up who we are), somatic regulation, mindfulness skills, activism, and community. Ultimate, we settle into joy, peace, courage, and community!

If you work with me, you will find a warm and collaborative relational container. I strike a balance between encouraging my clients to challenge themselves to grow into areas that are uncomfortable and creating a space in which they can settle into self-acceptance and compassion. I provide a safe space to listen deeply, to your thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, fantasies, and bodily experience. By listening in new ways, we expand our capacity to hold more, respond with greater flexibility, clarity and ease, develop compassion, and become empowered to make positive changes, both personally and in the communities we're a part of.