Lio Zajac

I am deeply invested in the psychological toll of living in the margins and of simply feeling out of place. I have a background in social work and an MA in Cultural Studies, both of which have helped me to understand how forces outside of us can shape and limit how we live our lives. I specialize in suicidality and self harm because these are common responses to profound hopelessness. I want it to be okay that we feel this way, for us to find other ways of responding to our distress, and I want for us to see options where we previously saw none. I am affirming provider for LGBTQIA+ people and for neurodivergent minds.

For me, having a "strengths based" approach is often about helping someone to use their "weakness" as a strength. In this process, I create a nonjudgmental space for clients to face their truths, to accept realities, and to reinterpret their weaknesses as neutral information about their needs and desires. I help clients to trust themselves, to develop wisdom around interpreting their experience, and to foster openness to both progress and errors. I'm less interested in being an "expert" and more interested in the collaborative experience of clients becoming their own expert.

In a first session, I aim for clients to feel more like whole humans and less like scripts of their own suffering. I try to create an environment of nonjudgmental allowing - things simply are what they are. I interact more than many therapists, and I am careful to describe and ask for consent around how we approach topics, especially if there are safety or legal concerns. Clients should feel like they are in charge of our sessions. I know I am doing my job well when someone can say "no," ask to delay talking about a subject, or tell me that my ideas suck. Clients will see how human I am, and I hope this creates a foundation for feeling human rather than another space where a client is performing a role.