Jené Gutierrez

As a relationship therapist, I believe that our relationships are the crucible for our greatest transformations. How do we intend to create a sustainable and nourishing world built on mutual care if we are not actively working on how we relate to those closest to us? This question feels urgent to me.

In All About Love, bell hooks writes, “The moment we choose to love we begin to move against domination, against oppression. The moment we choose to love we begin to move towards freedom, to act in ways that liberate ourselves and others.” What does it mean to “choose to love”? What does loving action look like? My work with clients lies in exploring those questions and moving relationships towards loving and liberating practice.

My initial priority is to use curiosity to connect with clients in order to cultivate the trust and safety required for therapeutic vulnerability. I wholeheartedly believe in and respect the autonomy and divinity of each person. I take a non-pathologizing approach and do not look for what’s “wrong” with clients. I prefer to see my role as a loving guide or witness accompanying others on their journey toward preferred ways of being and relating.

My post-graduate work in the arts and sciences has cultivated an integrated and holistic style to helping people. Consciousness exploration, story-telling, and creative expression are the pillars of my modality. I am trained in the Hakomi method, a somatic mindfulness intervention, and primarily use this method to explore embodied consciousness with my clients. I also enjoy working with dreams and unconscious material. In addition to somatic mindfulness, I take a creative collaborative-narrative approach in helping people re-author the stories of their lives. I have a trauma- and oppression-informed therapeutic lens that acknowledges and seeks to offset the harmful impact of colonialism and systemic oppression on the conceptualization and treatment of mental health in the West. Liberation psychology, decolonization, depth psychology, somatics, and the power of the archetypal imagination deeply inform my practice and the relational values I support, including autonomy, respect, and freedom within our personal relationships.