Nurture Abundance

Mental Health Therapy to Help You Thrive

Be seen and celebrated as your whole self

I want to support you in getting the nurturing you need to live a life of abundance. I’m Kawa (she/her). I identify as a queer, multiracial (Japanese, Chinese, White), sex positive, body positive and HAES informed, kink friendly, cisgender woman. While most of my relationships have been monogamous, I am informed about and have folks in my life that practice polyamory.
As someone with many identities, I didn’t always have a space where I could be my whole self. I felt fractured, isolated and misunderstood. I was operating from a scarcity model, which meant I was focused on what I lacked. Co-creating queer BIPOC spaces in college was the first time I felt truly seen. I can’t describe how healing it was to find people who saw me in all my complexities. I want to provide this to you. I want to help you heal from oppression and difficult life experiences so you can focus on what makes you thrive.
In addition to identity work, my mother died when I was 16 and my world shattered. Therapy was an important part of picking up the pieces and making sense of my grief. As someone who has both seen a therapist, and provided therapy to others, I know what it’s like to be vulnerable and how hard it can be to grow, stabilize, and change. I will provide gentle, warm, and non-judgmental support throughout our work together.
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I graduated from Portland State University in 2016 and have worked in Community Mental Health (mental health therapy for adults who are also experiencing poverty and trauma) since 2015. Prior to becoming a therapist, I worked in the nonprofit world for 10 years on issues including reproductive justice, anti-racism, LGBTQIA+ rights, pain management and advocacy, and making social justice work intersectional.

You Are

You don’t fit into society’s norms and maybe you don’t even want to. You may be BIPOC, LGTBQIA+, QTPOC, kinky, polyamorous, ethically non-monogamous, fat, neurodivergent, or a person living with a disability (among other identities). There can be great joy and pride in being different, but difference can also be met with oppression. I know what it’s like to feel othered, how it can affect self esteem, your ability to connect with others, and can lead to trauma, isolation, sadness, depression, anxiety, anger, grief, hopelessness and confusion.

I want to help you reclaim your power. I believe that there is healing in telling your truth loud and proud. I want to listen to your story. I want to validate your existence, help you reconnect with your own values and worldview, your joy, motivation, and community. I want to see and celebrate you as your whole, intersectional, and beautiful self.

Symptoms you might be experiencing

Anxiety Depression Trauma Low Self-Esteem Grief Loss Hopelessness Emptiness Anger

Difficulty Communicating Lack of Connection Overwhelm Oppression Confusion Pain Low Energy

Tools I Use In Therapy

Anti-oppressive practices

Attachment-Based Therapy
Centering BIPOC/LGBTQIA+ experiences
Client-Centered Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
Critical Race Theory

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy (EMDR)
Feminist Theory
Grief processing
Healing from internalized oppression

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Social Justice practices
Strength-based Therapy
Systems Theory
Trauma Informed Care
Unlearning white supremacist culture

Anti Oppressive Practice and Therapy

I am committed to being anti-racist and anti-oppressive in my life and in my work as a therapist. I help clients heal from and identify shame, painful and unfair life experiences and other symptoms of oppression. I aim to uplift parts of our identities that can be marginalized by the dominant culture and help folks recognize mental health symptoms that may be tied to oppression rather than internal imbalance. I also make space to explore white privilege, economic privilege, gender privilege, passing privilege, ability status and additional forms of privilege in session and in my own life. I am a life long learner and will do my best to not ask you to teach me about your identities as part of our work together. I educate myself, and I know I’m not perfect. I am open to feedback, reflection, and admitting I’m wrong.

We may not share the same identities, but I have a foundation of understanding my own “otherness” and hope you won’t feel you have to start at square one with me.

Anti Oppressive Therapy also means trying to minimize the power dynamic between you and me in our sessions. I have specialized training, yes, but you are the expert in your own life. I want to harness your expertise and support you in the growth you want to achieve.

Land, Labor and Privilege Acknowledgement

While our therapy sessions will mostly take place in a virtual space, I would like to acknowledge that I live and work on the land of a multitude of Indigenous communities who were forcibly removed from spaces I now inhabit. As well, I acknowledge I have benefited from the stolen labor of enslaved peoples, primarily of African descent.

My life benefits from and is also negatively impacted by all kinds of systemic oppressions, past and present, including but not limited to the labor of Chinese immigrants who built railroads and other infrastructure, Japanese Americans who experienced internment during World War II, migrant workers from Mexico, the Philippines, and Central and South America and other places, and from the exploited labor of incarcerated people. I also recognize the resistance and community building of many queer, trans, BIPOC, and disabled folks whose activism and imagination of a better world inspires me.

I attempt to make reparations to the oppressions from which I benefit by supporting my community and chosen family, by being a therapist and nurturing and centering that resistant, whole, vibrant, beautiful spirit that exists in marginalized communities, and being a lifelong learner committed to my own growth and change. I donate to these organizations: Equitable Giving Circle, The Chinook Nation, National Network of Abortion Funds, Native American Youth and Family Center, and TGI Justice Project. I recognize I have more work to do.

Mt hood is covered in snow surrounded by a fir tree forest with blue sky as a representation of Oregon land.

“As they become known and accepted to us, our feeling and the honest exploration of them become sanctuaries and spawning grounds for the most radical and daring of ideas”
- Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider
“We are fully dependent on each other for the possibility of being understood and without this understanding we are not intelligible, we do not make sense, we are not solid, visible, integrated; we are lacking.”
-Maria Lugones, Pilgrimages, Peregrinajes
“A theory in the flesh means one where the physical realities of our lives - our skin color, the land or concrete we grew up on, our sexual longings - all fuse to create a politic born out of necessity. Here, we attempt to bridge the contradictions in our experiences...We do this by bridging and naming our selves and by telling our stories in our own words.”
-Cherríe Moraga and Gloria Anzaldua, This Bridge Called My Back