Identity & Personality

We support clients in exploring personality and identity safely and honestly, with attention to the emotional, cultural, and relational factors that shape how people come to understand themselves.

Get Started

Definition: Personality

Personality is our psychological toolkit that encompasses temperament, habits, coping styles, and interpersonal tendencies that help us form a sense of Self and navigate the world. We express our personality through relatively consistent patterns of thinking, feeling, and acting.

Definition: Identity

Identity is your self-concept and your own sense of "who I am." It is shaped by your personal experiences, social roles, cultural context, and self-reflection. It includes aspects like gender identity, cultural identity, professional identity, and personal values.

Racial & Transracial Identity

Many of our clients are adopted, fostered, or raised in families or communities that do not share their racial or cultural background. We help clients process the grief, disorientation, or disconnection that can arise from transracial family systems, and support them in reconnecting with their cultural identity in ways that feel empowering and authentic. This work is grounded in the realities of systemic racism and the nuanced challenges of racial identity development in cross-cultural contexts.

LGBTQIA+ Identity

Exploring gender, sexuality, or queerness often includes sorting through societal pressure, safety concerns, internalized stigma, and family dynamics. We support clients at every stage—whether you’re questioning, coming out, transitioning, or seeking affirmation for who you’ve always known yourself to be. Our goal is to create a space where you don’t have to defend your identity, and where your self-understanding can deepen without fear of rejection or misunderstanding.

Adoptive Identity

Adoptees, fosterees, and donor-conceived people often grow up with complex layers of identity-related grief, secrecy, and disconnection. Questions like “Where do I come from?” or “Who am I allowed to be?” can be difficult to answer in systems where biological origins and personal history are fragmented or obscured. We create space to explore the emotional and existential impact of these experiences without oversimplifying or pathologizing the ways people cope or seek clarity.

Self-Esteem & Self-Concept

Self-esteem refers to how you experience yourself internally and how much emotional safety you feel being who you are. Many of our clients struggle with internalized shame, self-doubt, or harsh self-criticism rooted in early relationships, trauma, or cultural messaging. We help clients shift from self-blame to self-compassion and build a more stable, respectful sense of identity.

CPTSD & Developmental Trauma

When trauma is ongoing, especially in close relationships, it can shape how we see ourselves and relate to the world. Complex PTSD (CPTSD) often develops in adulthood after prolonged exposure to harmful relational dynamics. It can leave people struggling with self-worth, trust, or identity, especially when their needs were repeatedly dismissed or controlled. Developmental Trauma includes those same struggles but originates in childhood. We can help you gently reconnect with your core self and expand the possibilities for how you live and relate today.

Structural Dissociation

Structural dissociation describes how early and ongoing trauma can cause our identity to form in fragments that each carry different aspects of our personality. We are essentially divided into parts that handle daily life and parts that hold pain, fear, or unmet needs. You might feel like “different versions” of yourself show up in different relationships, or like you can’t access parts of your story without shutting down. Therapy can help you safely explore these inner divisions, build communication and cooperation between parts, and begin to feel more whole by honoring every part of you.

Personality Disorders (mild-moderate)

Living with a personality disorder often means feeling stuck in long-standing patterns that affect your relationships, identity, and emotional well-being. These patterns are deep-rooted strategies that once helped you survive, even if they no longer serve you now. Therapy can offer a nonjudgmental space to understand what shaped these patterns, reconnect with your core self, and build flexible, meaningful ways of relating to others without losing who you are. Healing a personality disorder means freeing who you are from the survival mode you’ve had to live in.

Treatment Diagnoses

We diagnose and treat a range of identity-related disorders, including:

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Chronic PTSD (C-PTSD)
Gender Dysphoria
Mild-Moderate Personality Disorders
Other Specified Dissociative Disorder (OSSD)

We also support clients with co-occurring concerns such as anxiety, OCD, or trauma that intersect with personality and/or identity distress. Many of our clients may not meet criteria for a specific diagnosis but are navigating emotional pain or internal conflict related to who they are, how they see themselves, or how they’re seen by others. Please note we are not able to treat Dissociative Identity Disorder.