Loading the player...
Closed Captioning / Subtitles Available
Information
Debunking the Safety Myth
Copyright :
Psychotherapists often presume that most forms of deep healing can take place only after we support a client in establishing a sense of safety. However, insisting on establishing a sense of safety can be countertherapeutic and invalidating for clients who are members of marginalized groups. A reliance on feeling safe may set up an impossible expectation for our clients, namely, that they can—and should be able to—feel safe in a profoundly unsafe world. In place of the safety axiom, this workshop will propose engaging our clients, and particularly those from marginalized communities, in nurturing a sense of boundedness. I propose boundedness as a framework that is more culturally humble and allows us to support a client in sitting in the kinds of decidedly queer ambivalence, ambiguity, and uncertainty that are essential to growth, change, healing, and coming into relationship with our embodied selves.
Lucie Fielding, PhD, MA, LMHC
Lucie Fielding, PhD, MA, LMHC, (she/they) is a white, neurodivergent queer, trans misogyny affected (TMA) femme, and a therapist practicing in Virginia and Washington (on Monacan lands and unceded Duwamish territory, respectively). They specialize in sex therapy, kink-knowledgeable therapy, 2SLGBTQIA-knowledgeable therapy, sex work-affirming therapy; and they work from the narrative, imaginal, and somatic frameworks that honor the (intergenerational) wisdom of the body, promote community-care, and support empowered embodied eroticism. She holds an MA in Counseling Psychology from Pacifica Graduate Institute (2018) and a PhD in French from Northwestern University (2008), specializing in erotic literature. Their background in literature attunes them to the ways that cultural scripts inscribe themselves on our bodies and inform our embodied erotic lives. In addition to being a therapist, Lucie is a sex educator who has facilitated workshops for a range of groups, organizations, universities, and agencies. They are the author of Trans Sex: Clinical Approaches to Trans Sexualities and Erotic Embodiments (2021), which was awarded an AASECT BookAward (Lammy) in the Transgender-Nonfiction category. You can find out more about Lucie at luciefielding.com or follow them on Instagram (@sexbeyondbinaries).
Speaker Disclosures:
Financial: Lucie Fielding has employment relationships with Trans Care BC, Antioch University, and Creating Change, PLLC. She receives royalties as a published author. Lucie Fielding receives a speaking honorarium, recording, and book royalties from Psychotherapy Networker and PESI, Inc. She has no relevant financial relationships with ineligible organizations.
Non-financial: Lucie Fielding is a member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors and Therapists and the Transgender Health Alliance of Central Virginia.
