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Amelia McGinley
Amelia McGinley
SEP, MSW, LICSW she/her
It can be helpful to learn about your potential future therapist.
It can be helpful to learn about your potential future therapist.
I provide affirming therapy for LGBTQIA+ adults and parents of gender diverse kids. I identify as queer, cis, white, on the GenX/Millennial cusp, and am a long-ago Minnesota transplant originally from the regional south/west. I have personally and professionally cared for gender expansive folks for over 20 years and consider this work the main focus and passion of my life.
As a young adult, I got an undergrad degree in print journalism, and then lived in Central America for 3 years where I learned that I like to ask people deep questions for their sake, not for news. I meandered more after that - I worked in sex education in the SF Bay Area and seriously considered medical school in order to work in gender affirming medical care. In 2007, I started grad school and realized that becoming a therapist was the way forward for me. Since then, I've worked with children and families, in community mental health clinics, alongside medical professionals providing integrated behavoral health care, in inpatient hospital units, and in a refugee resettlement agency. I've been in private practice since 2018.
In my free time, I engage in mindful exercise, yoga and meditation; I goof around with my kids, occasionally travel for fun, and attempt various unskilled yet joyful creative pursuits. If you ask me if I'm a cat or a dog person, I'll say: actually, I'm a plant person🌿.
I work in a few ways
I work in a few ways
I support people with gender and sexuality diversity. I also care deeply about supporting caregivers of trans kids. Some people come to me for trauma recovery, to navigate coming out, or with social and medical gender transitioning. Many people say they just feel at ease sitting with someone who shares or understands some of their identities while they discuss other matters. I'm happy to support all of this and more.
I use somatic interventions with most clients. Somatic Experiencing® is a patient, gentle, exploratory practice that supports nervous system regulation and helps with recovery from traumatic events and chronic stress. Other therapies focus on behaviors and cognitions; somatic therapy uses the body and the brain together to recover from life's stressors.
I am Level 1 Internal Family Systems trained and use "parts work" with most of my clients. IFS is helpful for reducing shame and confusion, and increasing Self-direction. There is nothing like being able to truly soothe yourself, and IFS is a great method to learn how to do this.
I provide supervision for several graduate-level social workers with regular clinical supervision. It's a great honor to support the next generation of helping professionals in our communities.
I am committed to working cross culturally in an ethical and client-centered way. In my 20s, I was a Peace Corps volunteer in rural El Salvador and continued to work with immigrant and refugee groups in the US for several years. I developed a special interest in 1st and 2nd generation identities and navigating multiple cultural backgrounds. Born of European-American lineage, with a great degree of rupture to my own ancestry, I try to do my own work. I believe it is my responsibility to identify, challenge, and change the values, structures and behaviors that perpetuate structural racism and colonialist practices within me and around me. For me, this is ongoing, daily, reflective, active, living practice.
My style is warm and relational, direct yet kind, and curious. I'm not all that interested in pathology or diagnoses. I try to understand how things came to be and how things could get better. I'm happy to answer questions so you can see if we're a good fit.
I am not a relationship, couples, or family therapist, and am no longer providing therapy in Spanish.
Qualifications
Qualifications
University of Minnesota School of Social Work - 2009
License and State: MN Board of SW 19769 - since 2011
Board Approved Supervisor: MN for LGSWs and LSWs
Certified Somatic Experiencing® Practitioner
Internal Family Systems Level 1
Specialties
Specialties
Somatic Experiencing® to resolve trauma, chronic stress, anxiety
Internal Family Systems to support Self leadership
Clinical supervision for MSW graduates working toward clinical licensure
Gender dysphoria/expansiveness; sexual orientation
Parenting concerns, raising a gender-expansive child
Psychedelic-assisted healing: preparation, and post integration
Becoming more emotionally mature, boundary work
Ennegram widsom and balance
People who navigate more than one culture
And various other general issues such as...
depression, anxiety, life purpose, self esteem, life transitions, chronic pain, loss/grief, sexual health
Photo credit Anni Roenkae | Pexels
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