Hi. My name is T.Lee Shostack. You say my first name like TEElee. My pronouns are She | They | Zee. It's so wonderful to meet you! I'm looking forward to learning more about you.

​

I have been a therapist and social worker in training and practice since 2011.

​

My preferred ways of working with people on emotional growth and development is through the use of social therapeutics, narrative therapy, relational work, and liberation health.

 

Social therapy is a social and cultural approach that is a philosophically informed, practically oriented method in which human beings are creators of culture, and performers of our lives. This "psychology of becoming" incorporates play, performance and practical philosophy to inspire, primarily through therapy groups and creativity.

 

Liberation Health demonstrates that problems cannot be understood in isolation from the economic, political, cultural, and historical conditions in which they occur. This method helps people, families, and communities see the personal, cultural and institutional factors that contribute to and exacerbate problems. Acting to change these conditions as well as to liberate ourselves from both internal and external oppression and oppressors is key to transformation.

​

Narrative therapy focuses on how stories are the primary means that humans have invented to interpret or make meaning out of lived experiences, including understandings about ourselves, relationships, and “reality” in general. If we accept that our thoughts, feelings, and actions are shaped by our relationships with the stories available to us, then the importance of thinking about power dynamics becomes critical. People and problems are separate! Problems are Problems, and People are People. Problems result from the effects that emerge in the relationships between people and stories. In modern Western culture, where “self” and individualist world views dominate, thinking about problems in this way is frequently unfamiliar. This can leave people with little sense of their own participation in relationship with our stories.

​

These are some of the underpinnings I use in my empathetic, person centered, solution focused work.

​

​