Meet the practitioners
You’re in good company. Say hello to your fellow feelings-havers.
Anushka Pawashe
(She/Her)
Mental Health Intern
Provides Therapy in English
Current Availability for New Clients
I am a graduate student in the clinical mental health counseling program at Portland State University. I’m a second-generation South Asian American and my work in counseling is grounded in the belief that healing happens when we feel safe enough to come home to ourselves. I bring a culturally affirming, body-centered approach to therapy—one that honors your full story, including your ancestry, identity, and lived experiences.
My core areas of interest include working with immigrant and BIPOC populations and folks from other marginalized communities who are navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, neurodiversity, intergenerational patterns, or just trying to feel more connected to themselves. As someone who knows what it’s like to move between cultures and carry invisible stories, I offer a space where you don’t have to explain yourself.
My style is warm, collaborative, and rooted in mindfulness and somatic work. That means we’ll pay attention not just to your thoughts, but also to how your body holds emotion, memory, and wisdom. I believe therapy can be a space to slow down, breathe, and reconnect with yourself and with what matters most in your story.
Kowkie Durst
(He/Him)
Mental Health Intern
Provides Therapy in English
Current Availability for New Clients
I am a graduate student of mental health counseling through Adams State University, as well as a ceramic artist. I have taught college ceramics and art courses for over fifteen years in Portland, Oregon and am enthusiastic about transferring my skills from the classroom to working with individuals and groups in therapy. I value cultural humility, and realize my positionality brings strengths and limitations as a white able-bodied transgender man, coming from a middle-class background.
As a counselor, I feel committed to partnering with clients to co-create therapy goals and tailor somatic, creative/art-based or talk-based interventions. My values center gender, racial, relational, and cultural contexts to honor the whole person and their environment, both past and present. I am committed to creating a safe container of support by acknowledging clients’ own strengths and capacities. I see clients as the expert of their own experiences.
I especially enjoy supporting and working with queer and gender-diverse youth and adults, recognizing the unique challenges and strengths of our community during this heightened political moment. I am passionate about supporting individuals around gender dysphoria and identity exploration, as well as individuals navigating eating disorders. I bring creativity, deep presence, and supportive care for identity development; weaving trauma-informed and somatic practices to ground clients in personal safety, integrity and agency. I also enjoy using mindfulness-based practices to foster felt-sense awareness and self-regulation.
When I am not teaching or counseling, I enjoy growing food, surfing, and supporting kids in foster care with play, art and nature connection.
Maxx Katz
(They/She/He)
Mental Health Intern
Provides Therapy in English
Current Availability for New Clients
A lifelong artist and musician, I bring out-of-the-box approaches and a real zest for authenticity to my work. We’re here for a short time and, if we’re brave, we have the potential to harness the immensity and richness of being together.
I strive to be real with you. Connection and growth are intertwined. In our sessions, I seek to create a space where you can feel fully met and supported. I offer personal attunement and a wide therapeutic lens that includes the social and cultural uniqueness of your experience. We will tap into your own knowing and use that as our compass.
I believe in the power of presence and I draw upon experiential, somatic, and mindfulness-based therapies, rooted in my 17 years of meditation practice.
I love working with fellow neurodivergent people, those in recovery, people who struggle with relationships or loneliness, and artists, as well as those longing to be more creative.
I am a white, neurodivergent, nonbinary, AFAB artist from the east coast with a deep penchant for relational therapeutic growth and open water swimming. I am currently a graduate student in counseling at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
Lara Winter
(She/Her)
Mental Health Intern
Provides Therapy in English
Availability Coming Soon
Hello, I would like to take a moment to welcome you and genuinely thank you for being here. You are taking powerful steps to become more attuned with yourself, and I would be humbled to join you as you embark on this journey.
No two people share the same story. It is important to me to strive to understand the context around your experiences and meet you where you are. Through our work together, I intend to use compassionate curiosity to support you in exploring areas of uncertainty or challenge. Tailoring my therapeutic approach to your unique needs, we will work on skills that allow you to achieve the goals that are most important to you. My practice will largely be informed by Person-Centered Therapy, meaning that I will listen without judgment and support you as you develop a stronger sense of identity and trust in your own decisions.
I am a Black, neurodivergent, cis woman who believes in the power of a collaborative therapeutic relationship built on mutual authenticity. As a graduate student in the Clinical Mental Health Counseling program at Walden University, I will use my educational experience and background in cultural humility to create a space where you feel fully positively regarded for who you are.
Kopali Serna
(She/Her)
Mental Health Intern
Provides Therapy in English and Spanish
Availability Coming Soon
As a third-year graduate student in Integral Counseling Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, I bring a deeply rooted, holistic perspective to my counseling work. As a daughter of Mexican immigrants, my path has been shaped by social and environmental movements striving for dignity and equity within marginalized communities. I’m also a ceramic artist, activist, and practitioner of indigenous healing traditions—roles that inform my belief in the transformative power of creativity and cultural reclamation.
I’m honored to serve the Portland community through a decolonial, integral, and liberatory model of mental health care. My approach honors the "full experience," recognizing that healing happens not just within the individual, but across community, cultural, and ancestral spheres. I approach my work with non-judgmental warmth and a sense of true solidarity. I view my role as an ally to accompany each person as they reclaim aspects of their own lives and strive for wholeness, recognizing healing as both a personal journey and a vital step to our collective liberation.
Integrating foundation-level training in relational psychodynamic, trauma-informed, Gestalt and Family Systems approaches, I maintain a steadfast commitment to a client-centered and culturally humble stance. I invite clients to explore their inner worlds with curiosity, aiming to co-create a therapeutic space where every part of their identity is welcomed and honored.
My primary orientation is Integral Counseling Psychology, which views the individual holistically - encompassing body, mind, and spirit.
In practice, I integrate psychodynamic and person-centered foundations with family systems to understand the broader contexts of a client's life. I also utilize trauma-informed somatic approaches, ensuring that the wisdom of the body is included in the healing process.
Kati Rodríguez Pérez
(She/They)
Mental Health Intern
Provides Therapy in English and Spanish
Availability Coming Soon
Hi! My name is Kati ‘kaa-tee’ and I am a first-generation Mexican-American, former foster youth from rural Eastern Oregon. I am a graduate student in the marriage, family, and couples therapy program at Portland State University.
We all deserve safety in discomfort. Therapy can be an uncomfortable process—it makes you hold, confront, analyze, and release patterns, thoughts, and ways of being that have protected and served you in moments of trauma, pain, joy, and love. I believe we are an interconnected whole meaning we are intimately linked and influenced by our body, mind, spirit, family, community, ancestors, the earth, and societal structures/expectations.
With this in mind, I aim to support you, your family, and partnership holistically in a nonjudgmental and safe environment specifically tailored to your needs. I hope to offer a space where you can connect with your mind and body.
I am passionate about working with the immigrant and BIPOC community, specifically those who are navigating complex trauma (childhood, intergenerational, relational), oppressive systems (i.e., foster care system), and identity exploration. I utilize trauma-informed, person-centered, somatic, internal family system, and feminist approaches.
When I’m not counseling, I enjoy spending time with my cats, making art (collages, knitting, sewing), reading, and social justice advocacy work.
Jasmine Herrera
(She/Her)
Mental Health Intern
Provides Therapy in English and Spanish
Availability Coming Soon
I'm a first generation Mexican-American graduate student in the Marriage, Family, and Couples counseling program at Portland State University. My work is guided by the belief that mental health is inseparable from our social, historical, and ancestral contexts. I believe that healing is not only an individual journey but a collective act of liberation. While much of the work we do may look like weeding out negative intergenerational cycles that no longer serves us, I am equally committed to nurturing the resilient seeds passed down through parts of you. In addition to breaking cycles of harm, I aim to amplify the cycles of strength, joy, and survival that have sustained us for generations.
In my practice I strive to meet you where you are at and show up with compassion and care. I view our time together as a collaborative partnership rooted in curiosity and radical empathy. We will engage in the work of reclamation and relearning. This can look like gently deconstructing the narratives that are hurting us and exploring the deep-seated emotions that shape our world. Together we will move towards a body, mind, and heart that feels more like home.
My approach is informed by an integrative use of trauma-informed, person-centered theory, narrative, IFS, attachment theory, and somatics.
Outside of the counseling space I enjoy gardening, sewing, reading books, and spending time with my loved ones.
Megha Angros
(She/Her)
Professional Counselor Associate
Provides Therapy in English and Hindi
Please contact her at: megha@sakshamcounseling.com
Current Availability for New Couples and Individual Clients
Hi there, and welcome! It takes a lot of courage to reach out for support, and I'm genuinely glad you're here, even if you're just looking around. My aim is to offer a compassionate and collaborative therapeutic experience that's uniquely tailored to you. I utilize Somatic, Humanistic, Mindfulness-Based, Parts Work (IFS), and Trauma-Informed approaches, creating a safe space where you feel deeply seen and heard. It's incredibly important to me that your background, experiences, and identities are honored through culturally responsive and affirming care.
I believe every person is inherently whole, though stress and challenges can make us feel disconnected. In our sessions, we'll strengthen your mind-body connection, helping you rediscover your inner resilience to thrive and feel more connected to yourself and others. We'll develop practical skills to navigate challenging situations, re-establish loving relationships, and access your unique abilities.
I love working with individuals and couples from varied backgrounds, especially BIPOC, historically marginalized, immigrant, and LGBTQIA+ identities. I support clients facing depression, anxiety, negative self-talk, grief, loss, abuse, trauma, life transitions, relationship or identity/self-worth issues. I'm passionate about helping you break old patterns, develop emotional regulation, and set healthy boundaries that honor your needs. If this resonates, know you're not alone, and I would be honored to support your unique healing journey.
I am a cis woman of color with South Asian Indian roots, holding a Master’s Degree in Counseling from Portland State University, specializing in relationship and family therapy. Outside of work, I find joy in music, gardening, and practices like chakra balancing, and meditation which inform my holistic perspective.
I look forward to supporting your growth toward greater peace, confidence, and fulfillment.
Gretchen Stolte
(She/They)
Professional Counselor Associate
Provides Therapy in English
Please contact her at: hello@gretchenleigh.co
Current Availability for New Couples and Individual Clients
Hello! I am a White, queer, person born and raised in the Pacific Northwest, and a recent graduate of Portland State University's Masters Degree program in counseling, with a specialization in clinical mental health counseling.
I am passionate about supporting individuals and partnerships and as they navigate complex challenges, and I am committed to creating an authentic container of curiosity and non-judgement in session. Prior to entering the field of counseling, I accumulated over a decade of diverse concurrent work in the fields of adult sex education and physical strength training; work that when done in the context of a strong professional relationship proved to be so deeply personal it felt it often offered a direct portal to clients' most vulnerable, raw, and dynamic selves. Drawing from this background I aim to meet people where they are, conceptualizing individuals as both inherently powerful and intricately influenced by systems at play in their lives from all levels. I specialize in the support of untangling complicated emotions, beliefs, and patterns about sexuality and relationship styles, creating space to unpack and bolster relationships between mind and body, eating and body image concerns tied to trauma and attachment, and intra/interpersonal attunement. In work with individuals and relationship groups, I am experienced in conversations centering around non-traditional relationship structures including non-monogamy, polyamory, and kink-centric/power-exchange relationships.
I am committed to continuing my own education, and I am engaged in the continued work of having an actively anti-racist and non-oppressive practice rooted in gender and racial justice. I look forward to digging in with you in counseling that celebrates your strengths, acknowledging that we each hold deep truths and understandings about our own lives, and sometimes we just need a bit of assistance accessing and sorting through them.
Alexa Adams
(She/Her)
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
Provides Therapy in English
Please contact her at: intandempdx@gmail.com
No Current Availability
Hi! I am a licensed marriage and family therapist. I received my master’s in marriage, couples, and family therapy through Lewis and Clark College. I focus on working with couples/relationships and individuals. As a couples therapist, I specialize in working with how trauma and complex PTSD interacts with and impacts the couple dynamic.
I root myself into emotionally focused therapy (EFT) to ground and guide my work. This model has a focus on relational patterns and attachment wounds that may be contributing to these patterns. As well as EFT, I may use narrative, structural, strategic, feminist, and/or Internal Family Systems/Parts Work. I bring in and welcome creativity and imagination during sessions in order to expand and deepen awareness and understanding within the therapy session.
I am an able-bodied, white, heterosexual, cisgender female. I grew up in a lower class household; during my childhood there was a period of time when my family experienced housing instability and houselessness. This time period does not get discussed in my family of origin, and created a space of shame and internalized classism within myself. Throughout my life, I have experienced a world that looks like me and is catered toward my experiences as a white, cisgender, and heterosexual person.
I am currently in a two income household and identify myself as lower to middle class. I am in an Inter-cultural, monogamous marriage to a Mexican-American man. We do not have children, but do have 3 cats.
Sawyer Salameh, LPC
(They/Them)
Licensed Professional Counselor
Director/Clinical Supervisor
No Current Availability
I am so excited to be in a place where I can help clinicians grow and explore. The journey to become a therapist is way bigger than I ever imagined. I feel so lucky to be on this journey myself and learning new things. I had no idea how much personal growth I was in for when I started and now, I get to support other clinicians while they expand into themselves and learn. In understand how big of an undertaking this is for clinicians, I hope to create a space to grow and challenge one’s self without judgement, but rather with curiosity. The more we can learn about ourselves the more we can expand with our clients. I believe learning is about making mistake with openness and growing with new knowledge.
I will ask you to connect with your body to gain a larger understanding of yourself and your relationship with your clients. I will help you focus on your client’s relationship to their body, what comes up for you in yours when in session, inner child work and healing, and holding the complexity of everything we create in this world.
Kalpana Krishnamurthy
(She/Her)
Professional Counselor Associate
BIPOC Group Supervisor
Being a new counselor is strange times. We want to be there for our clients, even as we balance learning the paperwork, clinical notes, diagnosing, and the questions about what to do or say in the room. As a support person for emerging clinicians, I bring deep respect for your instincts and intuition. I strive to help you trust your own response to clients, to authentically share from your own experience, and to understand how your experiences shape the conversation. In my own practice, a multicultural lens is critical in my work and as a supervisor I seek to create space that ensures clinicians locate themselves and clients within structural and historical context(s). I bring humor, sarcasm, and swear words to supervision and welcome yours in return.
Bree Koenig, LPC
(She/Her)
Licensed Professional Counselor
Office Administrator
For more information on Bree, please visit her psychotherapy practice website: aylacounselingandwellness.com
I am honored to connect with you as the first line of contact and compassion at Portland Therapy Project. As the dedicated office administrator, my mission is to ensure that every interaction with our center is infused with warmth and efficiency. Beyond my administrative role, I am equally passionate about my work as a psychotherapist in private practice. With a commitment to fostering emotional well-being, I support clients through various life challenges, providing guidance for self-discovery and growth. My dual roles allow me to seamlessly blend administrative expertise with therapeutic insight, creating a holistic and nurturing environment within Portland Therapy Project. It is my privilege to be a part of your transformative experience.