Hi there! My name is Alexa Adams. I am a licensed marriage and family therapist providing healing and support in Portland, OR. I received my master’s in marriage, couples, and family therapy through Lewis and Clark College. I specialize in couples therapy, trauma therapy, attachment, intimacy, and systems theory.
I have extensive experience working with couples, individuals, families, youth, and adolescents who have experienced complex PTSD and related attachment wounding. As a couples therapist, I specialize in working with how trauma and complex PTSD interacts with and impacts the couple dynamic.
Due to the complexity and uniqueness that each client brings to the therapy experience, I utilize a wide array of treatment modalities depending on the needs of each client. I root myself into emotion 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 maintain a highly relational approach to couples and individual counseling and believe the relationship is an important factor in the work that we do.
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. Being of female body, I have experienced silencing and harassment. 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 man. We do not have children, but do have 3 cats.
I am anti-oppression and anti-racist. I have spent the majority of my counseling career working with communities who experience systemic oppression and racism. I work to de-stigmitize mental health for all of my clients through creating and open and safe space for my clients to be exactly who they are and acknowledging the trauma and shame that has been created by the systems that exist. I hold an awareness and understanding of the ways in which white supremacy culture has and continues to cause harm.
When I am not wearing my therapist hat, I enjoy spending time with my husband, our cats, myself, and my friends. Some of my most favorite activities are enjoying delicious food, paddle boarding, kickboxing, reading, hiking, and binge watching a new (or old) series.
We may hold similar identities, and we may not. I understand that my identities of power and subjugation offer me a worldview that is different then yours, which influences how I view and experience therapy. If I am misunderstanding you at any point because of my experiences or blind spots, I welcome and invite you to let me know.
