Amber Louie

Racialized people coming to see me have often had a hard time finding a therapist who centres the complexity of their lived realities and what their people have actually gone through. I support clients to build the futures they want, while navigating systems that were not set up for people like them, within local and global climates in which certain lives are valued less. In doing so, I work from my values and training in BIPOC and migrant community-building, decriminalization, sexual liberation, reproductive rights, disability justice, HIV activism, and consent culture.

In anti-oppression psychotherapy, I make space to process the grief and feelings that have been repeatedly silenced, including healthy anger and deepest desires. I offer tools, empathy, and intersectional framing to deal with the impacts of racism on the mind, body, and spirit.

Issues include, for example:

• Conflict management & transformative justice
• Anti-colonial, anti-racist, and feminist parenting
• Family planning, options, and choices
• Safety planning, risk reduction & harm reduction

I support people to recognize and address the impacts of:

• Microaggressions, bias, and hate crimes
• Shame-based self-talk learned from white supremacy, colonialism and other systemic isms
• Family guilt, obligation and (inter/trans)generational trauma
• Racism in childhood, school, work, and religious trauma
• Being the first in your family to navigate a particular realm
• Exploitation, tokenization, and stereotypes
• Co-opting of movements and struggles
• Dogma and manipulation within activist communities

Supporting social justice movements is also an important part of what I do. This includes counselling and consulting for people involved in strategy, creative resistance, training, education, law, childcare and health support. I support parents, organizers, decision-makers, advocates, and community members to reflect, connect and refuel.