Shira Collings, LPC
Therapy for the weirdo in us
Consulting for those that care for weirdos
About Me
Hi, I’m Shira! I believe that healing comes from feeling heard, seen, and valued, and I strive to create a space where my clients can express their full, authentic selves. My primary specialization is eating disorders, disordered eating, and body image, and I am especially passionate about supporting neurodivergent and LGBTQIA+ folks in finding freedom with food and their bodies. In short, my work focuses on people who want to break free from diet culture and all other systems of oppression. The core of my therapeutic approach is rooted in the Health At Every Size paradigm and body liberation. I also fold in a healthy dose of feminism, disability justice, and queer and trans liberation. If you work with me, you can expect me to integrate creative arts activities, therapy card decks, philosophical exploration, pop culture, and my adorable foster kitties into our therapy.
Eating Disorders BE GONE!
Fellow therapists, I have bad news: eating disorders and disordered eating are highly prevalent in our culture, and they have become especially prevalent during the course of the pandemic. Worse, they are more common among marginalized groups including LGBTQIA+ and neurodivergent individuals. If your clients are struggling with eating, or if you are hoping to gain a better understanding of these concerns and how to support your clients with disordered eating, you have come to the right place.
I offer personalized training and consultation on all forms of disordered eating and eating disorders. If you work with me, we will focus on how to provide care in a way that is affirming of all bodies and that breaks down the societal attitudes that contribute to eating disorders. With my help, you can make a real difference in your clients’ relationships with food and their bodies.
Neurodiversity Please
Are you hoping to make your practice more neurodiversity affirming but you don’t know where to start? I get it – there are a lot of opinions and a lot of buzzwords, and it can be hard to catch up and keep up if you aren’t already part of the community. If that sounds like you, I’d love to help! One of my great passions is providing neurodiversity affirming care, in particular to people with eating disorders – both individually and as a support group facilitator.
While the term “neurodivergent” is most commonly associated with autism and ADHD, it can actually be used to describe any mental health or neurological diagnosis or difference. My approach to neurodiversity affirming care is less about treating any specific diagnosis or neurotype, and much more about viewing mental and neurological diversity as a natural part of the human experience. I love helping providers celebrate their clients’ unique differences!
Religious & Spiritual Identity Development
Religion and spirituality, including atheist and agnostic beliefs, can be an important part of our lives and of our healing from some of the above concerns. Unfortunately, they can also be sources of deep pain and trauma in our culture. One of my areas of focus clinically is supporting people in exploring the ways that religious trauma may have impacted them. I affirm and celebrate all pathways to healing, whether that is forming a new spiritual and religious identity, rejecting religion and theistic beliefs altogether, or somewhere in between.
In addition to having clinical training on this topic, I am currently in training to become ordained a Secular Humanistic Jewish Ceremonialist. Through this program, I am developing the expertise to design and officiate rituals that celebrate and honor parts of people’s lives in a way that is reflective of their values. While this is separate from my role as a therapist, I bring my passion for navigating spiritual identity in a way that is affirming of all belief systems and practices to the therapy space.
I would love to support you in working with clients who are navigating their spiritual and religious identity and who are healing from religious trauma. I provide consultation on this concern more generally as well as how this may intersect with eating disorders and neurodiversity.
Reproductive Identity
The topic of whether – or how – to have children is one where I believe traditional therapy is out of step with the reality on the ground. Increasing numbers of people are choosing to be childfree, and unfortunately this decision is not always affirmed in therapy. Much of mainstream developmental psychology views having children as a core part of living a meaningful and fulfilling life. As a result, a client can end up being pressured to explain, justify, or compensate for not having children or being ambivalent about having children. Not only does this harm people who are childfree by choice or ambivalent about parenthood, but this is also harmful to those struggling with infertility, perinatal loss, and tokophobia (phobia of pregnancy and childbirth) and medical trauma impacting reproductive decisions.
I believe that part of providing culturally sensitive care is affirming reproductive decision-making of all kinds, including all pathways to parenthood and all types of families – which includes childfree families. I love supporting therapists in understanding the needs, challenges, and strengths of folks with a variety of reproductive identities and pathways to reproductive decision-making, and especially how this can intersect with neurodivergence and eating disorder recovery.
If you are having an emergency, please call 911
Copyright 2023 Shira Collings
Created by Andrew Collings andrewjcollings.com