LGBT therapists in Salem, OR

I have served aging people since I began working, the last 20+ years as a psychologist. Now, having aged into the group, I understand what it is to live with issues of aging, including the family, health and career / retirement issues that go along with that both personally and professionally. I am here to help others write their personalized how-to manual for a happier second half of life.

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and PhD with 25 years experience working with adults, children and youth. My goal is to help you in your path towards feeling better, and experiencing an improved sense of confidence, self-esteem and functioning in your life. My specialties include adoption issues, LGBTQ issues and women's issues. I also specialize in depression, anxiety, elderly issues, disability, and stress reduction.

I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) with a Master’s in Social Work from Portland State University. I work with individuals navigating trauma, anxiety, depression, and substance use, and I bring experience from interdisciplinary behavioral health settings where care often intersects with complex life circumstances.

My approach is collaborative, direct, and rooted in the understanding that healing doesn’t happen in a vacuum. Mental health is deeply shaped by culture, community, history, and systems of power. Part of my work is intentionally engaging in a decolonizing approach to therapy—honoring lived experience, questioning one-size-fits-all models of care, and creating space for clients to define healing on their own terms.

I integrate frameworks such as American Society of Addiction Medicine and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration as supportive tools—not rigid rules—while drawing from motivational interviewing, trauma-informed care, and relational work that centers respect, autonomy, and real connection.

I offer a focused practice in ketamine-assisted psychotherapy (KAP), with careful attention to preparation, safety, and integration. This work is not just about the experience itself, but about making meaning of it in ways that align with your values, identity, and community.

I am passionate about helping people. There is no judgement, only acceptance of whatever circumstance you find yourself in. I listen and try to help with faulty thinking patterns. I am very accepting. About me: I love to garden, I love cats and I am a deeply spiritual woman.

Making the decision to start therapy is a profound investment of your time, energy, and vulnerability. If you are looking for a blank-slate clinician who simply nods and listens, we might not be the best fit. I offer a highly engaged, malleable, and unflinching partnership.

My approach is rooted in the belief that while the work of untangling our lives is deeply structural, the room itself doesn't always have to feel heavy. I bring a grounded warmth to my practice—which means knowing how to sit quietly in the gravity of a difficult truth, but also knowing when to break the tension, exhale, and find the light in the sheer complexity of being human. I won’t just sit in silence while you do all the heavy lifting; I am an active collaborator who adapts to exactly where you are.

“Like a lotus flower, we too have the ability to rise from the mud, blossom out of the darkness, and radiate into the world.” I believe meaningful therapy begins with a space where you feel safe enough to show up as your full, authentic self. I work with adults, and some of the areas I have experience with include trauma, anxiety, depression, grief, relationships, and life transitions, among others. I offer LGBTQIA2S+ affirming care and warmly welcome clients exploring body image, sexuality, ethical non monogamy, polyamory, and other parts of authentic self expression.

I have a world class education, but there is more to me than that: There have been many iterations of "Alan" over the long years of my life. There is the drug addict that has walked the clean and sober path for 33 years. There is the truck driver and the tattoo artist, the husband (married 31 years), the father, the grandfather, the great grandfather, the foster father, the step-father. There is the Buddhist and the philosopher. I am reaching out to you. There is nothing you can tell me that will offend me.

And I can write a darned good introduction too! LOL!

I hope to meet you soon!

Masako is a board-certified psychiatric nurse practitioner who believes in caring for the whole person—mind, body, and spirit. Taking a holistic approach to mental health, she looks beyond symptoms to explore the underlying factors that influence emotional well-being, including physical health, lifestyle, relationships, and lived experiences. More recently, Masako also completed continuing education that focused on PTSD assessment and management through the National Center for PTSD.