Libby Nuss, LMSW

Libby is a queer, white, cisgender psychotherapist whose practice is relational and grounded in anti-oppressive and liberatory social work perspectives. Libby uses radical acceptance and compassionate curiosity to explore conditioning, name collective traumas from institutional and structural oppression, witness and support the multiple facets of self, and celebrate the wisdom of our minds, bodies, and spirits.

Libby works to create a therapeutic space that is as warm and empowering as it is insightful and supportive. Her practice is Health at Every Size informed and honors the unique differences of our embodied experiences. Her treatment approach is informed by attachment theory and liberatory perspectives, and draws from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR). Libby has specialized training in holistic interventions for substance use disorders. In relationship therapy, Libby draws from the work of Dr. Ellyn Bader and the Couples Institute, the Gottman Method, Esther Perel, Martha Kaupii, and others. Libby is kink and poly aware and affirming. 

Libby believes in the power of the therapeutic relationship to help strengthen the skills we use to navigate our emotions, develop discomfort tolerance, support authenticity, discernment, pleasure, and self-compassion, and build stronger relationships with ourselves and others. She has supported clients through trauma and trauma-related disorders, anxiety, depression, grief, shame, substance use, relationship issues, life changes, and transitions. Trained as a doula, Libby has had the pleasure of supporting people during various reproductive milestones including body and gender affirming conception, the perinatal period, abortion support, and menopause.

As a queer woman who also lives in a bigger body with chronic illness, her lived experience has contributed to her keen sense of humor as well as humble empathy. An appreciation for community, mutual aid, diversity, disability justice, and neurodivergence were a part of her experience before they became a part of her vocabulary. She is intentional about how this mix of identities and experiences inform her therapeutic philosophies, and she approaches therapy as an opportunity to be curious, creative, and collaboratively find healing and attunement within.