Kate MacShane, M.Ed., MSW, LCSW-C

Kate is a queer, gay, biracial (Chinese and white), cisgender therapist. Her work is informed by her experiences in culturally liminal spaces, and her holding of identities both visible and invisible, dominant and marginalized.

Kate practices from anti-oppressive framework that incorporates transfeminist, queer, anti-white-supremacist, and other liberatory perspectives. Kate is committed to forming transformative therapy relationships with clients seeking healing, deeper connection, and increased self-awareness. Kate’s integrative approach to therapy incorporates relational, psychodynamic, Internal Family Systems, attachment-based, and narrative therapies. Kate has completed EMDR Basic Training and is pursuing certification with EMDRIA. She enjoys using EMDR as a tool with clients seeking to recover from many kinds of trauma and abuse.

Kate works with children, adolescents, couples/partners, and individual adults, and is dedicated to providing effective therapy to gender-expansive, trans, queer, nonbinary, and otherwise LGBTQIA2S+ adolescents and adults. She believes that therapy can be an important space to explore identity across the lifespan.

Kate works with gender-expansive, transgender, non-binary, and gender-nonconforming individuals from a gender-affirming perspective that centers the client’s self-determination and values them as the expert on their own identities. Kate is a World Professional Association of Transgender Health (WPATH) GEI SOC8 Certified Member, meaning that she has undergone a rigorous course of training and mentorship and has passed a certification exam evaluating competence in the treatment of T/NB/GNC people in accordance with the current WPATH Standards of Care.

Kate especially enjoys working with gender-diverse young people and their families, helping to support families in affirming their loved ones, improve communication, and deepen family connections. Kate founded, and for many years facilitated, TransFamily, a free support group for adult family members of gender-expansive young people. Kate offers one- to two-session private consultation meetings with adult family members of gender-expansive people seeking to better understand and affirm their loved ones. Please note that these consultations are not considered mental health treatment and cannot be billed to insurance.

Kate also provides sex therapy. She enjoys supporting individuals and partners to feel more sexually confident and connected with themselves and in their relationships. She works from a kink- and sex-positive perspective, welcoming and affirming people with traditional (i.e., monogamous) and nontraditional (i.e., open, polyamorous, consensually nonmonogamous) relationship structures. Kate is a member of the American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT).

As a former public school teacher, Kate continues to enjoy opportunities to train and educate others, especially adult learners. Kate specializes in providing support to other cisgender therapists in incorporating gender-affirming perspectives into their practices and welcomes opportunities to provide referrals to trans-identified experts in the field for trainings and organizational development.