Our Approach
At According To Sykes (ATS), our work is grounded in a trauma-informed, liberation-based approach to healing — one that understands that our lives are shaped not only by individual experiences, but by the systems, histories, and relationships we move through. We draw from the traditions of social work, relational therapy, and integrative healing practices to support individuals, families, and communities navigating trauma, identity, and complexity.
We believe that healing cannot be separated from context. While many models of care focus primarily on symptoms or individual behavior, our approach considers the broader conditions that shape our inner lives — including culture, community, power, and systemic forces. In this way, we are often asking not only what is happening within you, but also what has happened around you, and how those experiences have been carried forward. Emotional distress, in our view, is not something to be quickly reduced or pathologized, but something that often reflects meaningful responses to lived experience.
Our work is rooted in liberatory and decolonial frameworks that seek to expand freedom, dignity, and self-determination. We actively question dominant narratives within mental health that have historically overlooked or minimized the impact of culture, identity, and systemic harm. By taking a culturally informed perspective, we aim to honor diverse ways of knowing, healing, and being, while creating space for clients to explore their experiences in a way that feels relevant and grounded in their own lives.
We also understand healing as an embodied process. Experiences are not held only in thought or memory — they live within the body, shaping patterns of response, stress, and resilience over time. For this reason, our work integrates somatic awareness, attending to how emotions and experiences are felt physically and how the nervous system adapts to both safety and threat. Through this process, individuals can begin to reconnect with their bodies in ways that support regulation, awareness, and a deeper sense of presence.
Central to our approach is the belief that therapy is relational and collaborative. We do not see the therapeutic process as something that is done to someone, but rather as something that is created together. We approach each person with curiosity, humility, and respect for their lived experience, recognizing that you are the expert of your own life. Our role is to offer a space for reflection, insight, and connection, while supporting you in making meaning of your experiences and identifying pathways forward.
Across all of this work, we are guided by a commitment to care, integrity, and accountability. Our values are not abstract ideals, but practices that shape how we listen, respond, and engage. We are attentive to issues of justice and equity, to the importance of cultural attunement, and to the need for sustainable, grounded ways of working that resist burnout and isolation. We understand healing not only as an individual process, but as something that is deeply connected to relationships, community, and collective well-being.
Ultimately, our intention is not simply to reduce distress, but to support a deeper sense of clarity, connection, and agency. We aim to create spaces where individuals can better understand themselves, reconnect with their own wisdom, and move toward lives that feel more aligned and meaningful. Healing, for us, is not about becoming someone new — it is about returning to yourself in a way that feels more whole, supported, and free.
“John is a superlative counselor. His knowledge spans psychiatric history, schools of thought and disciplines.”
Alexa Young, CA
