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 also by the systems, histories, cultures, and relationships through which we move. Drawing from the traditions of social work, relational therapy, somatic awareness, restorative practice, and integrative healing, we support individuals, families, and communities navigating trauma, identity, relationships, and complexity.
We believe 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. We ask not only what is happening within you, but also what has happened around you and how those experiences have been carried forward. Emotional distress is not something to be quickly reduced or pathologized; it can represent a meaningful response to lived experience.
Our approach asks:
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What is happening within you?
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What happened to you?
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What is your body telling you?
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What supports your healing?
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What needs to change?
Our work is rooted in liberatory and decolonial frameworks that seek to expand freedom, dignity, agency, and self-determination. We actively question dominant narratives within mental health that have historically overlooked or minimized the effects of culture, identity, and systemic harm. Through a culturally responsive perspective, we honor diverse ways of knowing, healing, and being while creating space for clients to explore their experiences in ways that feel relevant and grounded in their own lives.
We also understand healing as an embodied process. Experiences are held not only in thought or memory; they also live within the body, shaping patterns of stress, response, protection, and resilience over time. Our work therefore integrates somatic awareness by 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 listen to their bodies, develop supportive forms of regulation, and reconnect with a deeper sense of presence and internal wisdom.
We see healing as a relational practice. Therapy is not something done to someone, but something created together. Through co-regulation, restorative justice, and compassionate accountability, we support the repair of relationships and the restoration of connection. We approach each person with curiosity, humility, and respect for their lived experience, recognizing that you are the expert on your own life. Our role is to hold space for reflection, insight, honesty, and connection while supporting you in making meaning of your experiences and identifying pathways forward.
Across this work, we are guided by a commitment to care, integrity, equity, and accountability. These values are not abstract ideals; they are practices that shape how we listen, respond, and engage. We remain attentive to cultural context, systemic inequity, and the need for sustainable and grounded ways of living and working that resist burnout, disconnection, and isolation.
We believe healing can be an act of personal transformation, relational repair, and collective liberation. Our intention is not simply to reduce distress, but to support a deeper sense of clarity, connection, and agency. We seek to create spaces where people can better understand themselves, reconnect with their own wisdom, strengthen their relationships, and move toward lives that feel more aligned, meaningful, and free.
Healing, for us, is not about becoming someone new. It is about returning to yourself with greater wholeness, support, possibility, and freedom.
Healing the Body. Restoring Relationship. Practicing Liberation.
“John is a superlative counselor. His knowledge spans psychiatric history, schools of thought and disciplines.”
- Anonymous
