Dr. Justin Lerner

I moved to Seattle in 2017 after spending the previous ten years on the East Coast in New York City and Washington, DC. I grew up in Omaha, Nebraska as a Jewish gay kid who always felt “out of place” in a community where these identities were largely invisible. I also lost my mother to cancer at the tender age of 16 while attempting to accept my gay identity. As a therapist, these experiences have helped me develop resiliency and to better understand how oppressive systems can create feelings of loneliness, isolation, despair, and hopelessness. My approach includes Internal Family Systems (IFS), Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), EMDR, psychodynamic, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), relational cultural therapy, and incorporating somatics. Regardless of the modality, I always integrate an anti-oppressive and social justice lens centered in cultural humility. Engaging in social justice and anti-oppressive work is a lifelong process. Rather than attempting to achieve “cultural competence,” I strive to embody cultural humility. A cultural humility approach centers you as the expert of your own experience and recognizes the power imbalances that come from both our privileged and historically marginalized identities.