About Traci Andes, LCSW, RN
About me
An important thing that shaped me was growing up Mormon. Today, I’m grateful for that experience, and I also remember the terrible unsettled feeling of trying to force myself to believe things that didn’t feel right in my bones. I was scared about changing—worried I’d lose community and identity, and a sense of life’s meaning. I’ve since come to believe that life lived authentically can’t be separated from the experience of loss and discovering yourself again in its aftermath.
I had to learn what to do emotions that felt difficult to accept, especially anger and shame. I'd try to contain it, criticize it, or simply push through it because I didn’t think these emotions were appropriate. Sometimes I'd explode or shut down, and then feel absolutely terrible about how I'd handled things.
Through therapy and a yoga and meditation practice I learned that understanding myself wasn't enough. I needed to learn how to relate differently to what I was experiencing: with curiosity instead of judgment, compassion instead of criticism, and enough attention to understand what my emotions and reactions were trying to tell me.
I learned to listen to myself rather than automatically defer to outside voices. I began building a life grounded in self-trust, compassion, and honest connection.
That work changed the way I understand what it really means to befriend and trust yourself. And it remains at the heart of what I offer my clients.
What it’s like to work with me
If you're reading this, you're probably someone who thinks, questions, and wants to understand. You may have a lot of insight already, but still feel like there's something missing between knowing what you want to change and actually being able to change it.
I want therapy to be a place where you don't have to perform, have the right answers, or convince me that your experience makes sense. You can bring the parts of yourself you're proud of, the parts you're embarrassed by, and the parts you don't understand yet.
I believe the relationship between us matters. I'll listen closely, ask questions, offer observations and suggestions, and help us identify what the work is for you. I'll respect what you already know and trust you to decide what fits. And when I notice something that might be getting in the way of the work, I'll tell you what I'm noticing so we can explore it together.
And I know that our struggles don't happen in a vacuum. Discrimination, political uncertainty, and threats to belonging and safety are realities.
Therapy should not ask you to set those realities aside or treat your response to them as a personal problem. I want my practice to be a place where those experiences can be understood in their full context, without minimizing them or asking you to educate me about your right to exist safely and fully.
You don't have to arrive in therapy knowing exactly what's wrong or exactly what you need to change.
If you have a sense that something isn't working—or that you've been trying to solve the same problem for a long time—we can start there. Together, we'll figure out what matters to you and where to start.