Finding our Way/s Together
Let's plant and devote to the seeds we're meant to grow from
What I Devote To
Hi, I’m Maryam. I’m a therapist, aunty, artist, collaborator and deep-dive experimenter. I spent my twenties studying from books and institutes and instructors with degrees and licenses and my thirties learning from the open- and deep-hearted wisdom of folks who have let themselves be cracked all the way open to life’s beauty and tragedy. My growth has always followed persistently locating my intuition underneath all of the noise and devoting my next treacherous steps towards following it.
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I'm grateful for all of the ways I have been able to call in love, eyes wide open, and fall deeply into the lessons of grief and heartbreak. All of my own willful aliveness has informed my devotion to my work; the humans I hold space for are ready for a very specific kind of change, and require the scaffolding for the kind of holding, tending and container to carry them through to the other side as they journey towards a greater expansiveness and aliveness within themselves.
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As a therapist, my institutional study is rooted in trauma recovery, Internal Family Systems therapy and intimate partner violence work. As a human and practitioner, I am rooted in my devotion to the collective, to reciprocity, to authenticity, to honoring our bodies and the wisdom of the earth, and to a deepening relationship to intuition. I help people see themselves more clearly and relate to themselves and the people they love with a sense of alignment to their most sacredly held values.
Who I Work With and What We Do Together
My largest body of work right now is with other therapists, therapists who are moving towards a more human-to-human approach to holding space for and alongside their clients in this present climate. I support therapists to break out of binaries, and challenge the individualist, capitalistic and hierarchical norms of our field. Together, we shift away from white western status-quo psychotherapeutic norms towards something more intuitive, embodied, authentic and collective.
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I also hold therapeutic space at a limited capacity for folks who find themselves in transitional or developmental phases of their lives, for those doing the unseen work clawing their way out of binaries, and for those who don't fit neatly into the boxes provided and constructed by systems of oppression we live within. Queer muslims are a personal favorite. I also love working with folks with inherited wealth who give a shit about the collective. I adore world-builders, creatives and culture-shifters working hard to bring forth the next thing. My deepest work holding space is bolstered by my presence to my own process, healing and emergence.​​
My workshops, consultation, therapy and other offerings are honest, deep, and sometimes gentle. Individual work is by default over the phone so that I can lay back, close my eyes and listen with my whole heart. I don't hide my humanness from the folks I hold space for; my stories about Pakistan, my lineages and the lemon trees are foundational to my orientation towards healing and recovering our own through-lines and paths forward.
What Grounds My Work
My favorite ways to be together involve deep presence with what's true alongside an embodied togetherness about what else is possible in the space where we can hold the thing together. I believe that not everyone is meant to work with me, and not everything is mine to hold, so our assessment for fit is a collaborative, ongoing and generative process. If I get to be one of the humans who walks alongside you in your journey, if that's how we are choosing to be together, I honor that deeply.
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The folks who hold space for me and keep me accountable to my highest values in my work are not therapists or supervisors; they are deeply human elders, neighbors, peers, friends and beloveds who
take me to task and hold me through my deepest transformations and walk alongside me as I find my way. They challenge me to own the consequences of both the norms I choose to move against as well as the ones I follow, and invite me into deeper layers of my own self, in relation to the earth, in relation to my beloveds, in relation to the collective. I have been loved so deeply. This is also how I hold space.
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Call Me When You're Ready
I hold my sessions over the phone because
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My deepest listening can happen when I can move, hydrate, & meet my needs
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Video sessions all day left me with chronic headaches
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On video, my focus ends up on performing listening, while over the phone I can close my eyes, lean back with my hand on my heart, and hold space for my people
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It increases my capacity for the occasional video sessions when it is exactly the correct thing that is needed in the moment
I honor the devotional work of humans and organizations
who have offered my soul, wisdom
and my body, home.
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My parents who fell in love from different sides of the planet
My Phupo and Dadi who keep me connected
Internal Family Systems, for giving me words for multiplicity
Intimacy From the Inside Out, for extending multiplicity to my beloveds
Tarell Kyles, for introducing me to shadow work
Jen Lemen, for holding me through my biggest transformations
Dr. Shawna Murray-Browne, for being a catalyst
Jules Perkel, my ride-or-die, a certified badass in a storm
Original photography by Taimur Sajed
I Am Because We Are
If you're looking for in person or Zoom psychotherapy...
My sessions are for the most part over the phone, which works for so many people, including a number of folks who gave it a shot even though they weren't sure it would feel like the right kind of connection. That said, if you're someone who knows that you need visual connection either in person or over zoom, know that there are so many folks and organizations out there that do this work that I highly recommend:
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Therapy the Liberates directory
Internal Family Systems directory
Intimacy from the Inside Out directory (for couples)
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For more resources like this, my ride or die, Jules Perkel, LCSW has a fantastic resource page on their website.
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Finding a therapist right now is not easy across the board, and if you're having trouble getting in touch with folks who have openings, feel free to reach out, and let me know as much as you want about what you're looking for. I have no problem using all of my connections and networks to share some options.
©2023 :: Baby Bird Design
Maryam Sajed, LCSW
:: Finding our Way/s Together::