Ali Casanova

Registered Clinical Social Worker Intern

Trauma and Neurodivergent-Affirming Therapist

"One of the best guides to how to be self-loving is to give ourselves the love we are often dreaming about receiving from others." - Bell Hooks

Hi, I'm Ali, a registered clinical social worker intern passionate about helping people feel more connected to themselves and their inner experience. In today's world of constant distractions, it's possible to go a whole day (or more) without once checking in on your inner landscape. My hope is to provide a safe, grounded, and non judgemental space for the unexamined language of your emotional body and nervous system states to be heard. 

Imagine you were driving a car and were too distracted, busy, overwhelmed, or chronically unsafe to notice the "check engine" or "no gas" lights flashing on your car's dashboard. How often do you ignore, or just straight up miss, these adjacent cues from your body? Maybe your experience of chronic misattunement began in early childhood, if you were raised by emotionally neglectful parents or caregivers. Maybe it is the result of a delay in processing of sensory information. Trauma, neurodivergence, or both, can compound the communication barrier between you (the driver) and your body (the vehicle).

My goal as a therapist is to explore this inner landscape with you by taking a holistic, brain-sensitive, and neuro-affirming approach to recovery from relational trauma. I believe recovery involves working wholeheartedly towards compassion and acceptance of what is, and then welcoming all parts of you to the table. My therapeutic approach is to gently remind you of your capacity for self-trust and to help you unearth your inner strength to do hard things.

I am available to work with children, teens, individuals, and families. I have experience working with survivors of domestic violence and continue to work as a residential and outreach advocate for survivors. I am currently accepting clients interested in EMDR for August.

- Childhood/complex trauma

- Domestic violence

- Polyamory/CNM affirming

- Neurodiversity

- Polyvagal theory