Davis Chandler
Founder and Co-Director
Davis Chandler, LICSW (they/them)was clinically trained at the Smith School for Social and graduated in 2011. They have worked in a community mental health setting with children, families and adults; for a small nonprofit working with adults experiencing extreme mind states and major life disruptions and currently maintain a private practice with the Center for Psychotherapy and Social Justice in Northampton. They are a co-director of Translate Gender, an advocacy, education and therapy nonprofit working towards gender justice. They are also adjunct faculty at the Smith School for Social Work.
Their clinical work exclusively serves erotically marginalized communities – queer, trans, nonbinary, poly and kink identified clients, families and relationships. Their areas of interest include: nonbinary and trans identities, alternative family structures, issues concerning sexuality or sexual practices, queer family building, fertility issues, trauma, grief and loss. The models they operate from are: abolitionist, social justice, anti-oppression, intersectional, transfeminist, dialogic and relational. The heart of their work is social justice/decolonization and it is their mission to disrupt and resist white supremacy, patriarchy, cissexism, ableism, heterosexism, fatphobia and all systems of oppression.
Madeline Nussbaum
Founder and Co-Director
Madeline (Maddy) Nussbaum, LICSW (she/her) graduated from Smith College School for Social Work in 2011. Madeline has a grounded, thoughtful, and relational style. She believes that therapy should help you access your innate intuition and insight, and that the therapist's role is to provide support and guidance through that process. Madeline’s work is deeply informed by social justice and she is committed to helping people feel empowered while examining the structures and systems in place that create marginalization. She draws on narrative, relational, feminist, and transfeminist approaches in therapy and weaves in evidence based practices such as EMDR (eye movement desensitization reprocessing) , IFS, and CBT when needed.
Prior to private practice at the CSPJ, Madeline worked at Northampton Sex Therapy Associates and in community mental health, specializing in the intersections of gender, sexuality, and experiences of trauma. Madeline strives to create a comfortable atmosphere in sessions and is sensitive to helping people who have had negative experiences in therapy in the past.
Shannon Sennott
Founder and Co-Director
Shannon Sennott, LICSW (she/her) is a sex educator, gender justice activist, and a LGBTQAI family therapist who was clinically trained at the Smith School for Social Work and the Eastern Group Psychotherapy Society in New York City. She currently resides and practices in the Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, however, she lived in New York City for over a decade and during that time co-founded the advocacy and education organization, Translate Gender, Inc. Shannon has a broad range of expertise having completed clinical trainings in anxiety disorders, depressive and mood disorders, dual diagnosis, sexuality and gender identity concerns, grief and loss, and trauma.
Shannon utilizes a transfeminist therapeutic approach in working with differently gendered adolescents, individuals, and trans families. Her interests extend to working with couples, polyamorous relationships (polyships), and groups, and she especially enjoys working with those in alternative family structures. Her clinical orientation is influenced by both the narrative and the open dialogue traditions, and she is currently a senior clinical associate of the Institute for Dialogic Practice, founded by Mary Olson, in Northampton, Ma. In addition to her private practice at the CPSJ, she works with the Gender and Family Project at the Ackerman Institute and at the group practice, Northampton Sex Therapy Associates. Shannon's published paper in Women and Therapy Journal, introduces her transfeminist therapeutic approach, Gender Disorder as Gender Oppression: A Transfeminist Approach to Rethinking the Pathologization of Gender Non-Conformity.
Al Fernandes
Clinical Intern
Al Fernandes (he/him or she/her) is an MSW candidate at Smith College School for Social Work (SSW). After graduating from UConn in 2015, Al spent some years in Connecticut working in men’s domestic violence education groups as well as with children and their families in an in-home mental health counseling & psychiatric hospitalization prevention program. Al then spent a lengthy hiatus working as a gardener, and subsequently found himself drawn to Western Mass and back to school. Before coming to the CPSJ, Al spent his first-year internship at Transhealth – an independent and comprehensive healthcare center that supports and empowers transgender and gender-diverse individuals and their families. There, she further developed the psychodynamic and relational skills accumulated in her first experiences working in social work, and he looks forward to what’s next with the CPSJ.
Al’s work is informed by, and she strongly believes in, the healing and reformative power of relationships. It permits the emergence of a safe container, allowing for greater self-knowledge, the expansion of ourselves, and alternatives to our undesired patterns. This same place can be one of respite, supporting resistance in the face of oppression while tending to the parts of ourselves that need attention. Al’s greatest strength is meeting people where they are, and works with individuals of any age, people in relationships of any kind, and families of any structure.
Al is a second year intern at the Smith School for Social Work. Her time at the Center for Psychotherapy and Social Justice will span from September 2023-April 2024.
Contact Al via supervisor Madeline Nussbaum
Brigid Donnellan
Clinical Intern
Brigid Donnellan (she/her) is a second-year MSW candidate at the Smith College School for Social Work. Bringing together her background in queer theory, Brigid integrates academic, lived, and clinical experiences to create a client-focused therapeutic environment based on collaboration and community. Brigid centers the client experience within the therapeutic space, as well as the act of building a meaningful therapeutic relationship from which clinical work will grow. Brigid’s clinical experience revolves around queer and trans adolescents in the school setting. Working from a trauma-informed, relational, and psychodynamic approach, Brigid holds anti-racism, anti-oppression, and intersectionality at the forefront of her work.
Brigid is a second year intern at the Smith School for Social Work. Her time at the Center for Psychotherapy and Social Justice will span from September 2023-April 202.
Contact Brigid via supervisor Shannon Sennott
