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.
Alli Summerly
Clinical Intern
Alli Summerly (they/them) is a third year Clinical Mental Health Counseling student at Antioch University, with a focus on trauma-informed care. Alli studied sustainable agriculture as an undergraduate, worked in farming in rural Vermont for five years, and continues that work here in western Massachusetts. Their interest in exploring the intersection of queerness, the body, the land, and mental health, and the immense need for access to care in their intersecting communities, led Alli to pursue a career in counseling. Alli's experience working with teens and emerging adults in transitional mental health settings taught them that genuine, brave relationship is at the core of therapeutic connection. Their orientation centers this relational lens, while integrating existential, generational, and attachment-based perspectives. Alli is passionate about forming rich and generative therapeutic relationships with clients at the intersections of neurodivergence, transness, queerness, and other expansive identities, and has a commitment to justice and liberation within and beyond the therapeutic space.
Al is a third year Clinical Mental Health Counseling student at Antioch University. Their time at the Center for Psychotherapy and Social Justice will start May 2024.
Brigid Donnellan
Clinical Associate
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 student at the Smith School for Social Work and will be a full clinical associate starting August 2024.
Contact Brigid via supervisor Shannon Sennott
Sarah Chrystler
Clinical Associate
Sarah Chrystler (she/her) is an MSW candidate at the Smith School for Social Work and will be graduating in August 2024. She works with young adults and children and is especially interested in working with couples, families, and elders navigating family transitions. Sarah follows a Health at Every Size framework and believes deeply in the healing that comes from fat liberation and body liberation. Her approach to psychotherapy infuses humor, warmth, and collaboration to gain insight that draws on an intersectional, antiracist understanding of the world and our experiences in it. She welcomes clients of diverse identities, backgrounds, and lived experiences, and is committed to promoting equity and social change both within and outside the therapy room.
Sarah is a second year student at the Smith School for Social Work and will be a full clinical associate starting August 2024.
