Trauma Healing, centered in liberation, guided by decolonial practice.
My clinical focus is on supporting neurodivergent and 2S LGBTQIA+ individuals, families, and care networks. I utilize approaches that help the body recognize moments of safety, cultivate grounding, stability, and embodied presence.
Professional Services Overview
This section highlights the services I offer
Individual Youth Therapy
Compassionate, individualized support for 2S LGBTQIA+, Autistic and/or ADHD youth navigating trauma, identity struggles, and relational stress, fostering safety and enhancing emotional regulation.
Individual Adult Therapy
Therapy for 2S LGBTQIA+, Autistic, and ADHD adults navigating developmental trauma, shame, dissociation, and attachment wounds. I provide somatic and parts-based approaches to promote healing and integration.
Family & Constellations of Care Therapy
Support for families, friends, partners, caregivers, and chosen kin navigating conflict, healing, and relational stress. Sessions may involve co-regulation techniques, boundary setting, and narrative reframing.
Honoring Agency, Identity, and Connection
My work focuses on cultivating spaces where healing becomes attainable and presence can be restored. I integrate somatic, attachment, and narrative approaches while honoring the wisdom of clients and communities, acknowledging the origins of our healing knowledge. Committed to anti-racism, disability justice, and decolonial practices, I affirm neurodivergent and 2SLGBTQIA+ identities, supporting youth, adults, and families on their healing journeys.
Chris Spiess
MSW BSW RSW, Therapist
Chris Spiess (they/them) is a Métis-Anishinaabe-German therapist based in Kitchener, Ontario (Haldimand Tract), originally from Penetanguishene (Treaty #5). Their maternal grandfather’s family was forcibly removed from Bootaagan-minising (Drummond Island, MI) and relocated across the Georgian Bay region.
With over 20 years of experience, including seven in clinical therapy, Chris specializes in trauma-informed practice. Their approach is somatic and attachment-focused, grounded in identity and neuro-affirming care, with a special focus on supporting 2S LGBTQIA+ and neurodiverse individuals and caregiving relationships—particularly those with ADHD and autism who have low to medium support needs. They honor connections to place and all beings as essential to healing, integrating care for land, body, mind, spirit, and relationships to promote whole-self healing and community well-being.
Approach
I support youth, adults, and relationships of care/families through trauma‑informed, attachment‑focused, and parts‑based approaches.
My practice affirms 2S LGBTQIA+ and neurodivergent identities, grounded in anti‑oppression, anti‑racism, and collective care.
Together we create “safe enough” spaces for healing, connection, and navigating layered barriers with compassion.
Trauma-Informed Somatic Therapy
Somatic Experiencing (SE): Release trauma and find balance by gently (re)connecting with your body. SE helps shift out of stuck survival responses and supports healing
Parts Work Integration
Heal and connect with the younger parts/emotions/versions of yourself that carry old wounds. This approach fosters self-acceptance, compassion, and a more whole sense of self.
Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP)
Repair/Build attachment and emotional connection within relationships of care; including families, especially for those impacted by trauma, & systemic injustice.
Attachment & Polyvagal Theory:
Understand how early relationships and the nervous system (survival responses) shape your sense of safety, connection, reactions, and emotional well-being. These frameworks guide gentle, trauma-informed care for lasting change.
Commitment to Justice
Centers decolonial, antiracist, and anti-oppression principles, because healing, and trauma, and oppression are all deeply political, and therapy must acknowledge systems of power, privilege, oppression and violence.
