MEET KIP

Hi, I’m Kip Williams. Originally from East Tennessee, I’m a gay/queer somatic therapist, spiritual seeker, and community activist. Growing up in the rural South instilled in me a love for Nature and lit a fire in my heart for social justice.

Before I became a therapist, I spent my twenties as a movement organizer, working on issues such as peace and nuclear nonproliferation, death penalty abolition, racial and economic justice, and LGBTQ+ equality. I was honored to serve as Co-Director of the National Equality March on Washington in 2009, and I co-founded the direct action activist organization GetEQUAL with Robin McGehee shortly thereafter.

We worked on important campaigns such as LGBTQ+ employment protections, marriage equality, and repealing the military’s discriminatory “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy. While the work was meaningful and purpose-driven, I often felt overwhelmed by emotion, weighed down by old shame, and disconnected from myself and others. Around 2010, I experienced a severe burnout that invited me to pause, turn inward, and begin tending to the trauma and grief I had long carried but could no longer outrun.

For me, going to therapy was part of a larger ecosystem of healing that included mindfulness meditation, embodiment practices, connecting with the natural world, and working intentionally with psychedelics and plant medicine ceremonies. Over time, I began to develop a more grounded and compassionate relationship with myself. This path coincided with my education and training as a therapist, which felt less like a career transition and more like stepping into my life’s true calling—to help others heal and grow through their trauma and grief.

I earned my MA in Integral Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2013. While in school, I served as the Interim San Francisco Crisis Services Manager for The Trevor Project, the leading suicide prevention and crisis intervention nonprofit organization for LGBTQ+ young people. I also completed a clinical traineeship at Queer LifeSpace in the Castro. Following graduation, I completed a clinical internship at Berkeley Youth Alternatives, providing Restorative Justice counseling to youth on probation in Alameda County, while starting my private practice with my mentor Dino Di Donato through the Market St. Center for Psychotherapy. I have been a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist in private practice since 2016.

In 2023, after completing my Ph.D. in Psychology (with a Specialization in Consciousness, Spirituality, and Integrative Health) at Saybrook University, I sought additional training as a Mindfulness-Based Psychedelic Therapist (Clinical Cannabis and Ketamine Specialties) through the Center for Medicinal Mindfulness Psychedelic Therapy Training Program. This professional credential has allowed me to incorporate psychedelic-assisted therapy into the holistic services I offer.

Today, I live in Portland, Oregon, with my husband. I love this city dearly for its natural beauty, its weirdness and authenticity, its celebration of queerness and non-binary expression, its grassroots movements and political edge, and for being home to some of the friendliest people I have ever encountered. I enjoy spending time in nature, engaging in community activism, practicing yoga and meditation daily, vegetarian cooking, playing piano, and reading sci-fi and fantasy novels.