Empower Your Inner Polis Today
Theories and Practices to Usher In a More Free World One Psyche at a Time
To Join Mailing List: DrDoug@PsychologyforthePeopl
About Psychology for The People
Our Mission — Anyone Can Participate
Our Mission — Follow Your Bliss In Community
Our Mission — The Personal is Political
At Psychology for the People, we believe mental health should be as accessible as pen and paper—or simply your own body. Through therapy referrals, depth psychology guidance, and creative expression, we help people confront the oppression within the mind and reclaim their wholeness. Follow our work on Substack for essays, practices, and conversations that open the door to this journey.
Our Mission — The Personal is Political
Our Mission — Follow Your Bliss In Community
Our Mission — The Personal is Political
Freedom from oppression starts inside. We practice “psychological resistance” through depth therapy, 12-Step recovery, inner shadow work, and meditation—without spiritual bypass. By cultivating awareness of both strengths and flaws, we help people become agents of transformation in their lives and communities. Watch our YouTube channel to see these ideas come alive in dialogue and action.
Our Mission — Follow Your Bliss In Community
Our Mission — Follow Your Bliss In Community
Our Mission — Follow Your Bliss In Community
We bridge Freud, Jung, gay liberation, feminism, movements for people of color, New Age spirituality, recovery traditions, and somatic healing. Drawing inspiration from Walt Whitman, Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, and others, we create spaces where diverse voices meet, heal, and imagine new possibilities together, through collaborations, publishing upcoming authors and theatre works.
Our Affirmative Therapists: Paige Swift and Dr. Doug
Our Philosophy and Theory of Change
On Our Personal Approach In Working With You
On Our Personal Approach In Working With You
Paige Swift, Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, #126543. I am employed by and work under the license and supervision of Dr. Douglas Sadownick, LMFT #40003.
How We Work
Affirmative Psychology rejects the caricature of the therapist as a silent nodder or polite mirror. Affirmation engages. The session becomes a field of tu
Paige Swift, Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, #126543. I am employed by and work under the license and supervision of Dr. Douglas Sadownick, LMFT #40003.
How We Work
Affirmative Psychology rejects the caricature of the therapist as a silent nodder or polite mirror. Affirmation engages. The session becomes a field of turn-taking, collaborative conversation, questioning, clarifying, confronting, and synthesizing. The brain rewires through dialogue that unsettles defenses and makes new pathways possible. Each encounter is designed to feel alive: goals are spoken, revised, and reset; the week ahead is shaped by a plan; progress is measured through feedback from both sides. Transformation is expected, not postponed.
Our Theories
The frame draws from trauma theory, existential practice, LGBTQ traditions, Gestalt, CBT, recovery, feminism, and anti-racism. It also enters the terrain of psychoanalysis, the unconscious, Jungian thought, and alchemy—where fire breaks down and remakes, where death and rebirth mark the threshold of meaning.
On Our Personal Approach In Working With You
On Our Personal Approach In Working With You
On Our Personal Approach In Working With You
Dr. Douglas Sadownick, MFC 40003, founder of the Antioch University LGBT Specialization of Clinical Psychology and Colors LGBT Youth Counseling
What We Do
• Therapy & Recovery Work – Attending to trauma, shame, and the stuck places
• Couples & Relationships – Navigating intimacy, conflict, and love without cliché
• Workshops & Groups – Co
Dr. Douglas Sadownick, MFC 40003, founder of the Antioch University LGBT Specialization of Clinical Psychology and Colors LGBT Youth Counseling
What We Do
• Therapy & Recovery Work – Attending to trauma, shame, and the stuck places
• Couples & Relationships – Navigating intimacy, conflict, and love without cliché
• Workshops & Groups – Collective spaces for meaning, resistance, and imagination
• Cultural Grounding – Rooted in feminist, queer, anti-racist, and recovery lineages
Who Comes Here
• LGBTQ people and straight people resisting conformity
• Free spirits, seekers, skeptics who do not fit the categories handed to them
• Survivors of trauma, addiction, grief, and erasure
• Those who sense more life exists beyond coping
Compassionate and Non-Judgmental Environment
On Our Personal Approach In Working With You
Compassionate and Non-Judgmental Environment
What Affirmative Is — and Isn’t
Affirming means not just saying “yes” to who you are but standing with the parts of yourself that have been split off, buried, or shamed. It means:
• accepting without question who you are in the moment you arrive
• naming the shadow and blind spots, not to pathologize but to metabolize them
• confronting r
What Affirmative Is — and Isn’t
Affirming means not just saying “yes” to who you are but standing with the parts of yourself that have been split off, buried, or shamed. It means:
• accepting without question who you are in the moment you arrive
• naming the shadow and blind spots, not to pathologize but to metabolize them
• confronting repetition compulsions, rigid categories, and the stuck patterns that keep suffering alive
• making meaning out of loss, trauma, and what recovery traditions call “character defects”
We understand that seeking therapy can be a difficult and vulnerable experience.
That's why at Psychology for the People, we strive to create a safe and non-judgmental environment where clients can feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and feelings. Our therapists are compassionate professionals who are dedicated to helping clients achieve their goals.