Kel Smith

Kel Smith (she/her) is a third year MA student in Somatic Psychotherapy at CIIS. She comes from a working class, queer nightlife, dance, and performance art background. In her undergraduate work, she studied neurophysiological psychology and dance which taught her the values of non-judgment and playful curiosity with which she approaches somatic therapy.

Somatics is a broad field of study that welcomes the wisdom that our bodies have to share with us. In therapy, this looks like offering attentiveness to how memories may be stored in our joints, how our emotions may live in our muscles, etc. Kel approaches this work with an understanding of how systemic power structures can impact peoples’ relationships with their bodies, with being

embodied. With this in mind, she works to uphold a value of explicit, ongoing, and informed consent when offering practices to her clients with the intention of cultivating an environment that is as safe as it can be for healing to emerge and unfold over time.

Kel is interested in working with clients who hold a variety of identities within the queer community. She is particularly interested in working with transgender and non-binary clients and their loved ones, people who use substances, kinky people, folks in non-monogamous relationships, and artists.

Kel is excited to serve her community as an MFT Trainee at Queer LifeSpace.