Kaley Madden, TLLP

Hiiiiiiii, my name is Kaley Madden! I have been and will continue to be many things, however at this present moment I am a Temporary Limited Licensed Psychologist, as well as a certified School Psychologist, who is on a permanent hiatus from work in the grueling public schools. I hold a Masters degree in School and Community Psychology from Wayne State University, as well as a Masters degree in Design Research from University of the Arts London, Central Saint Martins. 

My practice as a therapist in a broad sense is eclectic, combining multiple approaches, including my background in art and design, to the unique needs of the client. The three core tenets of my practice are heavily influenced by the following theoretical underpinnings: 

1. Polyvagal Theory: I believe somatic work and the nervous system are sites of resistance against the oppressive structures we are forced to survive under in late stage capitalism.
2.  Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): I believe without “negativity” we would not know joy or pleasure, and that a crucial component of the healing journey is the acceptance of negative thoughts or experiences as innate within the spectrum of human experience.
3. Humanistic Therapy: I believe in maintaining an unconditional positive regard for my clients and that, above all, living life as your true self is the path to a most fulfilling and meaningful existence. 

I regard the therapeutic environment as the ideal space to collaborate on healing the engineered grief and nervous system dysregulation foisted on us by late stage capitalism and it’s agents (all of the ism’s and phobia’s), as well as our distinctly modern problems; omnipresent social media and information overload, climate change and mass extinction grief, and political and social fascism. 

I find great joy in working with the misfits among us regardless of age; the jesters, the witches, the punks and anarchists, the neurodiverse, the over and under-stimulated, the inattentive, the sensitive, the angry, the depressed, the anxious, the pathologized, and the out of place. While the majority of my experience has been working with children and adolescents, I seek to expand upon this experience and am particularly interested in supporting individuals who either suspect or have obtained a later-in-life neurodiverse diagnosis like ADHD or Autism and are working to understand the role this will play in their life. If any of this sounds like you, I believe we will work well together! 

Outside of my work, I enjoy spending time with my cats Jimmy and Halloween, watching Jujutsu Kaisen and all types of horror movies, reading comics and speculative fiction, and sometimes just rotting on my couch!