Katie Hatches LPC

Hi there! My name is Katie Hatches and I am a licensed professional counselor. Because of my experiences as a biracial, queer, and nonbinary person, I seek to deconstruct and deprogram white supremacy and capitalism from the root in both personal and professional spaces. I also recognize the privilege that I hold, and understand how that privilege has shaped my opportunities such as my education as a sometimes white passing therapist. I show up in the therapy room as myself rather than a stoic robot, lead with genuine curiosity, honor your lived experience, challenge you at your pace with compassion and care, and hold an unwavering view of you as already whole. I know that starting therapy can be overwhelming and that many people have fears about this process, so I enter every therapeutic relationship with the knowledge that earning your trust takes time. That time to get to know each other and cultivate vulnerability is crucial in creating a safe, non-judgemental space for you to grow, heal, and find more self-awareness. 

As a child, I knew relatively early on that I wanted to be in a helping profession. My early childhood experiences informed some of my earliest relational patterns of anticipating the needs of others, reading the room to ensure my own wellbeing, and dismissing my own voice. Over time, this gave me a deep understanding of what it means to navigate survival. Through my own healing work, I’ve learned that I can ask for and receive support, that my emotions and the emotions of others can be expressed in safe ways, and that I am allowed to show up imperfectly as myself in relationships. These experiences, along with finding my passion for social justice, propelled me to create spaces that historically have been denied to QTBIPOC people, and to walk alongside those also learning to soften our survival responses.

I have experience supporting people with complex trauma, racial/gender/sexuality exploration, anxiety and depression, learn how to ask for help, rediscover their intrinsic needs for personal agency and belonging, develop safety to be seen authentically in their relationships, and reconnect to their own voice. My passion is trauma work that explores early childhood experiences, relational attachments, the body’s held experiences and innate wisdom, and the historical and current impact of systemic violence. I work well with clients who may have been in therapy a few times already and have considerable awareness of various patterns in their life, but may struggle with actually feeling their feelings. I help people actually implement change to their survival patterns that may still feel automatic despite that intellectual awareness of the things they want to change, and I can help you reconnect to your body, your voice, and your power. I can help you reprocess childhood trauma and self-talk rooted in shame, feel more like yourself, bring color and sensation back into your life, and experience more joy and pleasure.

I help clients to slow down, become more curious and reconnected with their bodies, deepen their compassion for all parts of themselves and feel more self-trust, allow room for imperfection, and increase their ability to navigate how stressful life can be and how hard it can be to show up fully in relationships, especially when old ways of coping born out of necessity may not serve them anymore.

Internal Family Systems (IFS) or Parts Work is a therapeutic approach I use often that leans on the understanding that we are quite complex. There may have been a time when you have said, “one part of me feels this way, but at the same time I feel…”. Sometimes different parts of ourselves can be competing for the mic, and utilizing this approach can help create more room for negotiation and less stuckness in the noise, awareness of what different parts are trying to communicate, and more effective communication.

I help clients to slow down, become more curious and reconnected with their bodies, deepen their compassion for all parts of themselves and feel more self-trust, allow room for imperfection, and increase their ability to navigate how stressful life can be and how hard it can be to show up fully in relationships, especially when old ways of coping born out of necessity may not serve them anymore.

I also use somatic-based interventions. I believe that our bodies can hold so much for us even when there are gaps in cognitive memory. To me, the body, mind, and spirit are all imperative in the healing process. In the therapy room, you actually don’t have to remain still and seated if your body is signaling a need for movement. Some ways of practicing embodiment in therapy could include breathwork, gentle movements, learning about your body’s specific ways of communicating to you and what your response tends to be to those cues. I will help you develop an awareness of your different survival responses and how they may show up in the body, and help you return to your body through mindfulness and increasing awareness of sensation.

In addition to parts work and somatic-based therapy, I use an integrative and relational approach and I am informed by attachment theory, Black feminist theory, coherence therapy, and narrative therapy. While these are some approaches that resonate with me, my priority is to trust you in this process and to fine tune my approach to what is most meaningful and appropriate for your needs. I also invite the incorporation of spirituality into the therapy space in whatever way that means for you, whether that is traditional religion, tarot, astrology, or other practices that instill curiosity, reflection, and hope.

Western and traditional talk therapy is a new approach to healing, and it coincides in many ways with colonialism, capitalism, ableism, and the expectation for us to constantly be moving, producing. Before it existed, there were so many paths to healing led by Indigenous communities, and they often involved slowing down, connecting to spirit, nature, and ancestral knowings, being in community, having your pain witnessed and held by others, and allowing the body and grief room to breathe. I fully believe that healing is an imperfect and nonlinear process, that reconnecting to the body and spirit is imperative in a society that benefits from our disconnection, and that community is a transformative and inseparable part of that process. 

Outside of the therapy space you could find me reading–I love fiction stories with an unreliable and morally gray narrator, listening to records, communing with nature, or watching the latest dystopian show or movie. I enjoy spending time with my loved ones, including my very vocal and receptive cat, Michonne.

To schedule an appointment: info@mindfullifechicago.com