Jen Mccool (She/they)

Therapist + Supervisor

I am a licensed clinical social worker, queer artist, sefardi jew, and eldest sibling.  

While I work across the lifespan, I specialize in psychotherapy for adolescence and young adulthood with a focus on LGBTQIA+ experiences; trauma processing; identity exploration; and anxiety and depression. Additionally, I have extensive experience supporting individuals who have been involved with and harmed by the child welfare system. I welcome work with multicultural individuals from adoptive families, like myself, and love collaborating with clients to create culturally relevant brave spaces for narrative and relational exploration. I value a systemic perspective that is anticapitalist, intersectional, and ever-evolving. To be human is to have embodied experience that is not always verbally accessible. My experiences as an artist, avid puzzler, and retired dancer, inspire me to complement our conversations with play, expressive arts, tactile activities, and somatic interventions.

Want to know more? Here’s my LinkedIn + Inclusive Therapists

Questions? jen@forrealtherapy.com

INTERVIEW BIO WITH Jen Mccool

What communities do you feel like you would have the most impact working with?

I thrive in the in-between spaces and tend to connect with others who are also existing in the in-between of identities, experiences, places and spaces in their life. I have shared experience with those who are queer, multicultural, have adoptive or chosen families, speak Spanglish, and are artists and punks and creatives. Generally I tend to work well with children who have big feelings and thoughts, are curious and who question the adults around them; teens who hold intense feelings, are a little grumpy, artistic and want to see magic even as they grow up; and adults who are deeply empathic, desire radical connections, are creative, and want to imagine space for a different kind of world.

What is the scariest thing about being a therapist? How do you confront this fear?

The scariest thing about being a therapist is the trust that a client puts in you. I am so honored to work with anyone I have and am ever working with. That trust is sacred. This work is more than diagnoses and treatment plans. It is a unique healing process and is literal magic in practice. It’s scary to realize not only the possibilities that you can create with someone but also the potential for harm. I don’t know if it’s about confronting the fear as much as allowing that fear to just be. This work is alive. You have to continually be invested in your own growth and not let that fear be an inhibitory presence. It has to be something that drives you continually to curiosity.

What can parents gain from their children starting therapy?

If I am working with children then, to some extent, I am working with their caregivers. In that way, there is opportunity for the caregivers to also gain insight not only about their children but also about themselves as parents. I am not the expert on parenting or, rather, your parenting. But I am someone who can help name and sort out patterns that are not working. Being a parent brings out so many parts of ourselves in addition to whatever we are already holding. I love exploring all the layers of narratives and emotions that parenting evokes. When children start therapy, I also hope parents feel comfort in having another individual holding space and advocating for their child. My younger self was hurt and angry. I felt that I couldn’t trust the adults around me. And not only did I not see the adult I wanted to become but also I didn’t know there was more space to be had for me. I want parents and children to feel that I am part of their team and am someone that can model one more way of being. We can only grow up to be the things we can imagine.

What are some things adolescents or younger clients might need to know about therapy?

I want younger clients to have a space that honors who they are and want to be. That starts with being very intentionally myself. So I bring in creativity and play and curiosity, while also actively naming the scary and difficult gunk that we live through. I am also very transparent about our time together, including the power dynamic of me being an adult and the relationship I have with their caregivers. If I have to share something with parents, I want to have a conversation with the child first and include them in that process. I always tell my younger clients, you are allowed to ask me anything and I will answer. It is up to me how I answer and honor the context of our relationship. Nothing fuels shame more than refusing a question from a young person. We want to nurture question-asking in our young people to strengthen their power in self-advocacy and in dismantling harmful systems.

What are your thoughts around suicide, self-harm, etc. How do you explore these things with clients?

I always begin with holding space and being curious. Suicidal ideation and self-harm are often additional pieces to a much larger puzzle about a person’s environment, lived experience, and ways of coping. They exist on a spectrum and can be due to trauma, systemic violence, unmet needs, etc., that also deserves to be attended to. For me, safety planning is about creating space where someone can name and hold anything they feel they “shouldn’t be”. There is often shame and secrecy alongside suicidality and self-harm. This shame increases if a therapist shuts down the conversation or jumps to a one-template-fits-all safety plan. I want my clients to know that we are able to talk about these topics, without immediately acting or reacting, and that we can hold and be curious about them.

How do you explore your own identity?

By living, and allowing myself to change and feel both the growth and grief related to this. My identity exploration often occurs through being in community with others, as well as through movement, play, art, and rest. I love what I do as a therapist, and it is also not all of me. I very much attend to doing human things that are not therapy-related and might not involve other therapists or social workers.

Who are you trying to grow into?

Before even becoming a therapist, so much of my identity was about ‘going against’ whether it was internalized messages, traumas, or harmful people and systems. My activist self has often had to be on overdrive to simply live and make sense of the world. Since being at For Real Therapy, I can feel my sharpness allowing other, softer parts to show up and evolve. I want to be part of a therapeutic space that is fluid and creative and relationally attuned. I want to be a therapist for those who have felt therapy was not for them, or didn’t have access to this care. I want to explore somatic approaches, herbalism, and always more art. I want to continue to grow into someone that will bring joy to my younger self and those around me.

What is your universal piece of advice?

Be curious about discomfort. Your discomfort is a sign that there is more space to be had and held, whether that is emotional, physical, or spiritual.