Rosie O’Connor, LICSW
Licensed Clinical Social Worker (Pronouns: they/she)
In-Network Insurance
- Kaiser PPO/First Choice
- Kaiser HMO with Pre-authorization
- Premera/Lifewise
- Most BCBS plans
- Lyra
Contact Information
- Rosie@interconnectionshealing.com
- 206-659-5945, ext. 26
A Bit About Me
Welcome to my page! Thanks for taking the time to learn more about me and how I work.
I am a queer white bodied femme and politicized healer actively engaging in racial justice and embodying anti-racism through the work of somatic abolitionism and community organizing.
For as long as I can remember I have been an empathic healer. For the past fifteen years, I have been wandering the US and the globe working in a variety of low resource settings trying to find out where my work fits in. With a strong pull towards social justice and inclusion I have worked with a wide array of underserved and historically marginalized populations.
I support refugees, immigrants, wounded healers, therapists, and activists working through personal challenges, burnout, secondary and vicarious trauma, and the struggle of engaging with oppressive systems.
I view therapy, not as a “cure all” or “answer,” but rather as a place to build a deeper connection and trust of your own wisdom and knowledge, unlearn the ways you’ve come to internalize systems of oppression, and develop embodied skills to embrace joy, connection, and healing in late-stage capitalism. I recognize, talk therapy alone is not sufficient to meet the needs of many, especially those most impacted by trauma and oppression, including BIPOC, immigrants, refugees, and queer/trans folks. With this in mind, I integrate mind, body, spirit, nature, intuition, and more in therapy.
In my work with BIPOC, I engage from a place of humility, acceptance, and accountability. It is imperative to me that my clients are able to bring their full selves to therapy. In addition to welcoming feedback, I engage in critical self-reflection, on-going supervision, and community activism to remain aware and deepen my understanding of race, racism, and white supremacy.
Additionally, I am trained in Somatic Abolitionism and am passionate about engaging white folks in embodying anti-racism for the sake of self-acceptance and liberation for all. This work can feel scary, shameful, and overwhelming, but with the right support, I believe we can all be free from the dehumanization, insecurity, and disconnection white supremacy leaves us with.
When I’m not at work, I get excited ideating BIG life projects, doing puzzles, paddleboarding or buying books to add to my growing ‘to read’ pile. Also, my simple pleasures are PG tips tea with milk and sugar on a Sunday morning and jumping into a cool Lake Washington on a Summer’s day.
I view our work together as a place to build a deeper connection and trust of your own wisdom and knowledge that many of us have become conditioned to override. Often folks come to therapeutic spaces because of some tension or discomfort that has arisen in life. In our work together, I hope to work together to be able to slow down, listen to the intuitive and somatic messages that we get, engage with them curiously, build discernment around what feels nourishing and depleting, foster that which feels nourishing and release that which is no longer serving you.
Also integral to my framework is an understanding that our physical and emotional bodies are shaped by our cultures, identities, family lineages and systems of oppression within and around us. I am deeply honored and grateful for the opportunity to witness you moving through.
Finally, in virtually every space and every role we take on in our lives there is some sort of expectation put on us; there are expectations of what we ‘should’ act like. My goal is to create a space of trust in relationship where you can show up exactly as who you are no matter the day and feel seen and held in your beautiful humanness.
As a therapist, I work from an anti-oppression, anti-racist, and multicultural lens. In my work I integrate humanistic, strengths focused, and somatic therapy. For me, the humanistic piece means that I think everyone has the capacity for a full, meaningful life and the ability to make choices toward that. Challenges arise when the systems, internal or external, give rise to thoughts or assumptions that dampen our glow and feelings of capacity. The strengths focused aspect of my work recognizes that every action, thought or feeling that moves through our mind and body is supporting some need. Embracing this as reality can help us reframe things we might associate with ‘good’ or ‘bad’. The somatic framework has really uplifted how much of our personal, familial and cultural stories, resilience and trauma are held within our bodies and how that I can attune to that as well as the narrative that may be coming out. Finally, I integrate family systems theory, attachment, emotion focused therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness and EMDR as needed.
University of Denver
MSW, Masters of Social Work in Clinical Social Work (2009)
M.A. in International Human Rights (2009)
Reed College
B.A. in Mathematics (2004)
University of Denver, Graduate School of Social Work
Denver, CO
Adjunct Professor
Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Team, Refugees Northwest
Seattle, WA
Social Worker
Pre-trial Services Team, Center for Alternative Sentencing and Employment Services
Brooklyn, NY
Assistant Team Leader
United Nations Fellow, Association for Trauma Prevention
New York, NY
Trauma Resilience Youth Program, Aurora Mental Health
Aurora, CO
Therapist
Psychosocial Support team, International Rescue Committee
Denver, CO
Somatic Abolitionism @ Education for Racial Equity Ongoing since 2020
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing Therapy Basic Training 2018
– Standard Protocol
– Recent Critical incident Protocol
– Group Protocol
– Acute Stress Syndrome Stabilization
Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavior Therapy Certificate 2018
Sustained Dialogue Facilitator, Sustained Dialogue Institute 2018
Areas of Expertise
- Refugee Youth, Individuals, and Families
(Most familiar with Iraq, Afghanistan, Eritrea, Somalia, Thailand, and Myanmar) - Cultural Adjustment and Immigration
- Impacts of Racism, Oppression, and Discrimination
- Activists, Therapists, and Healers
- Whiteness/Internalized White Supremacy Culture
- Foster Youth and Parents
- PTSD and Complex Trauma
- Cross Cultural Communication and Conflict
- Anxiety, Depression, and Mood Disorders
I adhere to the ethical code as established by the American Psychological Association, and the professional standards as described in the Washington State Psychology Licensing Laws (RCW 18.83, 18.130, and WAC 308-122). If you have any concerns about the treatment you receive, please feel free to discuss them with me. If I fail to respond to your satisfaction, you have the right to register a complaint with the Department of Health, Washington State Examining Board of Psychology, PO Box 47868, Olympia, WA 98504, (253) 753-2147. You may also register a complaint to the Ethics Committee of the Washington State Psychological Association at (206) 363-9772.