I’m Bethami [pronounced like Bethany, but with an “m”] Lawson. My pronouns are she/her/hers. I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) - which is one of a number of pathways people take to become a practicing psychotherapist.
After first pursuing acting for several years and then working as an early childhood educator for about a decade, I returned to school and earned my BA in Psychology at UCLA. A couple of years later, I returned to UCLA to earn my MSW with a dual emphasis in Mental Health and School Social Work. I have since been working as a psychotherapist for over a decade.
I was drawn to getting my MSW because the degree’s studies place an emphasis on social justice and viewing people’s experiences through a broader lens. A person is impacted not only by their biology, personal history and dynamics within their family-of-origin, but also by their experiences in their community and within society as a whole. I’m a proud and unapologetic “social justice warrior” and seek for the world to be a more equitable place. I acknowledge my privilege as a cisgender, heterosexual, white woman.
I continually want to learn, grow, and be challenged in my thinking and world views. I recognize that anyone I meet with as a client (or elsewhere) is the expert in their own lived experience. I have things to learn from them, even when I am providing my guidance and specific expertise as a therapist.
After graduating more than a decade ago, I spent a number of years providing individual, family and group psychotherapy in a community mental health clinic serving children, teens and families. Subsequently, I was providing group therapy, crisis management and familial support on an inpatient psychiatric unit of a hospital.
For over five years now, I have been a psychotherapist at Kaiser Permanente in West Los Angeles. I have had the great pleasure of working with clients from various walks of life at different stages in their life span. Kaiser therapists need to be generalists and, as a result, I see people who are seeking therapy for a variety of reasons.
That being said, I am also one of Kaiser’s Gender Specialists and often work with transgender, ENBY, intersex, agender, and gender fluid/expansive folks. I provide gender-affirming, supportive psychotherapy and letter-writing.
Bethami Lawson, LCSW
Based in Los Angeles and providing tele-mental health services to residents throughout California
Copyright © 2020 Bethami Lawson, LCSW - All Rights Reserved.
CA LCSW 29797
All sessions are being held virtually (via encrypted phone or video calls) due to COVID-19 at present.
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