Skye Macrae (she/her)
EdM, MA, LMHC, Clinical Supervisor
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I’m a systems-savvy, person-centered, radically affirming provider who excels at the intersection where clinical mental health disorders meet cultural and identity issues. As a clinician, I strive to be transparent and personal in my therapeutic relationships, and I approach my work from a position of humor, curiosity, and compassion. I want to help individuals to feel fun, outrageous, and free... and to develop key understandings into their own psychology, preferences, and needs that can guide their choices and lead to concrete strategies to ease and overcome their distress. I am especially passionate about experiences of diversity and alterity of all forms (particularly around gender, sex, and sexuality). I provide collaborative, multiculturally-informed psychotherapy that supports individuals with a wide range of life experiences and mental health struggles, and I love to wade into the messiness of personal growth with my clients as they transition into more authentic, empowered, joyous, and masterful versions of themselves.
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My clinical approach is an eclectic blend of gestalt, existential, narrative, multicultural, and person-centered therapies, all with a healthy dose of irreverence, warmth, and novelty. I’m a very relational counselor; I create strong therapeutic alliances with my clients and hold them with unconditional positive regard, so that clients can understand what it’s like to feel cared for and productively challenged in our relationship—by practicing interpersonal skills with me, it’s my hope that clients can feel more confident bringing their fullest selves to their relationships outside of the counseling room. I’m an enthusiastic believer in clinical transparency and professional directness, so clients won’t be shut out of their own care. I also find significant professional joy in blending classic psychotherapeutic evidence-based practices with pop culture analysis, in a manner that helps clients apply big counseling concepts to their lives in tangible, solution-focused, relatable ways.
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Honestly, I became a therapist out of spite. I didn’t have access to mental health resources as a young person, so I was eager to take advantage of my college’s free counseling center as a bright-eyed freshman. However, to my dismay, the counselor I was assigned to immediately began to pathologize my experiences and identities. I numbly listened as she dispassionately dissected my life, analyzing everything she viewed as “broken” and “wrong.” I left that session full of righteous indignation, and bitterly thought, “Even I could give better therapy than she just did.” Well… here I am, all these years later! As a licensed clinician, I now have the training to explain that what the medical model views as maladaptive “madness” is often the result of a minority perspective at odds with dominant social norms and beliefs. Coming from a low-income background means that my perspective as a therapist has been shaped by the broad array of side jobs I’ve held while establishing myself as a mental healthcare professional. In my clinical work today, I’ve still got the pragmatism of a New York bartender, the enthusiasm of a theatre camp counselor, and the thoughtful reframing skills of a fanfiction editor. These days, I constantly work to break down the inherent hegemonic structure of the therapy relationship by acknowledging that while I have might have the clinical knowledge and credentials, my clients are still the experts in the room when it comes to themselves. Ultimately, while I may have entered this field out of spite, I’ve chosen to remain here out of love—love for this profession, for the spirit of human resilience… and most of all, love for my clients.
· $250 per session fee
· Individual psychotherapy for adults and young adults in Washington state.
· Therapeutic coaching everywhere else!
· Asynchronous coaching through email.
· Professional consultation: LGBTQIA+ competency, kink, giftedness, mood disorders.
· Bipolar skills and support group
· Gender affirmation surgery letters
· Trainings I offer to groups and organizations: Clinical Introduction to Kinky Fuckery (101) and Multicultural Kinky Fuckery (201)
• LGBTQIA+ Affirming Care
• Mood Disorders
• Kink/Poly
• Self-esteem
• Multicultural Identities
• Men’s Shame & Vulnerability
• Giftedness
• Nerd Culture
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As a queer person, I bring my lived experience and years of activism and education to my work with clients who identify all over, around, and off the gender and sexuality spectrums. Whether you’re a 70-year-old who has just realized you’re trans, a teenager who has grown up with a strong sense of your intersectional identities and labels, or a Gen X aro/ace simply seeking a therapist who won’t lecture you about “having just not met the right person,” I’m excited to work with you. Additionally, I provide Gender Affirmation Surgery Letters on a pay-what-you-can basis—I acknowledge the role of mental healthcare professionals as systemic gatekeepers, and I’m committed to practicing an informed consent model where clients can affirm their gender identity with dignity and agency.
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Fun fact: I'm bipolar, my spouse is bipolar, and I'm only partly kidding when I tell people that our cats also seem a little bipolar, too! As a bipolar therapist who works with bipolar clients and lives with a bipolar partner, I feel that I have a unique clinical perspective on mood disorders. I strongly believe in embracing the existential humor that often accompanies chronic mental wonkiness, and it's rewarding for me to help clients with mood disorders (and friends and family impacted by their loved one's diagnosis) learn to work with their bipolar, instead of against it.
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Destigmatizing kink, polyam, and ethical nonmonogamy is a massive part of my work, both in and out of the therapy room. This means that equally excited to talk about two kinds of CBT with clients: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, and Cock and Ball Torture! As a certified sex educator who has taught everywhere from public middle schools to church basements, I’m enthusiastic about providing real-talk, evidence-based, culturally-responsive information. In fact, I now coach other therapists in how to be more kink-inclusive with my Clinical Intro to Kinky Fuckery 101 and Multicultural Kinky Fuckery 201 workshops! Also, while I don’t work with couples/polycules as a relationship counselor, I’m very invigorated by my work with individual counseling ENM clients who practice solo poly or are part of a larger poly constellation.
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In a culture that relentlessly bullies men with hurtful, unhelpful messages such as “Boys don’t cry,” it can feel safer to shut down your feelings—but sooner or later, for many men, a lifetime of bottling up those feelings can lead to explosive (or implosive) outcomes. In working with male clients, it’s my goal to create an open, compassionate, space to practice vulnerability and self-disclosure. I want to assist you in better understanding your shame, because identifying why, when and how your self-doubt is activated allows you to reclaim your personal narrative. By seeking therapy, reading this page, and reaching out for help, you’ve already taken a brave, powerful step towards rewriting your story. You are enough-- and I want to help you learn how to own that.
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Looking for a therapist who will help you process your emotions about the Killing Eve series finale? Were your Animal Crossing villagers your main source of socialization for the first year of the pandemic? Do you feel validated by metaphors that compare your family of origin struggles to famous anime battles? If so, you've found the right clinician! Whether your relational trauma gets triggered by watching The Bachelorette or you're itching to discuss how the game mechanics of Hades mirror trauma recovery narrative, I want to use language and themes that resonate with you to help you gain insight about your own journey.
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While memes abound about “Former Gifted Kid Burnout Syndrome,” the reality is that many adults who grew up labelled as “gifted and talented” experience chronic exhaustion, due to high expectations of others and internal perfectionistic tendencies, lack of connection and intellectual intimacy with peers, and overwhelming existential ennui. It can be isolating to feel that you’re always two steps ahead of everyone else, and that others can’t “keep up with you.” Or, maybe you feel the world a little more strongly than those around you, and have been told that you’re “too sensitive” or “too fragile.” Being intellectually or emotionally exceptional means that you have a heightened ability to respond to stimuli… but brains that don’t fit the typical mold often face unique struggles that require novel strategies and solutions. As a therapist, I want to challenge and support you in becoming your healthiest and best self—whatever your exceptional therapeutic needs might be.
I went to a rural Lutheran college in the cornfields of Minnesota and received my Bachelor’s in Gender Studies, English, and Psychology, and my Midwestern roots mean that I’m always happy to discuss the intersection of spirituality and multicultural identity. Being a queer activist who spent all of undergrad researching and presenting on feminist pornography also means that my time in the Midwest helped me learn how to find creative, practical solutions to the daily hurts of living within systems of institutional marginalization. I then went off to New York City (where there were substantially fewer cows) for grad school, and got two Master’s degrees from Columbia University in multicultural counseling psychology. When I was at Columbia, I spent a year as a middle school guidance counselor, and leveraged that into writing an entire 8th grade sexual health education program from scratch for a Brooklyn public middle school-- which is still being taught to this day. After leaving NYC, I made my way out to the beautiful Pacific Northwest and became a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in Washington state, where I worked in private practice; spent a term at Seattle Central College’s inaugural counseling center, where I had the gratifying opportunity to attend to the social and emotional wellbeing of non-traditional college students; and even had the privilege of being the first therapist hired at a vibrant group practice specifically created to provide multiculturally-informed, LGBTQIA+ affirming care to underserved populations in rural Washington. Across all these clinical settings, my primary clinical specialization is very broadly gender, sex, and sexuality-- with a particular emphasis on the topics of kink education and male vulnerability.
When I'm not therapizing, I can often be found attempting recipes from Great British Bake-Off that are way above my technical skill level while listening to endless Lost rewatch podcasts, or crooning early 2010's pop punk songs while dancing around the office with my cats. (The best part of being a telehealth-only therapist is that my cats sometimes make on-screen appearances during video appointments!). I love watching Dungeons & Dragons streams and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and texting with my Marriage & Family Therapist colleagues to gossip about trashy reality TV dating shows.
