A PERSONAL MESSAGE FROM KATE

Hello, and with all my heart, welcome!

With great respect, I welcome you as you are. I am filled with gratitude that you are reading this message because it means that you are curious or moved in some way by what Disabled Duo embodies. I welcome any and all conversations about disability, traumatic stress, and sexuality. The terms disability, sexuality, and even trauma are broad, general, culturally shaped, and culturally fully loaded.

I practice psychotherapy using modalities that are grounded in safety, meaningful connection, and solace. I work with my clients as a witness and a collaborator in creating a therapeutic relationship that is grounded in empathy, ethics, and equanimity.

I invite you to share any or all of the terms or qualities that you embody. In particular, I would be grateful to know how to address you accurately by honoring your personhood on your own terms (pun intended 😄): gender, preferences for intimate partner(s) or romantic partner(s) who emody specific qualities, any mental, physical, or emotional limitations, chronic illness status, trauma history, disability, spitituality, religion, ethnicity, nationality, language, financial status, profession, and any other culture or uniquely awesome feature, quality, or term that you embody.

I look forward to connecting with you! If you would like to learn more about my work, please scroll down.

 
 
Kate with ADA service dog, Lucy

Kate with ADA service dog, Lucy

Kate and Lucy filled with Pride. Love is love.

Kate and Lucy filled with Pride. Love is love.

Lucy is a faithful co-therapist sharing empathy and connection with everyone.

Lucy is a faithful co-therapist sharing empathy and connection with everyone.

about kate

KATHERINE A. WOLOVSKY, MA, AMFT #121247

Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist Sex Therapist, Researcher, Educator, Speaker, Advocate, Disabled Person, Gender Undefinable

Pronouns: Ve/Ver/Vers, She/Her/Hers, & They/Their/Theirs

Kate is a psychotherapist, sex therapist, clinical researcher, speaker, writer, and advocate, specializing in disability, sexuality, and traumatic stress. Kate sheds light into these marginalized realities, and exposes the gaps in knowledge, training, and professional care that “other” or exclude people from accessing full enjoyment of their life.

Kate partners with people navigating the realities of disability and sexuality from all perspectives: individuals, couples, health and wellness professionals (medical and non-medical), academicians, scientific researchers, and organizations. Kate embodies wisdom earned through not just living, but learning to thrive with incurable illnesses and conditions (like MS, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, hypopituitarisum, primary immune deficiency, etc.), chronic pain, limiting symptoms related to multiple disabilities, aging, caregiving for others, and navigating gender and sexuality in a binary culture within a social media landscape.

Kate’s approach is centered on safety, connection, witnessing, and a collaborative journey to a healing, intimate connection to oneself and to others. Kate’s work is grounded in the Polyvagal Theory, which scientifically locates the human experience of trauma, pain, safety, and connectedness within the interpersonal and intrapersonal realms of experience and an awareness of the body, mind, brain, and spirit.

Kate incorporates nondualism from the perspective of tantric philosophy, progressive education principles, and therapeutic work with music, sound, and the voice. Combining art with science, Kate actively witnesses and evokes the interplay between intuitive creativity and logical, functional pragmatism, inviting an exploration of cultural narratives, human history, origins, and evolution, and opportunities for evolving the connection all humans need to feel safe, peaceful, and connected to self, intimate or romantic partner(s), communities, and the world that supports us all.

Kate is profoundly honored to work under the supervision of renowned gender specialist, sex therapist, teacher, advocate, and devoted servant to survivors of sexual trauma and the LGBTQIA+ community, Stephen L. Braveman, DST, LMFT Licsence #MFC28926. Kate works with clients at an accessible office at Shine a Light Counseling Center in Monterey, a nonprofit organization that offers sliding scale fees for everyone.

To connect with Kate, please click here.

 

WISDOM, CREDENTIALS, & PROJECTS

  • Life! :) Kate possesses a growing breadth of life experience that includes the pivotal experiences of life, death, pain, illness, grief, awareness, embodiment, meaning-making, and decades of experience as a counseling client committed to evolving self-knowledge and serving as a witness for others.

  • Award-winning researcher, recipient of the 2019 Palo Alto University Stars Award for Excellence in Research for Kate’s work to explore professional knowledge, training, and experience with serving clients navigating disability and sexuality.

  • Clinical Research Fellow, at The Kinsey Insitute Traumatic Stress Reserach Consortium (TSRC) at Indiana University, Bloomington focusing on the Trauma Recovery Initiative, which includes survey studies focusing on the diverse range of embodied human experiences that people have during the COVID-19 pandemic.

  • Co-Author of the International, Inclusive Survey: Body, Mind, & COVID-19 with colleagues from the Kinsey Instiute TSRC of a survey that allows diverse people the opporunity and platform to share their unique mind and body experiences during the pandemic. For more information, or to take this confidential survey, please go to Knsy.in/COVIDsation

  • Co-Director of The Kinsey Institute Trauma Stress Research Consortium (KI-TSRC) Advisory Council

  • Wahls Protocol® Certified Health Professional

  • Safe and Sound Protocol® Certified Practitioner

  • MA in Counseling from Palo Alto University

  • 30 years as a practitioner and educaitonal facilitator of meditation

  • Opera singer, classically trained coloratura soprano

  • Authorized facilitator of The VoixTek® Method, a broadly accessible vocal training program designed to support vocal health, overall physical health, and mental health by activating the social engagement system, which Kate’s colleague, Dr. Stephen Porges, originator of Polyvagal Theory, identifies is one of the most valuable therapies for trauma survivors

  • Gryotonic® exercise practitioner

  • Gender specialist, trained and supported by her mentor, supervisor, and renowned gender specialist Stephen Braveman, DST, License #MFC28926 in serving transgender folx as a sex therapist trainee and marriage and family therapist trainee according to the WPATH Standards of Care

  • Kink & BDSM Aware Practitioner, possessing the knowledge, training, and experience to witness all expressions of consensual sexual pleasure and adventure

  • 18 years of experience in the nonprofit world, engaging in philanthropic activism in support of local 501(c)3 organizations that offer a range of ecological, biopsychosocial support to their community. Click here to learn more about Kate’s advocacy work.

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS

Kate is honoured to be a member of the following organizations and to benefit from sharing resources, research, ideas, and witnessing and absorbing the wisdom of ver professional colleagues.

  • American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT)

  • World Professional Association for Transgender Health (WPATH)

  • United States Association of Body Psychotherapy (USABP)

  • Society for the Scientific Study of Sexuality (SSSS)

  • International Society for the Study of Women's Sexual Health (ISSWSH)

  • American Counseling Association (ACA)

  • American Psychological Association (APA) (including multiple divisions)

  • California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT)

  • International Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (IAMFT)