"I want to reclaim space; I want to rest my weight against the boundaries set by others and push against them.
Writing this is a push, making a little more room for myself and – I hope – others. Can you feel it?"
-Nell Brown, "This Love"
(Stim: An Autistic Anthology)
The Properties of Light grew into existence as a small, personal act of resistance.
Resistance to experiences of pathology, othering, and disempowerment. Resistance to socialization that prioritizes assimilation over authenticity. Resistance to narratives that focus on fear and threats to survival, with little space for joy. Resistance to a culture where care and inclusion are commodities, where we are presented with a false binary of choice between caring for ourselves and caring for others. Resistance to tokenization in systems which continue to perpetuate cycles of harm rather than work to dismantle them.
Hi, I’m Rachel (they/she).
I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, and the founder/owner/operator of The Properties of Light, LLC.
The properties of light is the product of my own journey of (un)learning and acceptance, and the accompanying process of intentionally integrating my "selves" - my professional expertise as an educator and clinical social worker, and my lived experiences as a non-binary + multiply neurodivergent/neuroqueer person, partner, and parent.
It is quite literally the outcome of my realization of all that was nameless and formless - and deeply felt - throughout a great deal of my life. And as a true representation of the ways in which I have always moved through the world, it was born of a pervasive drive for autonomy, with the presence of hope and spite in equal measure.
Currently I offer clinical services including individual and group counseling for queer, trans, & non-binary + autistic & multiply neurodivergent young people up to age 12, and autistic-centered diagnostic evaluation services for autism (and/or adhd) for people of all ages. I also spend time building groups and community offerings, developing and facilitating workshops and trainings of many kinds, and provide consultation and advanced training in my areas of lived + learned experience.
For more on my current consultative & training offerings - click here!
For more on my approach to affirming and inclusive diagnostic evaluation services - click here!
For more on my approach to therapy services with youth - click here!
When not in this space, I can be found reading anything and everything, trying to learn all I can about this world while attempting to find my place in it - guided daily by the young people in my love and care.
My Credentials:
Licensed Clinical Social Worker - Supervisor (LCSW)
Board Approved LCSW Supervisor, Virginia
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, VA
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, NY
ADHD - Certified Clinical Service Provider (ADHD-CCSP)
Certified Clinical Trauma Provider (CCTP)
Certified Provider of Safe and Sound Protocol (SSP)
Game to Grow Method of Therapeutically Applied Role-Playing Games, Level 1
Trained Facilitator, Circle of Parents
My Current Affiliations:
Founder, Centering Trans Joy: A Coalition of Therapists for Youth and Families
Founder, NeuroqueerVA
Member, Transgender Professional Association for Transgender Health (TPATH)
Member, Association for Size Diversity and Health (ASDH); Health at Any Size
"The quality of light by which we scrutinize our lives has direct bearing upon the product which we live, and upon the changes which we hope to bring about through those lives.
It is within this light that we form these ideas by which we pursue our magic and make it realized.
This is poetry as illumination, for it is through poetry that we give name to those ideas which are - until the poem - nameless and formless, about to be birthed, but already felt.”
-Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider
My mission to center authenticity, healing & belonging for neurodivergent* + queer, trans, & non-binary people
includes community for providers, too.