A bit about me
Hello, I’m Eula Lys (pronounced “oi-lah leese”).
I’m a therapist because I believe in the healing strength of being with: Being with our feelings, our present moment experience, and each other. So often, we walk through life feeling alone and disconnected. Therapy is a place for you to feel and experience change, and to not be alone in navigating the hard and scary parts.
I take a non-pathologizing approach, honoring the strategies that got you to this moment, and supporting you as you unfold into your authentic self.
I’m a dog lover, and I am currently the pup parent of two adorable chihuahuas, who you might see from time to time in our sessions together. I also love cooking and baking, birdwatching, and playing cozy games and tabletop RPG games.
My values
I center your lived experience in our therapy, but because therapists are not blank slates, here are some identities and values to help you land with me:
I’m non-binary and trans, and use they/them pronouns. I came out as trans in my mid-30s, and have navigated the process for gender affirming surgeries. I’m white, with German and Norwegian ancestry.
I believe in: land back and rematriation of indigenous land, Black Lives Matter, trans rights are human rights, harm reduction, mutual and direct aid, poly, kink and sex positivity, disability justice, anti-Zionism,anti-capitalism, critical race theory, sex work is work, and anti-carceral care.
We do not need to agree on our values to work together. In the therapeutic space your goals are centered. I believe in cultural humility and ongoing learning/ re-learning for myself. I believe that my clients are the the experts on their lives and lived experiences and define their own goals, and that my role ranges from support to collaboration. I strive to create a space that holds intersectionality, examine isms, power and privilege, and acknowledgement of intergenerational trauma and resistance.
I have experience in advocacy, social work and animal welfare. Prior to becoming a therapist, I spent years working as a humane dog trainer, and still love working with and rescuing fearful, senior dogs.
I lived in the Bay Area (San Francisco and Oakland) for 14 years, and now live in Mexico.
Me With You
The field of psychotherapy has a long lineage of colonization, and has historically not met the needs of many communities, particularly the BIPOC, queer and trans communities. While I honor the teachings and teachers who have guided me along the way, I also hold that most westernized healing frameworks, including many listed below, are appropriated from traditional indigenous healing practices, including somatics, storytelling, mindfulness, and movement.
As a human, I hold your cultural and relational needs as my primary focus. We collaborate together, holding your humanity above any particular modality. As a clinician, the below modalities and professional trainings inform my work:
Relational Somatic Healing: A modality that aims to heal relational and developmental trauma, helping folx develop and experience healthy secure relationships within themselves and outside the therapeutic setting
Relational Somatic Healing: Shirley Dvir | Relational Somatic Healing
Internal Family Systems: A collaborative model that uses a parts work lens to heal trauma
Somatic, experiential therapy: A form of therapy that uses present-moment awareness to foster new reparative and healing experiences in session
Emotion-Focused Therapy: An attachment-focused method of therapy for relationships that fosters connection and new, positive cycles of interaction