meet tess!
meet tess
tess lavelle-sutton (she/they) is a RSW who arrives at her practice with over 5 years of professional experience alongside a lifetime of lived experiences supporting those impacted by mental health challenges.
they have offered counselling services in multiple community-based settings, with individuals and groups from a variety of different backgrounds, identities, and intersectionalities. tess has been a strong advocate for barrier-reduced, accessible, and equitable services that are co-created and co-developed by the communities and clients they are for.
tess is passionate about working from an intersectional feminist lens and holds the belief that each person is the expert of their own experiences. with this lens, she positions herself as a collaborator with the folks she works with, aiming to respect varying pace, needs, and goals.
with lived experience as a queer, and neurodivergent person, tess understands and recognizes the impacts that systems and social structures rooted in oppression can have on individual, and community wellbeing. they have had a wide array of lived experience including but not limited to grief/loss, exploring personal identity, diagnoses, navigating mental health systems, and having loved ones facing challenges with substance use.
tess takes a trauma-informed approach to counselling and strives to create a space that is genuine, non-judgmental, and compassionate.
tess enjoys hiking, travelling, solving puzzles, listening to audiobooks, paint by numbers, lego, making dad jokes, grounding themselves through music, deep dive googling miscellaneous topics their brain spontaneously produces, and seeking out their next new hobby fixation. she loves to spend time with friends and family, but also prioritizes alone time to recharge and reconnect with herself.
tess is currently accepting clients and also has a limited number of available appointments for accessible counselling through our sliding scale services. for more information, clients can contact tess at tess@kristenhydescounselling.com