Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Birch Psychology and its clinicians stand in solidarity with traditionally underrepresented and marginalized communities including the LGBTQIA+ community, communities of color, neurodivergent people, individuals with disabilities, people of various faith backgrounds, immigrants and refugees, and people across socioeconomic statuses. 

We welcome all people and genuinely value the diversity of our community. We acknowledge that we each move through the world with our own privilege, power, and biases. We recognize the significant impact that white supremacy and the colonization of mental health practices has on both the individuals that we serve, and ourselves. With this in mind, we strive to maintain a perspective of humility and curiosity, and to mitigate these impacts wherever we can. 

The Birch Psychology team is committed to the ongoing, often uncomfortable work of confronting and challenging individual and systemic bias. We recognize the vulnerability required to reach out for mental health support and strive to be a mental health practice where you can feel comfortable being your whole, authentic self. 

A note about the financial accessibility of our services.

As a practice, we are constantly trying to strike a balance between supporting our staff of mental health professionals and providing accessible services to our community. We acknowledge that the fees for our services can be restrictive AND we want our providers to be compensated in a way that supports the sustainability of their professional roles. Birch Psychology adopts a primarily self-pay model because we have found that it best serves these two competing priorities. When possible, we offer sliding scale and pro bono service options as responsive solutions to accessibility challenges. On average, each clinician at Birch Psychology maintains one third of their client slots for sliding scale, probono, or Medicaid. If you are experiencing cost as a barrier to accessing the mental health services you need, we encourage you to connect with your provider or our practice manager to discuss your options.


Representation

Within our practice, some of the diverse identities represented include:

  • Clinicians who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community

  • Clinicians of color

  • Clinicians that represent a wide variety of ages

  • Clinicians who have identified disabilities

  • Clinicians who are neurodivergent

  • Clinicians who speak languages of other than English

  • Clinicians from diverse religious and spiritual groups

Action

Some of the actions our practice takes in commitment to DEI include:

  • Providing free seasonal support groups

  • Offering pro-bono and sliding scale services

  • 20+ clinicians available to accept Medicaid

  • Community partnerships that increase ease of access to mental health services and offset the client’s out of pocket expense

  • Physically accessible therapy spaces and telehealth offerings

  • Therapy and assessment services offered in Spanish, French, and Arabic (with a translation service available to assist in more languages)

  • A committee of dedicated Birch Clinicians who meet monthly to plan continued actions steps around DEI