— THE WORK
Online therapy
for folks on the margins of the mainstream
in North Carolina and South Carolina
Trauma and anxiety therapy for outsiders, cycle breakers, and black sheep who feel at odds with the world around them and who are ready to get braver and feel safer, more connected, and more at home in their own lives. Helping therapy-seekers whose life experiences are defined by being on the margins of the mainstream, whether that’s through queerness, neurodivergence, unconventional relationship structures, or some other aspect of who they are, what they’ve lived through, and what they desire. Supporting people to not only manage symptoms, but to grow agency, meaning, belonging, and freedom to exist as they are.
Chelsea Sokolow, LCSW
North Carolina Licensed Clinical Social Worker
Independent Social Worker Telehealth Provider - SC
Telehealth - NC & SC
Specializing in:
Therapy for Western North Carolina
Therapy for Asheville, NC
unconventional relationship models (polyamory, non-monogamy, relationship anarchy)
anxiety and complex trauma
outsiders, cycle breakers and black sheep
— THE RIGHT FIT
Who this work is a good fit for
I work with people who hold identities and experiences that create extra friction in their life, and that make existing in this world as a human that much harder. The people I work with are often bright, loving, creative…and anxious AF. Sometimes they look like they are functioning well on the outside, maybe even as proverbial high achievers juggling oh so many plates in the air. But inside they are chronically overwhelmed - to the point where even sending an email or making a quick phone call can feel like a herculean feat. The get irritable and snippy, feel deeply exhausted by the demands of life. Anxiety has become such a baseline, it feels impossible to imagine any other way of being. They struggle to relax, to put things down, to let go of control, to even imagine what it might feel like to truly feel at ease. They oscillate between feeling like they’re just going through the motions, wondering if this is all there is to life, and bracing against the world as their emotions suddenly crash over them like a tsunami, so big they can barely breathe. And the whole time there’s this nagging rub - it’s hard to be a human in the world. They grapple with the friction caused in their lives by swimming against the current of mainstream society.
This work might be a good fit for you if:
🐏 You feel like you’re the black sheep in your family, community, or culture, and you struggle to feel a deep sense of belonging.
🎭 You’re confused about how much is “you” and how much is trauma, masking, or survival mode.
🌀 You feel emotionally burnt out and stuck in cycles of anxiety, over-functioning, overthinking, and persistent self-doubt. You second-guess yourself constantly.
Your life looks alright on the outside, but underneath it all you can’t shake the belief that you’re not doing it right, that there’s fundamentally something wrong with you, and that it’s your fault that life doesn’t feel easier.
😵💫 You work hard to show up, but you still feel frustrated, confused, let down, or misunderstood in your relationships and connections.
❤️🩹 You’re not sure when or how it happened, but you feel disconnected from your own joy, creativity, or sense of self.
🤯 You feel deep anger and grief about the state of the world around you. You can’t figure out what in the world to focus on in your own life when it feels like the whole world is on fire. Existential anxiety and despair has you frozen and stuck on the couch for hours (or days) at a time.
This isn’t sustainable. You need something to shift.
You want to feel connected, safer, and more at ease in your own life.
You want to trust yourself more.
— WHAT WE’LL BUILD TOGETHER
With support, people who are a good for this work tend to develop and deepen:
🧠 Clarity – untangle what’s yours from what the world projected onto you
💜 Compassion – turn down the volume on the inner critic and untangle shame from your sense of self and your inner narratives
🌱 Resilience – tools for nervous system healing and emotional capacity building, even in the face of systemic bullshit
🔥 Agency – reclaim your power in a world that often tries to take it — rekindle your connection to joy, creativity, and a sense of purpose
🌈 Authenticity – embrace your difference as a source of wisdom and power
💫 Belonging – cultivate relationships and community and a connection to yourself that makes you feel at home
— CLEAR IS KIND
When this might not be the right fit
My practice is not the right fit if:
You are in acute psychiatric crisis and need that level of support. You are exclusively looking for insurance-based care. You are adverse to depth-oriented work or want a therapist who won’t challenge you. You are wanting a highly structured protocol based approach. You are looking for couples therapy. You are looking for an apolitical therapist.
— THE WORK ITSELF
Therapeutic approach and my vibe as a therapist
The human experience is complex, and deserves an approach that can hold a lot of nuance. For this reason, I use an highly integrative approach in my work - pulling deeply from intersectional feminist therapy, interpersonal neurobiology, parts work, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, depth psychology, person-centered and radically compassionate approaches. Through these approaches we work not only to understand what’s going on for you internally, but to help you figure out what to do and how to move forward in your life in ways that feel meaningful. As a baseline, the work is trauma-informed, non-pathologizing, identity-affirming, and liberation-focused.
Perhaps most importantly, my approach to therapy is centered around people’s innate agency, autonomy, and capacity for self-determination. I’m not going to tell you what to do with your one wild and precious life. Your life is your own. I view therapy as an opportunity for intentional collaboration, skill-building and the sharing of resources and helpful tools. I recognize that individuals’ experiences are deeply rooted in the social, cultural, historical, and political context, and I view personal healing and growth as intimately intertwined with building a more just and equitable world on a systems level. I believe that everyone is doing their absolute best with the tools, resources, skills and knowledge that they have available to them. And that everyone deserves radical kindness and fierce support - no matter what they are facing or have experienced.
My vibe is relaxed and informal, but also clear and direct. You can trust me to hold and respect boundaries, and for our work together to be stable and consistent. I show up in the room as a real live human, with a lot of intention and care, and a little mischievousness and challenge. My goal is to help your life feel both more meaningful and a little lighter. I’ll be in your corner, cheering hard, the whole way through.
— BACKGROUND
Credentials and Experience
I’m a queer therapist with multigenerational roots in Western North Carolina, and a fierce allegiance to Appalachia come hell or high water. I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, practicing as a therapist since 2021. My work as a therapist is greatly informed by the work I did before I became a therapist. Before becoming a therapist I worked in community organizing and social change, in language justice as a simultaneous interpreter, in international education and leadership development in Nicaragua and Mexico City, as direct care staff with survivors of intimate personal violence and in wilderness therapy, and doing the Asheville hustle (if you know, you know) of juggling work in restaurants and bars to make ends meet alongside other projects. As a therapist, I have extensive experience and training in working with queer/LGBTQIA+ folks, trans and gender non-conforming people, late discovered neurodivergence (ADHD, autism, complex trauma), non-monogamy, identity-based and politicized trauma, cycle breakers and change-makers, and other therapists.
(Formal) Education
🎓 Masters in Social Work from Western Carolina University
🎓 Bachelor of the Arts in Latin American and Caribbean studies from Brown University
📚 with an additional course of study in geography and the environment at Pontifícia Universidade Católica in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
🎓 North Carolina School of Science and Math
Practical Details
— LOGISTICS
Licensure
NC - Licensed Clinical Social Worker
SC - Independent Social Worker Telehealth Provider
Who I See
adults for individual therapy only
Session Format
telehealth only
available to people in North Carolina or South Carolina
early morning appointments available
Payment
private pay - no insurance accepted
superbills available upon request
accepted forms of payment: FSA, HSA, all major credit cards
Fees
initial 85 min intake assessment: $225
55 min therapy sessions: $170