Allison Gasca-Backman
Specialties:
Allison Gasca-Backman
Allison Gasca-Backman (LMSW/MPH, she/her/hers) graduated with a Master’s in Social Work from Boston University in 2017, where she focused on learning methods to help individuals and communities work through and heal from trauma. Since then, Allison has worked with adults of all ages who are struggling with depression, anxiety, immigration stress, past trauma, disordered eating and exercise, grief, pregnancy, issues with acculturation and identity formation, and the general stress of living and functioning in a world that is often unkind to folks.
Topics of interest include identity, oppression, culture, trauma, body image, and early life experiences that shape how we view the world as adults.
As a practitioner, Allison pulls from a variety of techniques and theories, as she believes that a “one size fits all” approach can harm clients and does not allow them to express their needs fully. Allison pulls from models such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Liberation Health, Motivational Interviewing, and Narrative Therapy, and she uses a strengths-based, empowerment-focused approach. Allison considers her clients to be the experts of their own experience, and she simply serves as a consultant to help them identify where and how they want to grow into their best selves. Allison is aware of the often negative impacts that the dominant worldview places on all of us, and she is attuned to the fact that society treats everyone differently based on their various intersecting identities. She is comfortable discussing privilege and oppression and how these concepts differentially impact clients, especially with regard to race, culture, health/ability status, religion, sexuality, and gender identity. She is also eager to be your co-conspirator in challenging and breaking down some of these structural barriers in order to help you find your own voice and to live more freely and wholly in your identity.
Allison considers the therapist-client relationship to be sacred, and she is honored to share space with her clients as they work through some of their innermost pain on their journey to find peace. Seeking out therapy for the first (or second or third or fourth!) time is incredibly brave, and Allison honors your vulnerability and commitment to invest fully in yourself. She looks forward to working with you.