About the Therapist
Besides therapist, other occupations I’ve held include artist, builder, cook, graphic designer, driver, drummer, social worker, writer, and technician. I’ve been called many things by others: hardworking, lazy, poor, privileged, crazy, ugly, cool, unfocused, enlightened and LOUD. A hippy, a punk, a heathen, a genius and a fool. A lover and a fighter, they’ve called me an oaf, a man, woman—white, straight and gay. A philosopher, and a comedian one the same.
Born in Hempstead, on Long Island and having come of age on Staten Island, the last borough of New York City, and after September 11, 2001, I needed breathing room. So, I went west. Perhaps it’s a compliment that a native New Yorker finds Seattle and the greater Pacific Northwest to have the most beautiful summer of this great (I still believe) Country.
Having never been motivated by money in most of my life’s endeavors, helping people with mental illness, perhaps obscured when I was younger, was an incontrovertible calling. Truth be told, I was an unemployed graphic designer-drummer when I started this career in 2004—driving a food donation truck for Community House Mental Health Agency on Fridays, for $9.25 an hour. And drumming, unpaid of course, in an indie-pop rock band typical of Seattle. Doing this work became the impetus to a Master’s degree in Social Work from University of Washington. Philosopher, and a comedian one the same.
My bedside manner is direct, at times brutally honest, and it can be said that my show can be rated ‘R’. I profess that a successful therapeutic relationship requires 100% effort from a client as well as the therapist. Under my care, success comes only for those who truly desire change and are ready to do the work. I respectfully decline to work with those sent to therapy by others such as a parent, a spouse, or a judge.
Kevin, Aristotle’s founding therapist, is currently licensed in Washington State as a Clinical Social Worker (LICSW) and has been serving the mental health community in Seattle and greater Puget Sound Area since 2004.
