Transgender Affirming Therapy

Somatic mental health care

Trauma-informed bodywork

You want to be your truest self.

I want to help.

Whether you’re going through a transition or you’ve settled fully into who you are, we all can benefit from support.

Are you looking for mental health care that welcomes all of who you are?

Are you seeking bodywork that celebrates your trans body?

Do you need post-surgical support?

I’m honored to work with you.

I’m Mara Levy - pronouns they/them

Mara with teal hair and a studded denim jacket, leaning on a table looking calm.

I’m a licensed occupational therapist, a certified lymphedema therapist, and a somatic experiencing practitioner. I’m also queer and genderqueer.

I know how hard it is to find trans-affirming healthcare, so it’s important to me that I use my skills to support my community.

I want to see you thriving as yourself - as the most YOU that you can possibly be.

Check my bio to learn more about me. If you’re wondering whether I have experience with your particular situation, feel free to contact me.

We’re more than our genders.

Some of our care needs are specific to the trans experience, such as recovery from gender-affirming surgery. Others are universal but disproportionately affect the trans community, such as the need for trauma healing. We also have a high number of neurodiverse and chronically ill folks that need affirming care.

Some of my treatment approaches and focus areas that are particularly relevant to the trans community are listed here.

Treatment Approaches

  • I’m an occupational therapist (OT) by license and training, so really everything I do is OT. That means my primary goal is to help you live your most meaningful life, no matter what that looks like.

  • Somatic Experiencing (SE) is a gentle approach for healing trauma, starting with the body.

  • Interoception is the sense that allows us to feel inside our body. It’s how we can tell that we’re hungry or tired. It’s also how we experience our emotions.

    Building interoception helps us hear what our body is telling us and figure out how we can take care of ourselves.

  • Health at Every Size is a radical framework that challenges society’s anti-fat bias and beliefs about what it means to be healthy.

    My own practice is explicitly fat-positive and size neutral. Every person, at every size, deserves the very best care I can give them.

  • Also called manual lymphatic drainage (MLD), lymphatic drainage uses gentle touch to support the immune system, reduce swelling, and speed recovery from surgery.

  • Even gentler than lymphatic massage, craniosacral therapy supports the central nervous system to relieve pain and dysfunction.

  • A combination of lymphatic drainage and craniosacral techniques support the body in clearing waste from the brain to reduce inflammation and improve neurologic function.

  • Fascia is a network of connective tissue that surrounds and holds our organs, muscle fibers, blood vessels, nerve fibers. Ideally, layers of fascia slide smoothly for full mobility. Surgery, stress, injury, scarring, overuse, and underuse can all cause the fascia to get tight and sticky.

    Myofascial release uses sustained pressure and stretching to help restore mobility and relieve tension. It’s particularly useful in recovery from top surgery.

  • Scars can cause tightness, discomfort, and restrictions in movement, but they can keep healing for months or even years after they form. We can maximize the healing of scars using myofascial release techniques, kinesiotaping, cupping, and other hands-on techniques.

Focus Areas

    • Top surgery - masculinizing and feminizing

    • Liposuction

    • Other plastic surgery

    • Orthopedic surgery

    • work with your nervous system, not against it

    • cycle smoothly between activation and deactivation

    • get unstuck from fight, flight, or freeze

    • Build interoception skills

    • Reconnect with your body’s cues

    • Build a more trusting relationship with your body

    • Find your glimmers and gender euphoria

    • Manage episodes of dysphoria

    • Release societal standards for bodies

    • work with your unique brain to survive in a capitalist society

    • relieve fatigue with gentle bodywork

    • manage fatigue with better pacing, using skills in listening to the body

    • relieve stress and inflammation with bodywork

    • challenge expectations causing you stress

    • build routines that support you

    • neurolymphatic drainage and craniosacral therapy to relieve brain fog

    • pacing to manage the fatigue triggering brain fog

    • executive function support to keep going while living with brain fog

  • Neurodiversity affirming support

    • build body awareness skills

    • create supportive strategies

    • reduce and heal from autistic burnout

You may notice that I don’t include writing gender affirming letters as one of my services. Because my license is as an occupational therapist, I’m not confident that a letter from me will help meet insurance requirements.

I’m happy to write a letter for existing clients, but people looking for a mental health provider to write a letter may want look at the Gender Affirmative Letter Access Project.

Schedule a free curiosity call if you’d like to discuss whether I can support your specific situation, or if you just want to feel out my vibes.

Logistics

For hands-on care, schedule a “Bodywork” appointment type.

For primarily mental health or talk-based care, schedule a “Somatic therapy” appointment type.

Appointments are $195 for a 60 minute session or $270 for a 90 minute session.

A limited number of sliding scale appointments are available.

Insurance is not accepted, but you can use your FSA/HSA.

A superbill can be provided if arranged in advance.

Your odds of getting reimbursed by insurance may improve if you have a doctor’s referral that says “occupational therapy” and the medical diagnosis I’m treating.

Appointments are at an ADA-compliant office suite in downtown Silver Spring, MD just north of Washington, DC.