Jovan Rivera-Lovato (they/them)

Hello! My name is Jovan (juh-vahn), and I use they/them pronouns. I was born and raised on Cheyenne, Ute, and Arapaho homelands currently occupied by the state of Colorado. Throughout my education and practice, I’ve developed a women of color feminist lens which I hope to use in service of movements for abolition, decolonization, and socialism. As a therapist, I embody theory in the flesh by bringing both our lived experiences, our collective genius, to the center of the counseling process. My goal is to connect as we explore what's concerning you. In doing so, I hope to be in good relation with one another in spite of these wicked systems which would have us remain isolated. While I have the most experience with queer and trans people of color, young adults, and disabled adults; I am happy and humbled to sit down and chat with anyone who's open to discussing how power, privilege, and oppression impact their concerns. I believe wholeheartedly in the Three C's: coffee, carbs, and cheese! I love anime, funk and heavy metal, horror, and anything sci-fi. Core Values: Authenticity: bringing one’s real experience, feelings, and thoughts into relationship. Must be done with sensitivity and awareness to the possible impact on others of one’s actions. Requires one not lose sight of the other’s humanity. Does not give permission for total reactivity and does not involve always telling the whole truth. Rather, sharing “one true thing” that will move the therapy in a positive way (Jordan, 101; Walker, 80). Empathy: connecting (resonating, feeling, sensing, cognitively grasping) with another’s experience. Can stimulate growth when done with mutuality. Each must see their impact on the other to decrease our feelings of isolation. Helps us to be mindful that what we experience as the Other is part of the humanity we all share. Involves courage more than comfort. May be a portal to conflict, the space where new possibilities might emerge. Mutuality: capacity for respect, having an impact on the other, and being open to being changed by the other. A shared activity in which all people involved are participating as fully as possible. Does not mean sameness, equality, or reciprocity. Allows us to assess our own experience with more clarity and for our hard line boundaries to soften, becoming more permeable. Difference: commitment to building new and healthy patterns for meeting across social categories (such as race, class, gender, sexuality, etc.) with equitable power and for the purpose of survival, healing, justice, and joy. Conflict: an inevitable process of disagreement. The source of all growth and an absolute necessity if one is to be alive. When done with the above values, leaves us more connected, learning, and positively changed. Can deepen trust rather than rupture relationship. Does not mean it will always work out or prevent further conflict. Hope: an unwavering trust in the collective genius of all the people who have survived these wicked systems of oppression. From the bottom will the genius come that makes our ability to live with each other possible. To script a narrative that foregoes the contradictory and misguided dream of making a colonial empire more inclusive and more relational with humanity and with the earth.