Meet the Team
Alethea Burns
Founding MemberShe/They
Alethea is committed to creating a space where people can feel seen, heard, and understood. Through experience in counseling, foster care, and medical social work over the past fifteen years, she developed a trauma-informed approach that is rooted in reflecting the complexities of each person’s experience and meeting them where they are. Alethea is passionate about queer liberation, neorodiversity education, and disability justice.
Founding MemberHyacinth Bellerose
She/Her
Hyacinth is a disabled, transgender community organizer and aspiring abolitionist. She is the founder of Friendly City Safe Space and co-founder of Cville Fatties. Hyacinth is passionate about queer theory, community building, resilience, and unpacking the impact of white supremacy on her body and work. Also, a certified disability justice for sexuality and wellness professional, Hyacinth centers disability justice and queer liberation in everything that she does.
Elise Gibson
Founding MemberShe/Her
Elise Gibson is a clinical social worker based in Richmond, VA, who brings a strengths-based, empowerment-focused approach to her practice. She believes every person carries a natural inclination toward wellness, and that therapy works best when it helps people tap into the internal resources they already possess. Elise is committed to making mental health care genuinely accessible and meeting people in their full context, and rejecting the gatekeeping that too often keeps support out of reach.
