Today we’d like to introduce you to Orion Crook.
Hi Orion, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
Oh golly, I got started by being an iridescent sacral Elvin queer’d spirit placed into what we call a human body. In terms of how I got to where I am today, I would have to speak to the nature of being a hybrid of both my parent’s biological ancestral lineages and the nurturing of now (nearly 4) decades of self, chosen family, and time itself not to mention what feels like endless ephemeral happenings that have sculpted me, that I still am becoming with and processing. The stories are endless, and in this moment, I am more interested in creating what’s here and now and what’s next.
Yet, it’s pretty important to acknowledge I was born in New York as an Elvin healer, raised in Miami, which helped me check my whiteness fairly early, and moved to Georgia to continue growing a tap root deep into the complex history here. I came to Georgia to complete the Humanistic, Existential, and Transpersonal Psychology Master of Arts program at the University of West Georgia. A program that believes in studying yourself as much as it does therapeutic relating with others. The program I went to was actually a Master in the Arts, which says a lot. The practice of psychotherapy is an art form that is an engagement in the science of psychology and is one of the places I derive the most meaning and purpose in my life.
Another place I derive. a lot of challenge, joy, and bliss is my relationship to making art and generally being an expressive being. Playfully it’s hard for me to not do something and be creative about it. My friend will happily gab to you about the creative dishes I’ve brought to the potlucks over the years. One of the series in my mixed media paintings is over 200 attempts at transcribing and documenting my core. When I initially went so far back in a meditation that I reached the place before I was called into this life, what I felt there was a glowing ball of light, kinda like magma. I decided it was so hot I could place the full range of the best and worst of my life, and it still would grow bigger. It’s not just about the paintings and sculptures, though. It’s a living imaginal somatic embodiment in my chest. Over the years of re-encountering my core and doing work to savor the bliss of life into it and catalyze its growth, I have developed what feels like a new organ in my system. A physical place I can go when I need to tap into my core self that has all some of the best parts of my consciousness saved and waiting for me, especially when I am dysregulated. I work with a lot of my clients to help them tap into this deep place and let the mind place an object as a space holder there to remind them and then encourage them to paint it, wear charms to remind them of it, and some even go as far to build an altar to their core. Do you know what’s in the deepest part of your core? If not, you can always choose, and the major point is to update it and add more as time goes on, especially in moments when you are in your grounded/higher selves and feeling yourself.
I have lived in Atlanta for about 16 years, often finding my hands digging in the dirt, transforming horticultural landscapes, and exploring art forms like a passion I couldn’t put down if I tried. Although I miss the ocean, this city has afforded me an amazing life. I believe we are the Civil Rights Capital of the nation, and Cop City Will Never Be Built.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Growing up queer in my gender and sexuality without the language we have today had effects on me. I’ll spend the rest of my life sorting through and unraveling. However, in my decade and a half here in and around the Atlanta area, I have come to find and partake in radically queer communities that have helped hold space where I can be incredibly vulnerable and even go beyond myself in order to know my queer spirit and where my own personal fluid boundaries are. The current political climate is a nearly unbearable disgrace to our human consciousness and spirit. This is a subject that I have a hard time putting words to the effect this has on me, my communities, clients, and the future we are sowing now.
One of my current efforts I find my time going towards is turning the Therapeutic Artists Residency Project that offers artists free individual and group therapy into a larger umbrella nonprofit called the Therapeutic Artists Resource. TAR is working to fund initiatives that provide communal care through creative studios, living, and public events at the intersections of the psyche, spirit, art, and activism. We center queer and transgender individuals alongside expressive creation as a regenerative form of activism, trauma processing, and visioning the future’s potential. We believe through intentional collective articulation, reality becomes more understood and leads us to re-encounter our core self, experience bliss, and catalyze a sustainable future. We believe art has the ability to help us process what words cannot, and activism/advocacy needs regenerative practice in order to sustain themselves. I will say they don’t make understanding how to start and run a non-profit easy, but there are some great non-profits (DFOWW.org) out there whose mission it is to help just that. I’ve learned to go slow and steady, work in spurts of energy and rest, and lean on workshops and mentors.
Possibly, one of my biggest challenges is having a daily body/back pain for 12 years that has the capacity to ravage all the work I put into my psyche. Although I have and have had two herniated discs and done rounds of PT, and checked all the boxes, yet I can’t get a doctor or our medical industry to approve surgery or really provide long-term care. Dare I even talk about the challenges of our insurance industry that’s sucking the soul and pockets out of our nation? Heaven to Murgatroyd (eyeroll).
Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
In Southwest Atlanta, Orion Psychotherapy’s studio office holds space for adolescents, adults, couples, and families who are seeking to engage in a therapeutic-relationship-ritual with a Licensed Professional Counselor. My work is grounded in their Humanistic, Existential, and Transpersonal foundation from the University of West Georgia. I often encounter the lived struggles of trauma, gender, sexuality, capitalism, and loss relationally with deep compassion, a strong focus on training awareness, and an interest in Experiential Expressive Therapies as a means towards healing. In Maslow’s study on “healthy individuals,” he came to realize most of them all had strong relationships and practices with expressive hobbies, and a big part of my approach is not only a focus on mental illness but also on developing mental health. Happiness is a skill; how often are you doing it? My office is in an old church converted to art studios; it’s a hybrid of my own art studio and a therapy office; I call it a Psychological Play Space. The coffee table in front of my clients is full of fidget toys, soothing tools, and watercolors. I think one of the many things that makes my practice unique is the focus I take on educating my clients on how trauma is formed and a method I call the Skeleton Structure that can be used across many types of reactions of the nervous system. I always asked why am I going to these workshops when my clients could be. A huge part of healing alongside awareness is to have an understanding of what is happening. Being able to access metacognition while in a reactive state is an incredible challenge and is a key to breaking out of the magnetizing spell of the spiral and essentially the nervous system trying to overly protect us based upon the dramatic learnings it formed when we were experiencing trauma. But do you want to live a life overly based on the learnings you got when the reality was that bad?
Over the years, I have self-published a 68-page Guidebook that is a journey through learning and developing our nervous system. It is full of client art and has plenty of fun activities that to help synthesize the ideas. It’s a compilation of the best stuff you can find on the web and my own writings around understanding different phases of reactivity, what to do in them, and so much more. It starts with encountering your core and ends with principles of transformative action, not to mention the last two pages are all the “keys” or major takeaway points as a kind of cheat sheet. The index even has little symbols of which pages are best to go to when caught in a reaction spiral. It is available on my website, and I am currently working to develop/edit, The Journey Through the Guidebook, a series of videos to go along the Guidebook for those wanting to do some self-study, who don’t want the whole therapeutic relationship but want to do more on their own with monthly touchstones with me, or my clients to have additional resources to support their journey. Stay tuned or shoot me an email to get on the list, as I am hoping to have them released this Fall!
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
I would consider myself a balanced risk-taker; some of the biggest risks I’ve taken have led me to where I am. One of the biggest risks I’ve taken was moving away from Miami to Pittsburgh to study Human Science vs. Natural Science (less research focus and more counseling focus) at Duquesne University. This was a huge financial risk, as I had to take private student loans to cover the cost of tuition without fully understanding the impact of the interest being incurred (as we know, loans are pushed on students without them understanding the lasting financial impact). However, studying at Duquesne began my path to the University of West Georgia, where I completed my studies.
Starting my private practice was another huge risk, as I became responsible for office space before I had an established clientele. I got the key, dropped off a box, and a week later, I was in the park drinking champagne and came to realize the step I was taking felt so vulnerable that I was avoiding it. That night I went to my office, lit a candle in the window, and starred into it, working through the anxieties until I felt clear, and then I imagined all the people who would slowly come to seek support. These risks paid off, but I don’t believe all risks are worth it. I still find it very challenging to take risks involving financial investment, and I believe that risks must be balanced with other variables (economic climate, potential outcome, etc.).
I also once took a risk to buy a home which was a very challenging process to do on my own and still has not happened. I also take risks in choosing to love and develop relationships with what’s between us, not just what society has conditioned us to believe relationships should be. I feel a little odd ending this on love, but I do love a cliche (literally, the feeling of cliche means it’s just that obvious) moment, and it’s where I am at these days. I love what I do and am glad I got this chance to articulate it and share it.
Pricing:
- Individual Sessions 130-170
- Couples and Families 160-200
- Guidebook 10 digital — 30 paper
Contact Info:
- Website: www.OrionPsychotherapy.org (private practice)
- Instagram: TAR.Project and EncounteringtheCore
- Other: www.OrionCrook.com (art)
Image Credits
Personal photo was taken by: ig @MarieThomas505
