Our Team

And so…I’ve created an inclusive practice where Queer and Trans folks, kids, those with “sensory stuff”, ASD, ADHD, and PTSD can access care

That’s why LGBTQIA-2+, BIPOC, people with intellectual and neurological differences, folks in big bodies, people with mental health challenges, people who are afraid of needles, and those with unnameable ailments are at the center here, not siloed in a dusty diversity statement. That’s why I continue my unlearning so that I can play a part in supporting the sensitive and the spicy amongst us to find refuge right where you are.

Corrine Mertz | she/her
*not accepting new clients

Child and Family Therapist, Burlington and Bristol, VT

You feel unsure where to turn as your child or teen struggles with big emotions and maybe even getting physical with you, their sibling(s), or peers. You wonder how to support your child to feel more safe in their body and mind so they can thrive. You want to strengthen the bond that has suffered alongside the mental health struggles both of you have been facing.

Trying to support your child or teen’s mental health while pouring from an empty cup isn’t working. “We all need therapy,” you think to yourself, “but is that a thing?”

Yes, it is.

I’m Corrine Mertz and I became a Child and Family Therapist after working as a residential counselor in a group home for teens here in Vermont. I was deeply inspired by the sense of belonging and the relationships built upon empathy and honesty with teens and their families. Ever since, I’ve been supporting children, teens, families, and adults as individuals and as family-units to heal from trauma, build stronger bonds, find calm in the storm, and live with a greater sense of meaning and purpose.

I particularly enjoy working with children, youth, and families that are marginalized here in Vermont. As a Queer parent, I have both lived experience and clinical expertise supporting LGBTQ2+ youth and families to navigate the complexities of coming out, gender exploration, bullying, parent-child conflict, anxiety, depression, and trauma. During my nearly 15 years as a psychotherapist, I have gained competency and practiced cultural humility as a White therapist serving BIPOC and immigrant communities.

In our work together, you can expect to cultivate trust and learn how to hold complex and contradictory emotions while feeling into the possibility of greater calm, confidence, and meaning in your life. With kids and adults alike, I utilize somatic (body-based methods) to help the body process emotion and trauma to unlock negative self-talk and find compassion for yourself.

As a child and teen therapist, I support children starting in preschool through to young adulthood to find their voice, process trauma through art, psychodrama, body or eye movements, and talk — offering an outlet for past harms to be released in a safe environment. From there, we open-up space to build emotional intelligence, a sense of body awareness and autonomy, self-confidence, more resiliency, and coping mechanisms when challenging emotions arise.

When working with families, I support you (whether your family structure is single-parent, co-parenting, poly, or two-parent household) to cultivate honesty and vulnerability and build healthy intimacy with one another. As needed, I bring in Brainspotting (an evidence-based practice to help the brain process and release trauma) to support building trust with your own body and mind that can then build, over time, in your relationships.

To explore a more embodied, compassionate, and connected way forward, call 802-222-0436 or fill out the contact form to schedule a free 20 minute Curiosity Call today.

Specialties: children, youth, young adults, families, trauma, anxiety, LGBTQ+, Queer families, parenting, creatives, neurodiversity, marginalized identities, somatic therapy

Rebecca Cariati | they/them

Acupuncturist in Burlington and Bristol, VT &
Practice Visionary

I became an acupuncturist after being fired from my last jobby-job. My mistake? Taking cues from the community I was serving, not from our out-of-touch donors. At that time, I thought justice and liberation was the domain of nonprofits. But being booted by the very people I thought were “my people” called that idea into question in a very big way.

How could I tend justice and radical belonging outside of organizational structures? Could justice work be done on a somatic level to cultivate refuge and belonging in a world that undermines our inherent worth?

With these questions alight, I dug deep, I cried a LOT, and eventually realized that acupuncture and herbal medicine had already helped me do just that. It had tended the pieces of myself that I shunned and cast-away in order to belong. I was in my mid-20s, in the closet, an immigrant, in the throes of disordered eating, chronic physical pain and depression. My first acupuncturist, Itzik Zangi, relieved my physical pain but also (and perhaps most importantly) held a space of true refuge for my masking to thaw. And little by little, I found more belonging in my own body and mind which is what health actually is. This profound level of being seen, accepted, and tended with deep reverence is what I aspire to do for my clients whether you’re taking your first or your last breaths on this planet.

  • Licensed Acupuncturist (L.Ac.) in Vermont, New York, and Pennsylvania

    Dip. Ac, NCCAOM (national licensing board)

    Member of the Vermont State Acupuncture Association

    Traditional Chinese Medicine Practitioner (TCMP) degree, including 1,000+ clinical training hours in acupuncture and herbal medicine from Oshio College of Acupuncture and Herbology, Victoria, BC

    Western Clinical Herbalism, Wild Seed School of Herbal Studies’ Intermediate Program, Salt Spring Island, BC

    Pediatric Essentials Training at the Center for Acupuncture Pediatrics

    Birth Doula Training with DONA