I am not suggesting that we live a life preoccupied with sorrow. I am saying that our refusal to welcome the sorrows that come to us, our inability to move through these experiences with true presence and conscious awareness, condemns us to a life shadowed by grief. Welcoming everything that comes to us is the challenge. This is the secret to being fully alive.

― Francis Weller, The Wild Edge of Sorrow: Rituals of Renewal and the Sacred Work of Grief

Begin the intake process here

If you're finding it tough to cope with grief, anxiety, or navigating life transitions, know that I'm here to offer support and strategies to help you integrate your experiences. My aim is not to rush you to move on, but rather to move through and with these emotions alongside you. Loss — whether it's from death, break-ups, job changes, or exploring aspects of gender, identity, family dynamics, kink, or non-monogamy — is woven into many of life's challenges. In our sessions together, all these topics and more are open for discussion.

You don’t need to settle for a therapist with whom you can only partially show up, someone who is ok, but not someone with whom you really connect.

Grief Therapy

Compassionate, evidence- and experience-based grief therapy offering tailored support to help individuals navigate loss, build resilience, and find meaning in their process.

Therapy for Anxiety

I am experienced in providing practical tools and compassionate support to help clients find calm, confidence, and balance in their lives.

Poly and Non-Monogamy Affirming Therapy

I am equipped to help you explore new ways of being in relationship and hold space for where trauma, attachment, and non-monogamy interact.

Releationship Therapy

I am experienced in assisting people in all types of relationships improve communication and understanding.

Gender Affirming Therapy

I am here to support you in your gender affirmation; whether you are seeking documentation for gender affirming medical care or to explore the nuances of gender identity and expression.

Kink and Sex Positive Therapy

Kink-affirming and sex-positive therapy celebrates the aspects of human experience that are rooted in pleasure and play. This is a sex worker friendly practice.

About Me

Hello! I'm Lori Zaspel (she/they), a licensed clinical social worker here to support you virtually in Pennsylvania (CW0219992) and Florida (TPSW3946). With a focus on grief, medical social work, life transitions, anxiety, dementia, chronic illness, and end-of-life issues, I aim to create a warm and inviting space for healing and growth.
Drawing from various therapeutic approaches like attachment-based, vaso-vagal, relational-cultural, humanist, feminist, narrative, somatic, and constructivist methods, I tailor our sessions to suit your unique needs and preferences. My goal is to provide evidence-based practices with a gentle, realistic touch, prioritizing your needs every step of the way. Please see my FAQs for more details on my training and theoretical approaches. In addition to private therapy practice, I am a co-founder, educator, and death doula with the Philly Death Doula Collective and a collective grief worker with the Salt Trails Collective.
Guided by anti-racist, anti-capitalist, and abolitionist principles, I strive to center justice and liberation in both my therapeutic work and personal life. As a white, queer, currently able-bodied femme human residing in West Philadelphia with my nesting partner and rescue dog, I cherish creativity through art and the joy of exploring flea markets and yard sales. I hope sharing a glimpse of who I am helps you determine if we're a good fit. If you're ready to begin this journey together, let's connect by clicking here.

My Practice Values

I strive to live by values that guide who I am as a therapist and how I show up in my community.
Trauma-Informed

To engage people with histories of trauma in a manner which recognizes the presence of symptoms and acknowledges the role that trauma has played in their lives.
Integrity & Quality

To develop our business in a way that adheres to high ethical standards of practice. To remain diligently devoted to our values as outlined. To think critically about our services and the manner in which they are delivered. To provide competent, high-quality, and evidence-based services.
Humility

To maintain an interpersonal stance that is other-oriented (or open to the other) in relation to cultural identity. To be accountable to self and community, open to learning from mistakes, and to pursue repair and/or reconciliation as a process as opposed to one-time occurrence.
Anti-Oppression

I believe in directly addressing the impact that systems of oppression have on my clients and our communities. To that end, I try to cultivate a practice of examining my power, privilege, as well as the decolonization of mental health and collective responsibility.
Connection & Community

To serve as a resource, but also assist those we serve in reconnecting with their own inherent power. To foster community care, to honor and recognize sacred rites of passage. To cultivate spaces in our community where grief and death are witnessed and normalized. I value building relationships within our community and helping our clients do the same.
Inclusivity

To work to ensure that our products and services are equally available to all people. To be explicitly anti-racist in the delivery of services. To seek to ‘queer’ therapy and provide care to the LGBTQ+ community to which we belong. To collaborate intergenerationally whenever possible.