So, you were looking for therapy and you ended up here.
About Me
My name is Dese’Rae L. Stage (she/her), but you can call me Des. I’m a mom, therapist, licensed clinical social worker (LCSW), suicidologist, artist, and advocate in Philadelphia, PA. I wear a lot of hats.
I identify as a queer, white, cisgender single parent and live with depression, anxiety, ADHD, CPTSD, and chronic suicidal thoughts. It’s important to me to be transparent about my positionality, in terms of my identity and lived experiences, as well as being someone who receives mental health services—I know what it’s like to be in the therapy chair and sitting across from it. To that end, I come to my work as a partner and a support, rather than an expert.
In past lives, I worked in the service industry and the music industry, and built a career as an award-winning suicide prevention advocate and artist. I live with two small humans, my best friend, a Bernese Mountain Dog named Dolly Parton, a long-haired white Siamese mix with heterochromia named Betty White, and a calico named…Toast.
I see live music at every available opportunity (and sometimes I still drag my camera along), and when I’m not at a show, I’m probably reading a book, eating something delicious, or building Lego sets. I have a lot of stories. Feel free to ask me what happened when OJ Simpson came into the restaurant I worked at while I was in high school, or about that one time Lou Reed told me to f*ck off.
About My Practice
My practice is person-centered, trauma-informed, and anti-oppressive. I use an eclectic approach, mainly rooted in relational and attachment-based therapies, alongside CBT techniques and DBT skills training. Much of my practice is driven by my own lived experience as a patient in the mental health system.
I work with teens and adults (~13-45) with a broad spectrum of concerns, but my passion lies in working with folks experiencing suicidal thoughts (and suicide attempts), self-injury, grief/traumatic loss (including suicide loss), ADHD/neurodivergence, depression, anxiety, mood and personality disorders, gender/sexual identity and broader LGBTQIA+ issues, fertility challenges, queer family-building, and pregnancy loss. I also offer letters of support for those seeking gender-affrming surgery.
I approach my work through a relational lens—I am a person, and I will be a person with you in the therapy room. I show up to my practice and hold space with authenticity, humor, compassion, empathy, and a touch of sarcasm.
PA LCSW License # CW025097
Education and Training
I received my Master of Social Work degree with a certificate in trauma-informed practice from Temple University in 2022. In 2005, I earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology (with minors in philosophy and creative writing) from East Tennessee State University. I also have an associate degree in English from the State College of Florida.
I have training in Intentional Peer Support, and I’m a trained Alternatives to Suicide group facilitator, as well as a certified QPR trainer. If there’s a suicide prevention or peer support training out there, I’ve probably taken it.
As a social work student, I did clinical work via telehealth in a rural community in North Carolina, where I worked mainly with children (providing art therapy), teens, and veterans/first responders. I also spent a year focusing on Pennsylvania’s involuntary hospitalization (or 302) law and local mental health crisis policy with the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, Mental Health Crisis and Diversion Office.
Goals for the Future
I’m currently slowly making my way through trainings on Emotionally Focused Therapy and Internal Family Systems, both modalities I intend to use in the future. I’m also interested in Narrative Therapy.
I’m reading up on psychometrics related to ADHD evaluation and differential diagnosis with regard to ADHD, CPTSD, and BPD.
I hope to complete training to become a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional this fall.
Why Three Swords?
The Three of Swords is a tarot card that represents heartarche, sorrow, grief, sadness, pain, and heartbreak. The image is of a heart pierced with three swords surrounded by swirling storm clouds. On its face, it looks bleak; on the other hand, storm clouds always recede, implying that the pain associated with this card might do the same. In this way, it’s a card associated with both hurt and healing.
This card really resonates with me, both personally and in my therapy practice. I love imagery with hearts in it. I’ve been known to stop to photograph hearts whenever I come across them, and I have over thirty hearts tattooed on my body. What is a heart, if not symbolic of care, compassion, vulnerability, and deep empathy? These are all things I strive to embody as a therapist. We often seek therapy when we find ourselves feeling lost, hopeless, or in pain, and we need support to lift us out of it. That’s where Three Swords Therapy comes in.
Our minds are so powerful, known to wield swords to defend against feelings that are too tough to bear, and so our work is to notice the ways in which we haven’t made space and create that so that emotions do not become lodged in the heart, in turn keeping us stick in old thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that betray our growth and well-being. —Jessica Dore, Tarot for Change: Using the Cards for Self-Care, Acceptance, and Growth
