Cultivating Self-Awareness, Safety, and Reciprocity in Therapy with Andréa Noel
Hello, I am Andréa Noel, a Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW), and I'm glad to be joining the B'well team.
I support adults dealing with anxiety, depression, loss and grief, life transitions, executive function challenges, and identity-related issues. I have expertise working with multiply marginalized individuals, LGBTQIA+ adults, and neurodivergent adults, particularly those who have recently received an ADHD, Autism, or AuDHD diagnosis.
I use an adaptive approach to care that sometimes draws on cognitive behavioral therapy, solution-focused therapy, expressive arts therapy, mindfulness, and contemplative spirituality practices, just to name a few. When I support others, I am person-centered, strengths-based, and trauma-informed. I also work from a liberation-grounded, neurodivergent and LGBTQIA-affirming lens informed by my training and my experiences as a Queer AuDHD Black woman.
Practically speaking, this means my role isn’t to hand you a version of yourself to strive to become. It’s to help you recognize what’s happening internally so that you don’t just operate on autopilot; you can exercise your agency. You can choose how you want to respond to your life.
Let me illustrate. You ran late to work this morning because traffic was heavier than usual. Your boss unexpectedly pivots the project you created, without warning or explanation. A meeting ran over, so you didn’t get to eat lunch. During that meeting, someone claimed your idea as their own. You carried it all home in more traffic, in your mind and body, without saying a word. Then when your partner leaves dishes in the sink, you explode, as though the dishes were the most deserving of blame.
Was the explosion truly about the dishes? Or was it all the things that happened throughout the day, which hadn’t been given space to be seen and felt, now coming out sideways at the person closest to you?
Being self-aware isn’t about being flawless or knowing the answer to every question. It's about learning to notice what's happening inside you before it makes decisions for you. The space between feeling and acting is where well-being begins to take hold, and that’s one of the important things we’ll cultivate during our sessions together.
The next thing is safety. Picture the person in your life who responds to your vulnerability with criticism or harsh unsolicited advice. You likely modify yourself around them without even trying. Now picture the person who causes your shoulders to relax when they walk into the room, the one you feel safe enough to share anything with. That is felt safety, and it’s where genuine connection occurs. Without it, you remain defensive, and those who are defensive cannot be fully seen or understood by another person or even by themselves. The therapeutic relationship is where we intentionally learn to create this safety and then carry it into your daily life.
Another important thing is reciprocity. It's not built by one person doing all the holding or the work; it's built through back-and-forth, with someone willing to go first and trusting that the other will meet them there. In session, that might look like this: you share something you've never said out loud, and you brace for judgment. Instead of judgment or clinical jargon, I meet you with something real, not oversharing, but honesty about what's true in the room in that moment. The exchange itself becomes part of the healing process. That's the kind of therapist I am, not a blank screen or full of clinical theories and lingo, but someone willing to be human with you.
You and I may be a great fit if:
You’re someone who’s exhausted from taking care of everyone else
You’re LGBTQIA+ and want a therapist who doesn’t automatically start by questioning your sexuality
You’ve suspected or discovered that you’re neurodivergent and need to re-envision your entire life through this new lens
You appear to be doing okay on the outside, but inside you feel either nothing or everything
In session, we’ll focus, step by step, on cultivating deeper self-awareness, internal safety, and mutually authentic interaction. You come with the courage to be unapologetically you. I come ready to listen, care deeply, and show up as my whole self.
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