Hello and welcome! I’m Alison – a queer, mixed-race therapist (ACSW) and restorative justice practitioner who believes that tending to our personal healing is a vital part of building a more liberatory, wholehearted, and interdependent future. My practice is shaped by my multiracial, Chicana family’s legacy of organizing alongside the United Farm Workers, which continues to nourish my belief that healing is sacred, collective work rooted in solidarity, dignity, and shared humanity.

My approach is warm, compassionate, and curious. I see therapy as a space to slow down, listen inward, and reconnect with what makes us feel most alive. In our work together, I bring a grounded, open-hearted, and relational presence. My hope is that coming to sessions with me feels like an exhale — where you can show up and be supported as you are.

I primarily work with adults (and older teens) and have a long history of supporting BIPOC communities, queer and trans folks, survivors of violence, formerly incarcerated and system-impacted individuals, and those navigating restorative justice or accountability processes. While much of my work has been rooted in these communities, I welcome people of all identities and backgrounds who feel resonance with my approach. In my work, I support people navigating attachment and complex trauma, grief and loss, identity development, neurodivergence, anxiety and depression, life transitions, and relationship dynamics, with attention to the ways that social, cultural, and political contexts shape our experiences.

Therapy is a relational process, not a quick fix. Change tends to emerge through steadiness, care, and the presence of a trusting relationship—one that makes it possible to tell the truth about what we’re really carrying.

I believe that emotional distress and survival strategies make sense in context. Our responses to the world and to one another are shaped by trauma, relationships, and the broader social, cultural, and political systems we live within. From this lens, therapy must attend both to our internal experience, and the ways relational and systemic forces shape how we adapt to what we’ve been through—including the ways those adaptations once helped us survive, stay safe, and remain connected to others.

I also believe that therapy is just one way of tending to suffering, growth, and healing. In my practice, I seek to honor the cultural, ancestral, and lived forms of knowledge that sustain us, recognizing that we already hold wisdom, resilience, and meaningful practices of care within our own histories and communities.

My clinical orientation is relational, informed by several therapeutic modalities, and guided by an anti-oppressive and restorative justice lens. I hold a deep belief in the inherent goodness, worth, and wisdom of every person, and in each person’s capacity—regardless of identity or life experience—to heal and to contribute to the creation of a more compassionate and just world. I also value humor and levity as important teachers that help sustain us throughout the healing process.

My work as a therapist and clinical social worker has been shaped by my background in Bay Area restorative justice and community-based healing organizations. I bring a decade of experience facilitating restorative justice processes and groups, supporting adult survivors of violence, working with people navigating incarceration and reentry, and providing case management and individual therapy to participants engaged in restorative justice processes. This work lives close to my heart and continues to inform how I understand trauma, harm, accountability, and the possibilities for repair and growth.

I earned my Master’s degree in Social Work from Smith College School for Social Work, and during my graduate training I provided individual therapy in community and university settings, including at Mills College in Oakland, CA. In addition to this clinical work, I have supported young people through mindfulness and social-emotional learning in school-based programs in Richmond, CA.

My approach is relational, collaborative, consent-based, and responsive to your goals. I aim to create space for people to bring all parts of themselves, especially those that feel hard, scary, unseen, or unknown. It is often in these places that we can access our greatest capacity for growth and transformation.

In my clinical work, I draw on psychodynamic, humanistic, attachment-based, and narrative-informed approaches. I practice through trauma-informed and liberation-centered frameworks that prioritize safety, dignity, and social context. In sessions, I integrate parts-based and somatic practices — often slowing down to notice personal patterns, explore different parts of the self, and attend to how experiences are held emotionally and physically. I adapt these approaches based on each person’s needs, goals, and context.

• Young Adult: 18-25
• Adults: 26-65
• Seniors: 65+

• Individuals

• African-American / Black
• Afro-Latine
• Asexual, Aromantic, Gray, Demi, Ace/Aro Spectrum
• Asian-American
• Biracial
• Bisexual
• Chicano/a/x
• Children of Immigrants
• Disabled
• Gay
• Gender Nonbinary / Non-Conforming / Fluid / Agender
• Highly Sensitive People
• Indigenous / First Nations
• Latina/o/x
• Lesbian
• Migrants / Immigrants / Refugees
• Multiracial
• Polyamorous / Non-Monogamous
• Queer
• Therapists
• Transgender

• ADHD
• Anxiety
• Body Image
• Burnout
• Chronic Illness
• Codependency
• Complex Trauma, Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD)
• Depression
• Gender Identity Dysphoria/Euphoria
• Grief or Loss
• Intercultural or Interfaith Relationships
• Intergenerational Trauma and Healing
• Polyamory, Non-Monogamy, Open Relationships
• Racial / Ethnic / Cultural Identity
• Self-Esteem/Worth/Compassion
• Social Anxiety
• Socioeconomic Inequity
• Stress
• Stages of Life

• Attachment Theory
• Humanistic / Existential
• Internal Family Systems (IFS)
• Liberation / Decolonized Psychology
• Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)
• Narrative Therapy
• Psychodynamic Psychotherapy
• Relational Therapy
• Somatic Psychotherapy
• Trauma-Informed

• Biracial
• Chicana/o/x
• Latina/o/x
• Queer
• White / European Descent
• Woman

• Credit Card

$150

$120 - $150

• Evenings
• Weekdays

To schedule a free 20-minute consultation, please contact me via phone (510-545-3475) or email (alisonhope.therapy@gmail.com).

Tracy Smith, PsyD #24366

01/27/2026