Meet Ellis
Harper “Ellis” Cheaney, LMFT
Unceded territory of the Awaswas-speaking Uypi Tribe (Santa Cruz, California)
they/them
Taurus Sun / Pisces Moon / Pisces Rising
I practice psychotherapy through a lens of presence and wonder, leaning heavily on attachment and the therapeutic relationship as the foundation to the work. As a queer, trans therapist with chronic illness, I have worked primarily with trauma, neurodivergence, and queerness. Grief is braided into all of those things, and after major and sudden losses in my own life, I have more intentionally shifted the focus of my work to include death, dying, and grief. I am a certified end-of-life doula and have completed the grief immersion course with Inviting Abundance. I trust that life has a way of guiding us to where we’re supposed to be, even when the path there is surprising.
My primary goal in my private practice is to create a safe, open, judgment-free environment where people can be witnessed. I believe people at every age are the experts of their experience and have the answers they seek already within them.
My approach is rooted in object relations and attachment theories. I believe that our drive to attach, and how we learn to relate to others early in our lives, significantly influences how we move through the world and interact with ourselves and others today. Growing up in a working poor family with generational trauma, I know oppressive systems also influence how we come to know trust, our bodies, and will likely show up in our experience of therapy.
Please feel free to visit my website for further information: