Kelsey Raftis LCPC, MT-BC
INDIVIDUAL/ GROUP
ADULTS & ADOLESCENTS ages 14+
Locations: 963 Broadway
South Portland, Maine
online
Specialties:
Trauma
LGBTQ+
sexual harm survivors
Eating Disorders
Office Hours:
Monday:
Tuesday:
Wednesday:
Thursday:
Friday:
Rate:
$155 individual /55 min
Insurance:
Hi, I’m Kelsey (they/them/theirs)
As a lifelong musician and performer, I have always greatly appreciated the power of community and healing in music and the arts. I was always the busy kid who was juggling dance class, musical rehearsals and voice lessons in addition to school work. Once I was no longer a student and had a more limited capacity for creative endeavors alongside a full time job, I realized that I could not see my life without music as a core part of my career. However, no jobs in music felt aligned with my desires until I discovered music therapy: a career where I could combine my love of music with supporting others. This led me to pursue a graduate degree in music therapy and counseling and I haven’t looked back.
After graduate school I was incredibly grateful to accept a job working as a group counselor, serving community members who had survived sexual violence. This work was and still is incredibly close to my heart and gave me the opportunity to receive extensive trauma training including EMDR and Trauma Art Narrative Therapy, lead group therapy spaces, and explore what music therapy can offer people carrying some of the heaviest things a person can carry. It also deepened my understanding of how experiences intersect, how trauma, eating disorders, OCD, PTSD, and dissociation can live alongside one another in the same person. When that chapter ended, I sought out a setting where I could deepen my training in eating disorders specifically, and I continue to be committed to supporting people living with them, particularly from a harm reduction lens. Throughout the settings I have worked in, I have also always treasured and prioritized offering affirming spaces for queer and trans folks and plan to continue to do so at Heart Stone.
When we work together, I want to start by hearing what is already working in your life, big or small. Your morning coffee. A monthly FaceTime with your best friend. Your favorite neighborhood walk. I work from a place of first building recognition of existing strengths and resources because focusing on what you already have, or have the capacity to grow or re-connect with, can support a genuine sense of empowerment and self-worth. Once we have mapped some of those resources and you can consistently access them, we have the opportunity to go deeper into things that might bring forward some discomfort, but that once parsed through can create real relief and more space for what matters to you.
As a board-certified music therapist, I offer music as a tool we can integrate into sessions for identity building, release, and emotional exploration, though it is never a requirement. I do encourage clients to embrace some kind of creative outlet, whatever that looks like for them: cooking, dancing, gardening, crochet, scribbling, film, reading, etc. We might also explore somatic approaches including yoga, breathwork, bilateral stimulation, visualization, and progressive muscle relaxation to process and release what the body has been holding.
Outside my time as a therapist, I like to dabble in lots of different hobbies. Right now I am working my way back into dancing, theatre, and cycling, while also trying to make more room for quilting, sewing, and playing music. I live with my partner and our two cats, Peter and Blueberry. I moved to Maine this year and have been soaking up every bit of it!
