Taylor Haaf, LICSW (they/them)

Some forms of pain are easy to hide: a relationship that feels increasingly lonely, a body that does not feel like home, or a life that looks workable from the outside but feels wrong from within. Over time, hiding or failing to address that pain can come at a great cost.

The good news is that pain that has taken so much energy to bury or carry alone can be transformed. Taylor brings the steadiness, skill, and care that can make that kind of transformation possible.

Their individual work is grounded in relational psychodynamic therapy and IFS, and they are especially skilled at helping people have conversations that can feel difficult, risky, or almost impossible elsewhere. They bring particular expertise to working with people pleasers and overachievers who are accustomed to holding things together for everyone else and find themselves burnt out, anxious, or increasingly disconnected from their own needs. They also work with young adults and adults navigating trauma, neurodiversity, identity, and significant life transitions.

This includes clients navigating chronic illness, chronic pain, and the particular grief of a body that behaves unpredictably. Taylor’s background working with conditions like POTS, EDS, chronic migraine, and GI disorders informs a somatic and trauma-aware lens that takes seriously the relationship between the body and the interior life—not as a technique, but as a genuine orientation. They are also trained in hypnotherapy, which they integrate into individual work as an additional pathway for clients seeking deeper access to unconscious patterns and somatic experience.

As a couples therapist, Taylor Haaf specializes in helping partners navigate challenging relationship dynamics with depth and nuance. With extensive training in Internal Family Systems (IFS), psychodynamic couples therapy, and Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (EFCT), Taylor brings a parts-based lens to couples work, helping each partner get curious about their own reactions rather than simply defending against their partner’s.

Taylor’s approach excels at helping both partners feel seen and heard rather than isolated, and at rebuilding meaningful connection. While not a certified sex therapist, they recognize sexuality as a vital component of relationship health and provide a shame-free space for individuals and partners to explore these important aspects of their lives.

Their extensive experience working with diverse relationship structures and identities, including significant work within queer and gender-diverse communities, has honed their ability to help couples successfully navigate complex dynamics. Taylor’s unique skill in facilitating challenging conversations that other therapists might avoid has helped numerous couples across all orientations and identities transform painful situations into opportunities for deeper connection and growth.

Targeted IFS Work: Transformative Work From the Inside Out

Internal Family Systems (IFS) is an experiential approach that works with the different internal responses that emerge around stress, relationships, and emotionally charged situations. Rather than treating self-criticism, perfectionism, avoidance, people-pleasing, or overfunctioning simply as problems to eliminate, IFS looks at why these responses developed and what keeps them in place.

IFS can be especially powerful when a reaction keeps taking over despite your best efforts to change it. You may keep saying yes when you want to say no, shut down in an important relationship, push yourself past exhaustion, or become overwhelmed by feelings that seem out of proportion to what is happening.

IFS works directly with the emotional responses underneath these patterns. Instead of simply trying harder to control them, the work helps loosen the grip of reactions that may once have been protective but are no longer serving you. The goal is not just to understand the pattern, but to have more freedom in how you respond when it shows up.

Taylor’s therapeutic work at 1A Wellness is enriched by a diverse background spanning both traditional and holistic healing practices. They earned their Master’s degree from Smith College School for Social Work, and their approach is also informed by earlier studies in Psychology, Religion, and Creative Writing at Hampshire College. Their experience as a trauma-informed yoga instructor and knowledge of holistic healing practices including herbalism, aromatherapy, and reiki contribute to an approach that takes the body as seriously as the mind. As Taylor puts it, “We aren’t disembodied heads floating in space, so why should our therapy be?”