Who I am
Hi, I'm Clara. I'm a 32-year-old White* queer woman with an MSW and a passion for community care and connection. A Southern transplant, I grew up on the Maryland side of the D.C. area, lived five years in Richmond, VA, and have called Atlanta home since 2017. I hold a deep love for the South in all its complicated beauty, and I'm grateful to be rooted here.
Years ago a friend asked me what I would do if I didn't have to work for money and the answer that came so readily is that I would be a 'tender.' I find my greatest fulfillment when I'm tending–whether that means caring for people, plants, animals, or places. To me, tending is about truly seeing others, listening to their needs, dreams, and desires, and walking alongside them as those wishes take shape.
My work is grounded in principles of anarchy, anti-racism, liberation, abolition, anti-hierarchical care, harm reduction, autonomy, and community as resistance—all while recognizing the contradictions those commitments can hold. Alongside these principles, I strive to honor the complexities of care while recognizing historic harms that come with being a White person living in the South, on stolen Indigenous land.
The Tender Bloom care work practice is entrenched in a belief that isolation destroys us, and a desire to foster a community of genuine, nourishing connections. This work is inspired by old growth forests, mycelial networks, and all the ways nature effortlessly models mutual support. I hope to share in life's cycles with you, fulfilling my greatest joy by bearing witness to your joys and sorrows in turn. I believe wholeheartedly that peer support is the future of mental health care, and that building systems of collective care is one way we can resist isolation, exclusion, and disconnection. Tender Bloom is my effort to contribute to that future.
*The choice to capitalize White when referring to my own race is informed by The Diversity Style Guide and the Center for the Study of Social Policy.
What I've learned
My path to care work has been shaped both formally and informally.
Informally: I grew up caring for children in my community and have been organizing gathering spaces for friends and family since I was a teenager. Over the years, I've been surrounded by a rich network of queer and neurodivergent folks and walking alongside them as they explored and claimed their identities has taught me the power of trust, presence, and love. These experiences deepened my commitment to inclusion and acceptance, and to supporting both traditional and nontraditional paths to care—whether that's self-diagnosis, therapy, medication, peer support, or spiritual practice.
Formally: I minored in psychology during my undergraduate years (2012–2015) and returned to school in 2022 to pursue my MSW, which I completed in May 2025. While I'm particularly drawn to developmental psychology, I chose social work because it felt more expansive and aligned with my sociopolitical worldview. During my graduate studies, I gained experience with the GA Division of Family and Children's Services (DFCS) and a local Atlanta nonprofit, but I often felt constrained by bureaucratic systems and professional hierarchies. Although I may pursue clinical licensure in the future, for now I've chosen to create Tender Bloom as an alternative to a traditional mental health career—a space for peer-based, community-rooted care that resists the failing infrastructure of insurance-driven therapy.
In Between: I've been in and out of therapy since I was a pre-teen, and in consistent therapeutic care since 2021. I have lived experience with DBT and IFS therapy and these modalities may inform my work, though I am not a trained practitioner in either. I live with C-PTSD and clinical depression, which I believe are part of the broader web of my own neurodivergence—particularly as C-PTSD overlaps with traits often associated with autism and borderline personality disorder. A full list of my lived experience background can be found in current offerings. These diagnoses and experiences inform the way I show up with empathy, patience, and understanding in my work. In addition to clinical experiences, I also hold space for spiritual and intuitive practices like tarot and astrology. While neither are central to my work, I am happy to welcome these bodies of wisdom into our practice together if they feel appropriate.