Meet Max
Max Ruin, MHC-LP
Lenapehoking, aka Brooklyn, NY
Scorpio Sun / Cancer Moon / Gemini Rising
they/them
I am a white, queer, trans, disabled, chronically ill, neurodivergent, therapist, herbalist, somatic practitioner, and coach who came into this work through the radical mental health movement. I am adamantly anti-carceral, pro sex-worker, anti-racist, and am against borders, policing, and any system that strips people of their autonomy. I studied herbalism and apprenticed at the Terra Sylva School of Botanical Medicine, studied embodied politicized somatics at the Strozzi Institute, and graduated from Brooklyn College with my MHC. I am a member of IDHA and the Liberatory Wellness Network, and take an abolitionist, harm reduction, disability justice lens to my practice. I see therapy clients in NY state, and herbalism, coaching, and somatic clients from all over the world.
I spent my twenties and early thirties desperately seeking ethical ways to engage with the world outside of capitalism and fascism; seeking something beyond the systems that treat the human and more than human world as things to be exploited, consumed, and dominated. All the various modalities, diy subcultures, healing paths, and alternative schools of thought get incorporated into my work with clients.
Having worked in the mental health field for the past fifteen years, my experience includes paid work, community support, and mutual aid. I believe that therapy is inherently political, and don't think it's possible to address any individual's mental health without also addressing the larger sociopolitical landscape. This also means being actively engaged in anti-racist and anti-zionist work, challenging ableism, fatphobia, xenophobia, and all systems of hate and hierarchy, and committing to lifelong learning so that my clients have competent care.
I love working with individuals, couples, polycules, roommates, all different family configurations including chosen families and families of origin, and groups. I don't believe in pathologizing or criminalization of people's identities or modes of survival, and think struggling in a deeply unwell society is a sign of humanity, not illness. There is no system or entity, legal or otherwise, that could compel me to endanger my client’s wellbeing through coercive care or non-consensual treatment.
When I’m not working, I’m making gay art, riding my bike, touching trees, collaging zines, reading queer scifi and fiction, tattooing my friends, and infodumping about medicinal plants and how much better the world would be if we looked to mecellial networks as the system to aspire to.
I can be contacted at mxmaxruin@gmail.com or through my website https://www.anywaywecanherbs.com/therapy.html#/