margo Kelly, LICSW
Clinical Therapist
Margo Kelly (they/them/their) has a diverse background in education, social justice, crisis management, and social work. Their professional experience includes serving in AmeriCorps, teaching in public schools, advocating for victim/survivors of sexual assault, assisting families in navigating the department of human services, providing gender-affirming care within the healthcare system, building a gender-affirming residential wilderness program, and conducting therapy with queer and trans adolescents and adults.
Margo developed their sense of freedom and worth within deep community – rooted in their Midwestern Irish Catholic upbringing, their chosen queer and trans family, and the natural surroundings of lakes, rain, and forests. They prioritize relationships with people and the land. Embracing queer as both an identity and a verb, Margo is committed to noticing, questioning, and creating the world they wish to live in – one that is interdependent, centered, and reciprocal.
They recognize that everyone has lived within systems of power and control that often fail to serve or create conditions for thriving. Margo believes that dreaming new systems into existence begins with individuals and how they show up in relationships with themselves and others. These systems of power and control are deeply entrenched in culture, institutions, interpersonal interactions, and even in personal thoughts, beliefs, and narratives. Margo's work involves unraveling these systems and building nourishing pathways of connection. As adrienne maree brown says, “start small, small is all,” a principle that Margo applies in their individual therapy sessions and larger workshops. They emphasize that the small moments are foundational in building patterns of understanding for the big moments, and that radical shifts begin small and simple.
Margo's identities, positionality, and experiences profoundly influence how they navigate space and where they stand today. They hold duality in who they are, with identities that range from those with immense power and privilege to others that are marginalized. All that has shaped them accompanies Margo in every interaction and room, just as all that has shaped others is with them. They find beauty in duality, while also acknowledging the tension and complexity that arise when holding simultaneous truths about oneself and the environment. In their work as a therapist and facilitator, Margo is dedicated to holding space, center, and duality.