Alistair Slaughter

Hello, I’m Alistair! I’m a Black queer polyamorous cis man and a born-and-raised Chicagoan. Since getting my bachelor’s in psychology 20 years ago, I’ve worked in hospitality, service, finance, film/TV, sports, and education. My diverse background influences how I connect and engage with people and their stories in my role as a clinical intern. Multiculturalism and social justice are at the core of my training, and I believe seeing the whole person means considering the communities, cultures, and systems present in and around their lives.

My style blends narrative, existential, and relational-cultural approaches with poetry therapy and parts work. Your experiences, beliefs, and values are central to our process, and I want to help you toward a deeper understanding of yourself, not just tell you what to do. Knowing therapy can get challenging and heavy, I show up for this work with openness, humor, and at times even straight-up silliness in the spirit of co-creating a shared language and a comfortable space where therapy can feel more genuine, accepting, and collaborative. From there, we can examine the narratives and coping strategies that helped you survive and how well they still serve the life you actually want to live.

Rooted in my lived experience, ongoing education, and cultural humility, my practice is trauma-informed and affirming of queerness, non-monogamy, polyamory, and kink. I welcome clients curious about how their intersecting identities shape their inner lives, relationships, and ways of moving through the world, especially BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, and otherwise marginalized folks, including those living outside dominant sexual, romantic, or relationship norms. I also want to work with people in mixed-neurotype relationships who are looking to strengthen their connections. And as someone who has felt invalidated in therapy myself, I care about supporting those whose expectations or experiences of being harmed, alienated, or misunderstood have made them hesitant about starting or returning to therapy.

Separate from my counseling internship, I’m a consulting astrologer currently studying on scholarship in Astrology University’s diploma program. I’m guided by a humanistic and strengths-based perspective that emphasizes self-compassion and reflection, and I enjoy working with clients who want to bring the language of astrology into therapy.

I spend my free time hanging out with my friends, partners, and my 17-year-old tabby, Charlie. I love basketball, writing/making music, getting lost in little projects, and binge-watching things that are mysterious or kind of spooky.