Fishtown Wellness Center helps individuals and families create, cultivate, and sustain the life they want to live.
Katherine Wendler, LMFT, MEd (Kat W; she/her/they/them) is a licensed marriage and family therapist and sexuality professional. Katherine joined Fishtown Wellness Center in 2020 after completing master’s degrees in couples and family therapy with a focus in sex therapy and human sexuality education, and after working for several years at community and private substance use treatment centers. They meet in-person and virtually with individuaKatherine Wendler, LMFT, MEd (Kat W; she/her/they/them) is a licensed marriage and family therapist and sexuality professional. Katherine joined Fishtown Wellness Center in 2020 after completing master’s degrees in couples and family therapy with a focus in sex therapy and human sexuality education, and after working for several years at community and private substance use treatment centers. They meet in-person and virtually with individuals, monogamous and non-monogamous relationships/couples, and families.
Drawing from their extensive academic studies of compassion, gender, system and relationship dynamics, and anti-oppressive frameworks to create a collaborative learning space steeped in mindfulness, kindness, curiosity, and exploration. Kat W has spent nearly a decade creating an active, direct approach with the soft, gentle mindset of a supportive coach and leader, while interweaving elements of their own personality and experiences as a queer, non-binary, hyperactive-ADHD Midwesterner.
Therapeutically, Katherine is informed by her training as a family therapist, focusing on impacts and interactions of relationships and systems on the individual and on relationship-units, such as a partnership or a family. Additionally, her education on adult learning and psychology has fostered an expansive understanding of how to explore our ways of thinking, highlighting the edges of foundational learning, and creating and implementing tailored practices to expand and enhance skills and abilities when interacting with ourselves and others.
When not working, Kat W is an ‘outside kid,’ typically found roaming the streets of Philadelphia, reading at coffee shops, stretching at a park, or exploring the vast nature and wilderness surrounding the greater Philadelphia-area. When not outside, they can be found playing with one of several cats they’ve rescued, exploring the area’s expansive food scene, creating art using various mediums, or consuming a variety of snacks and beverages while bingeing shows or movies with loved ones.ls, monogamous and non-monogamous relationships/couples, and families.
I am committed to the elevation of consciousness towards systems of oppression with any and every case I encounter, workshop I facilitate, lecture I conduct, and lesson plan I write. In practice, this includes theoretical pedagogy that reflects ecological systems and anti-oppressive frameworks alongside clinical application, such as insight development and creation of tailored action-plans. This includes acknowledgment of the influence of white supremacy and the patriarchy on the mental health field, and medicalization of the mental health field.
Additionally, I continuously seek supervision and advisory supports to increase and maintain awareness of ways I have participated in systems of oppression. Advisory supports include peer support, trainings, educational materials oriented towards social justice, and engaging with literature on decolonizing frameworks in therapy, education, and research methodologies.