Hello!
ID: Demi Alex is a light skinned, east-Asian with a shaved head and strong black eyebrows. He has white hand-shaped earrings, and a zig-zaggy printed silk top. They stand in front of a sweet body of water and a dappled sunset, softly smiling.
My name is Demi Alex 庭瑄 (he/they).
Stepping away from an abusive household for the first time, I arrived to therapy in deep crisis, altered states, and isolation. I didn’t know how to begin tending to the pain, suicidality, and helplessness that began to emerge.
Through therapy and slowly-woven webs of care, I began to move through the immense waves of grief, childhood memories, and unspoken intergenerational wounds and violence that span across my lineage. This started a lifelong exploration of (un)learning, resting, and becoming radicalized on what it meant to commit to healing- within the many selves, in community, and as a collective.
I have done a lot of care work within blood families, cooperatives, local orgs, and affinity spaces. I’m grateful to offer these practices on my own terms today.
I find joy reveling in absurdity and silliness, discovering + exchanging care rituals, and being curious with my ancestors and the land. I’m glad to be able to integrate all of these lived experiences and practices as a care worker: to share + witness + transform our stories,
centering curiosity and creative possibilities, and offering a soft container for difficult moments.
Positionality
I am an agender, trans, queer; second generation Taiwanese human born in the so-called Bay Area (unceded Tamien and Muwekma Ohlone land) and currently a settler on so-called Berkeley (occupied Chochenyo Ohlone Land). I hold privileges coming from a middle upper class background, and as a straight sized + light skinned person with access to higher education.
I am also a chronically ill (with dynamic disabilities), neurodivergent, Mad, formerly plural person with complex trauma. I am a former escort, a performing artist and Butoh-informed dancer, a (relationship) anarchist, a covid realist, and a dabbler / wanderer / wiggler in many forms.
Education
Western Institute for Social Research, M.S. in Psychology, Berkeley, CA
Practicum at Liberation Institute, San Francisco, CA (Working with QTBIPOC / POGM, polyamorous, low-income folks with complex trauma)
UC Davis, B.A. Design (Focus in queerness + grief via fashion / performance studies)
I am gratefully informed by the wisdom of Dr. Ayesha Khan, Micha Frazer-Carroll, Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Daria Garina, Care (Erotics of Liberation), Sirius Heart, and Butoh performance studies and philosophy; diasporic motherlands, and loving bodies of water.