Jess Shade, CMHC, LPC
Pronouns: she/her/hers
Mental Health for “Queers & Mountaineers”
Over fifteen years ago, I began my professional career studying the ancient Near East, archaeology, and religion. While working on my first Master’s degree, however, I had a chance to serve in an intentional community of adults living with severe and chronic mental illnesses in inner city Atlanta. After this first round in graduate school, I left the South to work as a wilderness therapy guide in Utah. I lived on “trail” with my clients for 24 hours a day for a week at a time. I witnessed tremendous growth and accomplishment from the clients with whom I worked and lived. The experience of guiding further cemented my conviction that we are embodied and social beings. Following four years working in wilderness therapy as a Guide, Staff Trainer, and Director of Operations, I returned to my non-profit roots in community mental health as a case manager. It was during this period of time that I decided to return to school and pursue my second Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling to become a therapist. I have had the honor of practicing therapy in an outpatient setting ever since.
In addition to my role as a therapist, I am an organizational consultant and public speaker. I present at conferences, climbing gyms, and companies throughout the West to spread the messages about creating meaning, following passions, integrating identities, coping with loss, and fostering resilience.
When I am not in the office, I practice self-care through high-altitude ski mountaineering, climbing, and robust belly laughter with my family and friends.
Please feel free to reach out with questions! Even if I am not the best resource, I am happy to help point you in the right direction. To schedule an initial appointment, please text, call, or email.
About
Jess (she/her) is a queer, cisgender, woman. She works as a therapist in adult mental health outpatient private practice virtually in Utah and Michigan. Jess is also a public speaker and organizational consultant. Personally, she has had the great joy and opportunity to travel the world skiing and climbing. These outdoor pursuits inform her professional work as well.
Her unofficial slogan describing her client base is "queers and mountaineers." Identify and the subsequent capacity to build rapport, speak a common language, and share community factor into her work as a therapist. Jess uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Feminist Multicultural Theory as modalities for her work.
THERAPEUTIC SPECIALIZATIONS:
LGBTQIA+ Affirmative Counseling
Anxiety
Depression
High-Performance Individuals
Sexual Health, Relationship Concerns Polyamory and Kink
Grief and Loss
Mountain Professionals and Athletes Adjustment and Life Transitions
Employment and Career Counseling
Feminist
Multicultural Counseling
FAQs: Sessions are hosted virtually and available to individuals, couples, and polycules over 18 years old.
Fees: Altura does not accept insurance, but there is the possibility of submitting a superbill for out-of-network reimbursement.
“This season of life, being in the middle of mentorship and mentoring, is truly beautiful.”
What do you think the childhood version of you would think of your current adventurous nature? What would you go back and tell that version of you?
Ha! My 10 year old self would be shocked at several things... "What do you mean we became a vegetarian and cut our hair!?!?!" However, she'd be so so psyched to learn that in the 26 years between 10 and 36 we've had adventures in culture, body, and partnership. She'd be stoked, not surprised.
How do you find balance between spontaneity and careful planning in your adventures?
This depends on the scale of the adventure. For major expeditions, I have detailed excel spreadsheets calculating nutrition macros and weight per calorie of food. The duffle bags I pack are all meticulously filled per their own individual tabs on the spreadsheet (one must know exactly what gear is lost if a duffle misses a flight connection) and assigned specific air tags to track their whereabouts. The training for an expedition begins 12-18 months in advance and involves sub-goals which will hone the skills needed and give feedback for pacing on the main objective. However, day to day, I love saying yes whenever I want. For example, last weekend, I had less than 48 hours notice on a random invitation to climb and ski the Ford-Stettner route on the Grand Teton. A friend wanted to go and we talked through details, including my slower pace post injury this season. I had been adequately scaffolding my fitness in previous weeks to feel assured that my "yes" would not be a liability on the Grand. With all the love and respect of the mountain, myself, and my partner, we rolled up there and had a great time.
What sparked your love for adventure?
"When you reach the top of the mountain, keep going," Zen koan quoted in Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac. My whole life I have been precocious and methodical. Prudent exploration into the unknown has been a hallmark of mine since childhood when I wanted to be come an archeologist. Spoiler alert: I did become an archaeologist working in Israel in my 20s during my first master's degree. It remains my retirement plan. :)
My folks encouraged the sense of adventure with age-appropriate guardrails. It wasn't until my early adulthood, however, when I began gym climbing that the gateway to outdoor adventure was truly opened.
What's the most unexpected thing you've encountered on an adventure?
Stable powder snow at 8100 meters on Manaslu in Nepal. :) That remains the most effortful and singular "face shot" of my life.
What role does community play in your adventurous pursuits?
This article I wrote for Broad Beta says it well :) https://www.broadbeta.com/stories/going-local
How do you cultivate resilience and adaptability in your adventurous pursuits?
I've been learning that resilience has more to do with spaciousness in the structure as opposed to sheer strength of the materials. Think of a cable on a suspension bridge. It must be made of the right materials, but it must also have the empty space around it to flex under load. Adding space, refraining from always saying yes, opting to embrace rest, these are ongoing lessons for me. I'm excellent at pushing through with endurance of mind and emotion. I can quickly adapt and change to most situations in part because I've left myself margin for the unforeseen. But I am learning and growing into the non-driven parts of what it is to truly be resilient. I can't wait to meet my 53-year-old self and ask her about it :)
What role does solo adventuring play in your life?
I love my community of dear friends and partners in the mountains. More and more, however, I spend time solo in the snow. For me, it is sometimes because my generation is all wrapped up in becoming parents and no one can come play; so I go alone. However, other times it is a deliberate choice to engage with just my skillset, assess solely my pacing, and feel liberated from constraints other than the mountains and my own self. Solo time in the mountains is always spiritual, whether it is doing fitness dawn patrol ski laps, solo winter camping, or climbing and skiing the steeps :) Most winter and spring weeks, I average 3-5 days alone in the mountains and another 1-2 with partners. This is different on expeditions of course, where I travel with a small team of partners.
What advice would you give to someone who wants to start embracing adventure in their life?
Dream 100, do 5. This is my mantra. Begin by being playful and expansive. What lights you up??? I never ever thought this Georgia girl would learn how to ski at 24 and then become the second woman to ski the eighth highest mountain in the world at 33 (Manaslu 8163m). I always have a running list of things that feel interesting. Curiosity begins the ball rolling. Hard work, humility, planning, building connections, and scaffolding skills progress from the innate desire which you already possess.
How do you see your adventurous spirit evolving in the future?
No idea! That's the joy of it! I think open water swimming is pretty cool and would love to travel more with my paraglider.
Many folks ask me how I found mentorship to learn the myriad skills required for high-altitude ski mountaineering.
The answer is summed up by the beautiful mixture of readiness and luck. I am an avid reader and student of mountain stories and history. French alpine climbers of the 1950s? Oh yeah, I know their triumphs and drama. Gaston Rebuffat, there are not words. Gear development in Yosemite in the 1970s? Yep, I still use those tri-cams though. Drama with the Soviet-era sponsored climbers being thrown into a post-communist world in the early 90s? Sure, Anatoli Boukreev, Voytek Kurtyka, and Silvo Karo are my freaking HEROS. All of this, plus my years of guiding and seeing the domino effect of poor planning and decisions, made me ready when luck would have my gateway mentor, John Climaco, walk into my world. John is 20 years older, has been all around the world, and has a great sense of humor. My mentee ethic of: “I will only f*** something up one time; I will smile unless it totally totally sucks; and I'll bring homemade muffins on every adventure,” jived with him and his friends to whom he quickly introduced me. So, there I was in my mid-20s with decades of wisdom raining down from men 20-30 years my senior. Not only did I learn hard skills and risk-management from them, I also inherited their dreams and began to see myself capable in them. Mentorship is a beautiful thing. As of this writing, I am grateful to have the deep abiding joy to pay it forward to those who I now mentor, while still getting to hang out with my mentors. This season of life, being in the middle of mentorship and mentoring, is truly beautiful.
