Dani Bettencourt, LICSW (she/her)
Hi, I’m Dani, and I’m so glad you’re here. I am a Licensed Independent Clinical Social Worker in Washington State, specializing in disability, chronic illness, queer-affirming, and neuro-affirming care. As a biracial and queer woman living with both a disability and a chronic illness, I bring personal understanding to my work. I know firsthand the complexities of navigating a world that’s not built with everyone in mind.
My clinical background began in community-based advocacy, working in supportive housing, a domestic violence shelter, and a Suboxone clinic. I later specialized in eating disorder treatment within residential and PHP programs, working with medically complex cases. Today, my practice is rooted in Health at Every Size (HAES©), body liberation, and the Social Model of Disability. I operate from the belief that our bodies are not the barriers; rather, ableism, inaccessibility, and a lack of universal design are the core issues that need to be changed. My work is about helping you release internalized shame, process systemic harm, and reclaim your autonomy in a world that often tries to diminish it.
Offering Support for…
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Vision loss is not only a special focus of my practice, but my own lived experience. I provide a compassionate space that recognizes vision loss is unique and personal to everyone who experiences it.
A common misconception about blindness is that all blind people have no vision at all. In reality, an estimated 85-90% of blind people have some degree of functional vision. In fact, the majority of people classified as legally blind do not use mobility aids like a cane or a guide dog.
Moving away from the medical model that views blindness as a deficit to be cured, I focus on the Social Model of Disability. We work together to address the internalized shame tied to ableism, societal misconceptions, and discrimination. My goal is to help you shift the weight of that work away from yourself and back onto the systemic stigmatization itself.
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I operate from the Social Model of Disability, which views society’s lack of access—not your body—as the primary barrier. Disability exists on a broad spectrum, ranging from visible to invisible conditions, and your experience within that spectrum is valid.
I pay close attention to the ways women, AFAB, trans, BIPOC, and low-income individuals are disproportionately harmed by the systems meant to keep us safe. Our work together focuses on navigating the reality of these barriers. This may look like helping you process medical trauma, navigate the grief of a diagnosis, or build the strong advocacy skills necessary for inhabiting these spaces.
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I am a HAES© and body -liberation-aligned therapist. My approach is anti-diet and supports you in relating to food from an intuitive place. I specialize in the frequent overlap between eating disorders (including BED and ARFID) and other concerns such as neurodiversity, OCD, and medical complexity. We focus on bodily autonomy and healing your relationship with yourself while deconstructing the pathologizing standards of diet culture.
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Your identity and expression are celebrated here. This is an expansive space to explore the nuances of gender and sexual identity, while also leaving room for processing the chronic stress often carried by members of the queer community. My approach is rooted in understanding that queerness does not exist in a vacuum. We will consider how your identity is shaped by the overlap with other aspects of who you are, honoring the unique ways these lived experiences converge.
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Neurodivergence is a natural variation in human diversity. For those who are late-diagnosed or undiagnosed, life has often been a series of "masking" to fit neurotypical standards, which inevitably leads to intense burnout. I offer a neuro-affirming space to help you understand your unique sensory and executive functioning needs. We move away from the goal of "fixing" behavior and toward a life that actually works for your brain and honors your natural rhythm.