Parker's Top Surgery

Parker is one of the best trauma therapists I know, and is asking for support from friends, colleagues, and community members to support Parker's upcoming top surgery.

I met Parker over 4 years ago when I first arrived in Boulder, we worked together first when I was involved in the Student Union of Naropa. Through Parker's openness, care for others, and conviction to social justice, Parker became an important support for me, and is now a very good friend. Witnessing Parker claim transness in such a powerful, self-arising, and personal way during my first year in Boulder was a primary opening for me to also acknowledge, claim, and live into my own powerful sense of non-binary gender identity. We spent many hours that first year talking passionately about personal and systemic experiences of oppression, and there was always space for the wide range of emotions I was feeling: anger, sadness, heartache, rage, tenderness, confusion, overwhelm, and disheartment. It is still true today. In our friendship, Parker offers such a full field of compassion and also direct but non-violent challenges to my own stuck patterns or holding back, challenging me in a soft but direct way that opens me up and supports my own brilliance coming through.

I remember tabling at a new student orientation event together also that first year, and Parker was curious about why people feel drawn towards Parker. I reflected in that moment that I experience Parker as having a certain quality of ziji, a sense of confidence and radiance that arises from having moved deeply with one's own suffering and come out the other side. We are all still coming out the other side of our personal and collective traumas. Parker helps others do this in incredible ways.

Parker was a stable guide for student organizations at Naropa when employed in the Student Life office, and a place for students like me to find true listening, advocacy, and encouragement. Parker completed a clinical therapy internship at The Blue Bench, supporting sexual assault survivors in finding resources, returning a sense of safety, experiencing care and connection, and finding again their own sense of heart. Parker has trained hundreds of clinicians and social service providers regarding trauma-informed care and transgender inclusivity. Parker currently works at a residential addiction treatment facility. Parker gives so much to clients in treatment, spending extra hours to find the best referrals and advocating for additional insurance coverage to provide the stability and therapeutic skills that improve recovery rates. Parker is deeply committed to seeing humanity in each of these clients and to value their needs, stories, and hope for recovery. This is not easy work considering relapse rates and how challenging breaking a pattern of addiction can be. I have no doubt that Parker has saved lives. Parker works also as a contract therapist with LGBTQIA clients, supporting and advocating for their needs, goals, and transitions.

I have witnessed a number of friends and therapy clients find more energy, confidence, and feeling more at home in their bodies after top surgery. My hope for Parker is to also feel as sense of relief, confidence, and renewed energy after top surgery. Let's support Parker as Parker offers so much to friends, clients, and the world.

There has always been space for me in Parker's life, in Parker's old office at Naropa, at dinners with conversations that go late into the night, on hikes and drives, and texting when I find myself in relationship distress or lonely or wanting to reality check my anger or anxiety. I want Parker to have more space in Parker's life for what matters most: care, compassion, feeling at home, encouraging growth, being with our complex lives as humans everyday in deeply meaningful ways.

Please give what you can, knowing how many lives Parker's heart and skills touch every day.

 -Mo Bankey