Deena Baty, LMSW Counseling Services

12/20/2025

12/19/2025

It’s OK not to feel merry and bright. This season can amplify feelings of loneliness and grief. These emotions are more common than many realize, and reaching out for support is an important step. Connect with the for confidential support. 988Lifeline.org

12/19/2025

12/19/2025

End 2025 with giving yourself a little grace. 🖤

12/19/2025

I am going to get a little personal here, with HIPAA in mind of course.

It was a quiet year. I didnt go much of anywhere or do anything dramatic. I finally saw Hamilton (and Bob Dylan, and Willie Nelson), watched a lot of good to brilliant local theatre, saw Josh Johnson in Detroit. Attended Chicago Pride. It was...okay, considering.. ( gestures broadly to all of 2025).

The fact is, as a professional secret keeper, I cannot tell you about my best moments this year. The little wins.

The introvert who fears being vulnerable but does it anyway, and begins to teach me new definitions of bold.

The support group who found a new relationship between each other, some of the smartest and kindest souls in Michigan.

My proud friends of all genders, new genders and no genders, who watch their safety eroding by the hour, and choose to live and love and dance in violet-haired audacity.

The elder women who are rewriting their trauma patterns one boundary setting at a time, diagnosis be damned, because they are more than three initials. GAD, MDD, BPD.

My fresh faced teens, facing the real world for the first time. My glamorous queens and short kings. My glorious practitioners of old magick being shamed by Bible-mangling in-laws.

The one client where I always hold my breath when their name appears on my phone. Oh no.

Are they safe?

Not again.

And the tired. All the huddled, tired masses. Working in health care. Engineering. Doordash. Working for tips. Working for THE man.

Working on themselves. And succeeding. A little less cruel to themselves today than yesterday.

I never say I am proud of my clients. I think it sets a dangerous precedent. I fear they will only say what brings them my praise.

Make no mistake. My supervision work, my client work, my vocation and my avocation, is immensely, intensely fulfilling.

And I am so, so proud.

12/17/2025

12/17/2025