Office of Student Life
Counseling and Consultation Service

Ven Palmieri, PhD

Therapeutic Style:

I approach therapy from a feminist, LGBTQ-affirming, multicultural lens, and often incorporate interventions from cognitive-behavioral therapy. I believe that most mental health concerns stem from our attempts to survive and adapt to unhealthy or oppressive environments. But strategies that help us survive often don’t help us heal. As a result, we often end up feeling powerless and start to see ourselves in a negative light. Through the process of therapy, we can learn to understand where our concerns come from, develop new strategies for healing, and practice self-advocacy to change our environments.

As your therapist, you can expect me to treat you as an equal. I’ll often avoid telling you what to do in favor of helping you explore the different decisions you can make. I’ll also encourage you to take an active role in deciding how we use our time together. I also strongly value authenticity. I will be direct and honest with you, even when it’s challenging, and encourage you to do the same with me. Therapy should be a space where you feel safe being exactly who you are without feeling restricted by social norms, ideas of professionalism or politeness, or fear of negative judgment.

Supervision Style: 

As a supervisor, I value an approach that emphasizes empowerment and considers the importance of my supervisee’s intersecting identities while co-creating a safe, collaborative, and egalitarian supervisory relationship. I am particularly mindful of the ways in which my own and my supervisee’s identities shape the supervision process, and am attuned to the roles of power, privilege, oppression, and marginalization in supervision and the process of professional development. My approach to supervision is also informed by Freire’s (1970) model of problem-posing education. Therefore, much of my work with supervisees involved co-investigating how oppressive ideologies—including internalized oppression—are infused in our discourse about what it means to be a good psychologist and shape our approach to therapy.

Professional Interests:

LGBTQ issues, sex and sexual wellness, polyamorous/non-monogamous relationships, neurodiversity (e.g., autism, ADHD), students with disabilities, cultural identity development and exploration, political anxiety, sustainable social justice activism, systems-level interventions, prevention psychology, training and supervision.

Groups and Liaison Roles:

I am the Embedded Clinician for the College of Public Health. I facilitate the True Selves Group for transgender, non-binary, and gender expansive students.

Educational Background:

  • John Carroll University – B.S. in Psychology, Sociology, and LGBTQ Studies (2014)
  • The University of Akron – M.A. in Psychology (2016)
  • The University of Akron – Ph.D. in Counseling Psychology (2020)
  • Virginia Commonwealth University – Doctoral Internship (2020)
  • University of Illinois Chicago – Postdoctoral Fellowship (2021)

Personal Interests:

I am passionate about social justice activism, especially related to LGBTQ issues, anti-racism, sexual violence prevention, and neurodiversity—I also personally identify as queer and neurodivergent. I’m a proud nerd who enjoys video games, sci-fi/fantasy, and casually learning about astrophysics. While quarantined, I watched way too much Nailed It and discovered a new passion for baking. There’s a good chance I’ll make at least one Schitt’s Creek reference in our conversations.

My Pronouns:

He/Him/His