Bahiyyih Young, LPC

I have always been endlessly fascinated by the resiliency of the human spirit. I spent my youth reading every story I could get my hands on about survivors of all kinds of injustice and difficulties, systemic and personal. I was a kid with a lot of questions: What makes people persist despite danger, pain, and suffering? How do human beings manage to hold themselves together—to love, grow, sing, dance, raise families, and simply live through fear, grief, and against all odds? Why do suffering and injustice happen? I don’t have all—or even many—of the answers, but I am still good at asking questions. I continue to be moved and humbled by the stories I have been honored to hold over my years of experience as a Licensed Professional Counselor.

I was raised in South Carolina in a multicultural family with a strong tradition of healers. I moved to Anchorage, Alaska one month before the November 2018 earthquake, fell in love, and am grateful to live with my husband and dog on the beautiful unceded land of the Dena’ina Athabascan people. I enjoy theatre, eggplant, singing, anywhere the water meets the land, speaking nonsense to my dog, and poetry.

I believe that humanity is interconnected. The work that we do to heal impacts our families, neighborhoods, workplaces, and communities generationally. We are all impacted by all that is happening in our world today, and each of us has the responsibility to search within ourselves, make meaning of our lives and journeys at this unique time in history, and make choices about how we move forward.