GET TO KNOW…
kulkiran kaur nakai, psy.d.
Kulkiran’s name means “the rays of light that shine on the family” in Punjabi.
Identifying as first-generation, fat, tattooed, neuroEMERGENT queer femme from Punjabi-Sikh immigrants, Kulkiran (pronounced Cuul-KEER-ren | they/them) brings a well-rounded, creative, synergistic, vibrant, and grounded energy to the room.
As a fellow human in today's day and age, they have direct experience with marginalization, discrimination, and oppression for these intersecting identities throughout their life, and they understand the deep impact that prejudice and stigma has on one’s mental health and wellbeing. They value actively working on their own traumas and biases, unlearning colonial paradigms and practices, and dismantling all systems designed to oppress the marginalized. After years of professional training and personal exploration, they are not only fulfilling their calling but are also building their legacy with others who share the vision and values for collective liberation.
They are committed to socio-political and cultural change in efforts towards thriving in a world of loving justice, equality, and sovereignty. As such, Kulkiran is intentional about helping to cultivate meaningful, reparative, and transformative therapeutic relationships. It is Kulkiran’s hope that their clients may become their own compassionate caregiver and agent of change to resource how to live an authentic, value-guided, and worthwhile life.
MORE ABOUT THEIR WORK:
As a liberatory psychologist and healing justice practitioner, Kulkiran operates within a relational-constructivist foundation of humanistic, systemic, multicultural, intersectional feminist, decolonial, and abolitionist frameworks. They value being a grounded mirror and humble model who co-creates a safe and secure therapeutic atmosphere for providing customized, holistic, and evidenced-based individual, couples, and group therapy. Kulkiran practices multi-theoretical, trauma-informed, and multiculturally competent care, and they enjoy specializing in liberation-focused, strengths-based, and indigenous-oriented practices when working with marginalized and oppressed communities.
They continue to build specialty in the art of alchemy and in complex trauma, perfectionism, codependency, and relational rupture and repair.
They prioritize space for immigrant, BIPOC, 2SLGBTQIA+, fat, and neurodivergent communities.
Their main treatment approaches include Hakomi, Internal Family Systems, third-wave Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness Self-Compassion (MSC), Shame Resilience (SR), and Somatics. They also incorporate psychodynamic, creative/ alternative therapies in treatment including map conceptualizations, positive psychology, tarot card interpretations based in depth and spiritual psychology, energy work, and narrative and play therapies including psychodrama and improv.
Kulkiran is kink/polyamory and neurodivergent aware, aligned, and affirming.
They also provide psychedelic integration support and clinical supervision.
INSIDE THE THERAPY ROOM:
Alongside their heartfelt therapeutic style, Kulkiran is an alchemist that takes a collaborative, encouraging, and empowering approach that is consent-based and feedback-oriented. They hope to demonstrate how to slow down and be present, access and anchor to our inner light, to befriend our shadow, to let go of unnecessary suffering, to forgive ourselves for our past transgressions, to learn how to unapologetically be ourselves and love ourselves into becoming, to believe in our worth and embrace the essence of who we are, to belong to ourselves and trust in our intuitive wisdom, to embody grace and humility for the messiness of our humanity, and to have faith in the process of healing and transformative growth, personally and collectively.
Above all, it is of the utmost importance that folx who work with Kulkiran leave the room feeling heard, seen, valued, understood, held, and Loved.
THEIR PROFESSIONAL BACKGROUND:
Kulkiran earned their doctorate in clinical psychology at Adler University in Chicago, IL in 2016, and their masters in counseling psychology at Argosy University in San Diego, CA in 2010. They completed their masters internship at the San Diego Hospice in 2009, their doctoral internship at Florida State University's Counseling Center in 2016, and their post-doctoral residency at the University of Michigan's Counseling and Psychological Services in 2017. Kulkiran became a fully licensed psychologist in 2019 and then actively started their journey to decolonize their practice and their life with the support of Dr. Shawna Murray-Browne and Akilah Riley-Richardson, MSW, CCTP.
They are trained in Level 1 of Internal Family Systems (IFS), and Level 2 specializing in relationships with Intimacy From the Inside Out (IFIO). They are also trained and certified in Level 1 and 2 of Liberation Reiki, and are trained to practice Systemic Trauma in Couple's Therapy and Embodied Conflict Transformation. They are actively in training to become a certified Psychodramatist, as well as a Somatic and Psychedelic Practitioner.
Kulkiran actively receives professional development support through consultation and supervision for IFS by Crystal Jones, and for Psychodrama by Daisy Martinez-DiCarlo and Dr. Scott Giocomucci They are also receiving consultation and supervision for dismantling colonialism and supremacy to transform DEI initiatives with Michelle Nicole, and developing a sustainable, embodied, anti-oppressive, and liberatory leadership style and praxis with Dr. Leticia Nieto.
OUTSIDE THE THERAPY ROOM:
Kulkiran is also a creatrix, a performance artivist (artist + activist: through improv and drag), a community organizer with Ypsilanti Pride, a healing justice practitioner with Sarasota's Theater for Social Justice, Detroit's Healing by Choice!, and Long Beach’s QTIFS.
They love spending quality time with their loved ones, dancing, listening to podcasts and audiobooks, practicing art and qigong, walking in nature, cooking nutritious and delicious meals, playing on swings or with bubbles, and doing crafty or meaningful things for themselves or for others. They have a special affinity for animals. They are on a journey of learning how to speak Punjabi, sew their own clothing, make pottery, write and produce screenplays, perform stand up comedy, and keep plants alive.
What’s more, Kulkiran has directly experienced the transformative power of therapy and they understand the courage it takes to step into their own light, to reclaim their voice, and to live out an authentic, wholesome, and meaningful life. They look forward to holding divine sacred space for others to do the same.
