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November Buddenbaum
Graduate Intern


Education

  • Final year in the Master’s in Social Work at New Mexico Highlands University

Hello! My name is November Buddenbaum and I’m in my second and final year of my Master’s in Social Work at New Mexico Highlands University and the counseling center. I’ve lived in Durango for seven years with my crew of gender expansive and neurodivergent kids as I’ve been coming into my own identity as a trans, nonbinary person. Navigating the finer aspects of these identities for myself and my children has given me a keen appreciation for how important life transitions and inhabiting core identities can be for people. I deeply believe that every aspect of the Self you’re learning to be is beautiful, important, and livable.

Therapeutically, I like to focus on your relationship with your deeper emotions and explore how you relate to the parts of yourself that people want to tell you are unacceptable. I find it especially helpful to identify, for instance, which archetypes you might be expressing and how you relate to those images. We are collectively inhabiting a difficult context to be a human in, and it’s very normal to need some support in navigating this late stage colonial and capitalistic, anthropocenic, and authoritarian landscape.

I prefer to keep sessions client-centered and focus on how you interpret your experiences and want to solve your own problems. I believe that you’re the expert on yourself and that developing your self-concept and self-understanding is the foundation of expressing your life authentically. When you are in touch with your authentic self, the way forward becomes clear.