Always candid, Walkens Petit-Frere aims to demystify therapy.  He encourages clients to experience what they can’t control and zero in on what they can control, internally.  Sore spots, discomfort and reactivity are as welcome as calm, connection or a restorative state.  Through active listening and a non-judgemental approach, vulnerability is balanced with the confidence to trust yourself.  

By letting go of the false belief that we don’t deserve good things because of the shame of things that happened in the past, Walkens hopes clients will begin to feel again. Over time, clients synchronize vision with passion, overcome imposter syndrome and center on what’s authentic.  A key goal: to face life pressures from a new place inside yourself.  

Like so many NYC professionals, Walkens is sensitive to the ways life challenges - school, career, relationships - take on new dimension, when crossing culture, class and language. Coming from a place full of hope, but with few resources to realize this vision, he has seen first hand that through education and psychotherapy there can be liberation - social, spiritual and economic. 

Drawing on a wide range of clinical models, including CBT-based mindfulness, psychodynamic and trauma-informed therapies (EMDR, AEDP), he draws on 15 years of professional experience as an educator, social worker and most recently as a researcher pursuing a doctorate in diversity and inclusion at Simmons College in Boston.   Walkens Petit-Frere thrives on working with young adults, teens and children, excited by this time of rapid change and neuroplasticity, where relationships and personal choices can have lasting impact.  

Outside of work, he loves spending time with his family, working really hard on their behalf and reliving his own childhood through his son’s eyes - sharing his joy, playing together.  Spirituality and reading are both central. He admits he is a real “philosophy nerd”, particularly influenced by David Hume’s existentialism, fascinated by tracking his path - to laugh with the laughing, to grieve with the grieved and to seek the good of others as well as one's own.