Polestar Therapy

Our Team

Meet Our Team

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Jamie Danielle Daniels, PhD, LICSW

Owner & Director

Jamie is the owner and director of Polestar Therapy. She is a trauma-informed clinician, who approaches treatment utilizing an anti-oppressive/liberatory framework. Her work is relationship based and culturally responsive. She fluidly addresses issues of race, gender, sexuality, and class oppression, while integrating identity development and social position into treatment. Her clinical orientation is psychodynamic and relational, utilizing cognitive and behavioral strategies when appropriate. Jamie is a dedicated scholar specializing in the mental health of Black women. Jamie holds a PhD in Advanced Clinical Social Work from Smith College School for Social Work, an MSW from Smith College School for Social Work, and a BA from Mount Holyoke College with dual degrees in Psychology and Political Science.

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Gabrilla Ballard, LCSW, MSW

Clinician

Gabrilla is a trauma-informed and culturally responsive clinician. She brings a wealth of experience working with individuals living with chronic illnesses and survivors of intimate/domestic violence. Gabrilla views therapy as a sacred space where individuals can courageously navigate the complexities of their mental health, confronting unique challenges, and unraveling layers of generational wounds and societal pressures. Through this transformative journey, Gabrilla guides her clients in reclaiming their narratives, fostering healing, dignity, and resilience.

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Lee Lewis, MSW

Clinician

Lee is guided by radical, liberatory values in her clinical work. They use a psychodynamic and relational approach to therapy and implement narrative and motivational interviewing as appropriate. She utilizes a disability lens to help support clients to deconstruct internalized oppressive systems and rebuild worldviews more aligned with their values and needs. Lee supports adults working with a variety of challenges and traumas that arise from living in a world built for the nonexistent normative. She is fat positive, queer and trans inclusive, sex and kink positive, spiritually inclusive, and enjoys working with folks experiencing intersecting marginalized identities. Lee is deeply rooted in anti-oppressive, interdependent, and culturally responsive/responsible therapy.

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Coco Montellano, MSW

Clinician

Coco's therapeutic approach is strengths-based, person-centered, and collaborative. They believe that each person's lived experience is an essential source of knowledge, and they work to center that wisdom throughout the therapeutic process. Their clinical orientation is grounded in psychodynamic and relational theories, and informed by feminist theory and liberation psychology. They bring thoughtful attention to the social forces that shape our inner worlds and the ways we relate to ourselves and each other. They believe healing happens in relationship. Through a therapeutic connection grounded in trust, playfulness, and courage, they support clients in opening up new possibilities for growth, self-understanding, and meaningful connection.

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Josh Odem, therapist at Polestar Therapy.

Josh Odam, MS, MSW, LCSW

Clinician

Josh Odam (he/him) is a social worker, psychotherapist, and the Founder & Curator of Healing While Black Books, a Black, queer centric bookstore/reading room in West Philadelphia. He understands mental (un)wellness is inextricably linked to antiblackness, queerantagonism, and other forms of oppression. Josh believes his role is to introduce possibility to clients and journey alongside them during the therapeutic process. His approach is multi-disciplinary and incorporates Person-Centered (Rogerian) Therapy and Strengths-Based Therapy within the context of Ignacio Martin-Baro's concept of Liberation Psychology. He earned his Bachelor's degree in Political Science and Master of Science in Labor Studies from the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and his Master of Social Work from Springfield College.

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Anaïs Baptiste, therapist at Polestar Therapy.

Anaïs Baptiste, MSW

Clinician

Anaïs aims to address the whole person, not just their symptoms. Her approach to therapy is grounded in a decolonized framework emphasizing liberation, joy, and strength. She draws from psychodynamic, relational, and trauma-informed practices to cultivate a space where clients feel truly seen, heard, and valued. As a Black queer woman, Anaïs is deeply committed to advocating for and celebrating marginalized identities, fostering a space where clients can feel validated, empowered, and understood. Her approach is deeply informed by experience with clients who have endured complex trauma, queer and gender-expansive individuals, people navigating recovery, and those who have experienced harmful impacts of structural and social institutions. Anaïs also provides sex worker–affirming care.

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Polestar Definition: 1: North Star  2: Something that serves as a guiding principle