Our Staff

1:1 Peer Supporter

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I’m Ah’Shah. My name has many meanings (hope, hawk, life alive) across cultures. I’m 43, witchy, multi-passionate, originating from Mount Talol, WA and currently reside in ATX. I delight in dance, journaling, and visioning slow travel.

Like you, I am someone who has survived many challenges. Received my first training to support others in 2012. Been evolving in this work since. 

Overall, I am in a continual process of learning to be more myself (whole & sovereign) in community with those who seek the same. 

Daily Communal Gatherings Facilitator and 1:1 Peer Supporter

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I’m an Andean African-descendant gender-fluid pansexual person, life-long artivist, educator and scholar, a peer-reviewed and creative author; I study research and write about rematriation, Land-based knowledges, liberation, abolition, Anticolonialism, CRT, Hip Hop and Tattoo epistemology; I also live with C-PTSD, Racial Battle Fatigue, general anxiety, synesthesia, depression, ADHD, carpal tunnel and ulnar palsy. I have a B.A., M.S. and Ph.D. Learning thru w@ndering all over  allpamama is my favorite pastime!

1:1 Peer Supporter and Co-Facilitato

for Crip Club 

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 I am an artist and musician and channel both of these creative outlets for healing and catharsis. I am also a houseplant enthusiast, tarot reader, and cat parent to Kiki. I have experience with invisible and visible disability, and I am an ambulatory wheelchair user (using my wheelchair about 90% of the time). As a person with moderate ME/CFS I am primarily house-based. My favorite wellness tools are radical rest and pacing.

1:1 Peer Supporter and Facilitator for Disability (Is Not a Bad Word), Virtual Social Meetups, Disabled Babes Book Club, and If You Give a Trans Person a Book Club

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Beck DeTrempe is a Queer Non-Binary Disabled Person living in Orlando, Florida. Beck is also the founder of Basically Wonderful, an organization that aims to create accessible peer-led spaces that are welcoming to Disabled and LGBTQ+ communities, and has partnered with Peer Support Space to create the spaces that they now facilitate. 

1:1 Peer Supporter and Co-Facilitator for Lotus

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I am cisgender, Gay, and Vietnamese Individual. I am a survivor of generational trauma and the child of immigrant parents. I am comfortable supporting people with shared lived experiences and similar identities as myself. Every individual knows what is best for themselves; I want to encourage everyone to advocate and speak to their own personal needs.  

1:1 Peer Support and Co-Facilitator for Be Kind to Your Mind, Digital Communal Gatherings, Disability (Is Not a Bad Word), and Disability Socials 

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Before I started working with Peer Support Space (PSS), I was a participant of some of the in-person groups that PSS had started offering in 2019. I became a peer group facilitator at the beginning of 2020, hosting daily virtual support groups throughout the height of the Pandemic, and currently I continue to hold compassionate space for folks. Since 2020, I’ve also become a co-facilitator for the Disability (is Not A Bad Word) group and their social meet-ups. Additionally, I provide one-to-one (1:1) support for peers who may benefit from an individualized approach. I will occasionally guest-facilitate the hybrid Butterfly Talks group and the in-person Be Kind To Your Mind group. I graduated in May 2018 with my bachelors degree in psychology from the University of Central Florida, and I have been certified as an adult recovery peer specialist in the state of Florida since August 2021.

1:1 Peer Supporter & Co-Facilitator for Daily Communal Gatherings

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Grae is a queer and disabled Autistic who loves their chosen family fiercely. Xe are a community activist, artist, and musician who is deeply involved in efforts to support grassroots organizing in West Pasco where they're from. Xe are passionate about sociology + science + spirituality, which informs xeir quest for honest love, connection and healing.

Iftu Hargaaya (she/her) is an Oromo educator, peer supporter, and community organizer with lived experience navigating mental health concerns. Currently Iftu teaches anti-oppressive education at a local community college and uses both her education and lived experience to inform her peer support practice. As a peer supporter she provides nonclinical mental wellness support using an abolitionist, trauma and culturally responsive approach to care. Outside of work Iftu enjoys volunteering, traveling, writing poetry and spending time with her dog. 

Born in Boriken (Puerto Rico) Itiba became a climate migrant at the young age of 11 when they where relocated to Central Florida post hurricane George. Itiba has been a community organizer since the age of 16 and has been active in mental health advocacy since the age of 20. She has dedicated time to understanding decolonization in the mental health services world. Itiba has also dedicated time to holistic healing advocacy. 

1:1 Peer Supporter and Co-Facilitator for Fostering Friendships

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 I identify as a non-binary lesbian. I’m autistic, fat, and Black. I love to cook more than anything. I hope to spend the next year cultivating a kitchen garden so I can cook even better food with fresher ingredients. I really love reading, and the library has been a ton of fun while I’ve been getting back into this hobby. My girlfriend and I are excited to start fostering dogs this year as I’m a huge animal lover.

1:1 Peer Supporter

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I’m a mother of 3, two boys and a girl. I love doing things with my family and friends. I'm a big jokester. I love to laugh and make others laugh. I'm obsessed with dogs (have 3 of my own) and pretty much any kind of animal. Unfortunately I lost my two sons within a year ½ of each other. One was 20 and the other 26.  To say life has been a roller coaster is an understatement. This is also the reason and interest to get more involved with others who have lost a child or a loved one.