Rachel FeldmanMarriage & Family Therapist, MA, LMFT

About

If you locate yourself within polyamorous, kinky, queer/trans, or anti-capitalist orientations, then you already know the ways normativity disciplines bodies, desires, and relationality. The costs of stepping outside dominant scripts are often high, especially when your modes of embodiment or intimacy are cast as deviant or disordered. At The Normative Exit Clinic, we recognize that “health” is not synonymous with “normal,” and that freedom is rarely granted—it must be authored. Living at the edges of what’s socially sanctioned isn’t a pathology; it’s often a deeply conscious and courageous stance. And yet, negotiating life at those margins can provoke exhaustion, relational strain, and isolation. These aren’t individual failings—they’re the effects of normative power operating through institutions, language, and everyday expectations. At Columbia University and Sarah Lawrence, I was able to curate a curriculum around the work of Michel Foucault.