I’m Max (they/them), founder of The Maximum Good and a Licensed Clinical Social Worker based in Austin, Texas.
I help creative visionaries, founders, and mission-driven leaders do the greatest good they can with the one life they have.
I work at the intersection of personal transformation and systemic change.
My background spans national service organizations like AmeriCorps and City Year, along with work across nonprofits, universities, schools, and hospitals.
I’ve developed group programs for teens in the juvenile justice system, organized alongside families rebuilding after Hurricane Katrina, and led service-learning initiatives across college campuses in Texas.
Since 2000, I’ve studied and worked within systems shaped by race, class, gender, and sexuality, while also working directly with people navigating the real consequences of those systems.
In 2012, I opened a private practice to go deeper, helping individuals and groups navigate complexity, make meaning, and take aligned action.
It clarified something: most people dramatically underestimate both their potential for impact and the cost of not using it.
The Maximum Good was born from that realization.
My approach integrates systems awareness, deep personal insight, and strategic decision-making to help clients move from intention to measurable impact.
Whether that means redefining a career, redirecting resources, or stepping into a larger vision, the goal is the same: alignment that actually changes outcomes.
As a trauma-informed psychotherapist with 20 years of clinical experience, I specialize in sex-positive, body-liberation–affirming therapy for creative, tender, and powerful souls, especially queer and trans folks, neurodivergent leaders, kink and non-monogamous communities, and survivors of oppression and marginalization.
My expertise includes:
Complex PTSD, generational and relational trauma
Identity struggles tied to gender, sexuality, race, class, and embodiment
Betrayal trauma, attachment wounds, and chronic shame
Navigating weight stigma, diet culture, and rape culture
I integrate evidence-based modalities like interpersonal neurobiology, somatic therapy, behavioral activation, and motivational interviewing, with a deep commitment to anti-oppression, somatic awareness, and pleasure-affirming care.
I believe that healing can happen in many forms, including through conscious exploration of desire and power.
My Background
I hold a Bachelors of Science in Sociology from Illinois State University and a Master of Science in Clinical Social Work from The University of Texas at Austin, where I was an Ashworth Fellowship recipient and co-chaired the Social Justice Action Committee.
My graduate thesis explored relational aggression which is a topic that continues to inform my work with survivors of interpersonal violence.
I’m a founding member of the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee of the Austin Group Psychotherapy Society (AGPS) and have delivered dozens of trainings on topics such as body liberation, trauma in transgender and nonbinary communities, racial stamina, and sex-positive approaches to healing shame and trauma—including through BDSM and kink.
I’ve been featured on podcasts like Rediscovering Health + Wellness (“The Personal is Political”) and Next Quest (“Healing Chronic Shame + Complex Trauma through Sex + BDSM”).
Before launching my private practice, I built my clinical experience working in group counseling practices and at a large behavioral health hospital program, treating adolescents and adults with severe mental illness, suicidality, eating disorders, and trauma.
From 2007–2013, I worked for a statewide nonprofit, designing therapeutic programs for over 500 high-risk teens, including survivors and perpetrators of violence, pregnant and parenting teens, and youth experiencing homelessness or substance use.
I see therapy — and coaching — as a collaborative, rebellious act of reclaiming wholeness. My approach blends clinical skill with shared knowing, reverence, and a commitment to collective liberation.
I challenge my clients to move beyond incremental change and into deliberate, high-impact action. Not performative good. Not scattered effort. But focused, courageous work that moves the needle— personally and systemically.
