H. Koko Ayot, MHC

Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.”— James Baldwin

Koko Ayot, MHC-LP, is a Mental Health Counselor based in New York City. She earned her Master’s degree in Clinical Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness from NYU’s Steinhardt School, with training in trauma-informed CBT, psychodynamic therapy, narrative therapy, and creative expression. Her clinical focus includes childhood trauma and its long reach into adult relationships and self-concept, as well as specialized experience treating problematic pornography use and other addictive concerns. A writer and storyteller, Koko also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from NYU, a background that shapes how she uses language, image, and story as clinical tools, not simply artistic ones.

COLLABORATING TO GET RESULTS

Koko works with adults navigating anxiety, depression, grief, addiction, and relationship difficulties, with particular depth supporting men and women of color managing the intersection of marginalized identities who carry the weight of culture, history, and circumstance — the performance of strength, the cost of silence, or grief often masked as anger or ambition.

KOKO’S APPROACH TO TREATMENT

Koko takes an integrative approach, combining psychodynamic insight and IFS parts work with mindfulness-based approaches to reach what words alone often cannot. She helps clients understand not just what they’re feeling, but where a pattern was built and what it’s still protecting them from. Reframing the narratives they’ve inherited or constructed about themselves may change their relationship with the events of their life and their thoughts and feelings tied to them. Her goal in every session is to provide a space where clients feel safe enough to put the armor down and be met, fully, as who they already are.