Therapist Directory

Life can be a challenging experience which can be compounded by our unique identities and circumstances. Through no fault of our own we can sometimes feel ill-equipped to handle the challenges that life brings us. Some of us have adapted by becoming perfectionists and having a harsh inner critic or by becoming more withdrawn and feeling lost and confused. As a man of color and a son of immigrants, I can relate to these experiences, and feel that I can offer an alternative perspective to provide a greater sense of freedom.

I have awareness of my social identities and am open to working with all ethnicities, gender identities, and sexual orientations with curiosity and humility. As a result of my personal and professional experiences, I tend to work well with people who are wanting to find their “voice” in life and in relationship, people going through life transitions such as the “mid-life crisis”, and BIPOC individuals who are struggling in professional environments.

If you feel drawn to my perspective and experience, I would be happy to schedule a brief consultation call to see how I can help.

Therapy provides a space dedicated solely to your wellbeing and growth. Some of the things I work with include anxiety, depression, loss and grief, the impacts of oppression, identity, race-based stress, challenging family dynamics, boundaries, coming out, interpersonal relationship challenges, self-harm, the voice of an inner critic, and the impacts of trauma, including early developmental trauma.

Let’s admit we all have broken places. It is part of the human condition. We all have situations we just can’t figure out on our own. In my 20 years as a social worker, most of my clients start therapy saying some version of “I just don’t know what to do.” Together we cultivate the emotional safety necessary to examine where you are and where you need to go, as well as the courage to get there step by step.

Do you feel paralyzed when facing a major life transition—deciding a career path, stepping into adulthood, becoming a couple or separating, becoming a parent or not? Perhaps your relationship is frozen and you and your partner can't talk without fighting or can't agree on a shared vision for your lives. By working together we can shed a kind light on the dark places and approach them with safety and curiosity. You determine the pace as we make sense of things and find the places where movement and change can happen.

I meet with couples, individuals and adolescents from a diverse range of backgrounds struggling to communicate or emotionally connect with others and parts of themselves. Typically, I work with clients that are holding generations worth of grief and trauma without recognizing it. Meeting regularly helps a client and I to discover, together, the conditions that allow for joy or suffering in their life.

Are you struggling to connect to your partner or important people in your life? Would you like to have deeper, more fulfilling relationships? Maybe you and your partner feel like you are trying to connect and just keep missing each other? Whether you come to therapy on your own or as part of a relationship, I can help you discover deeper connection and more fulfilling bonds.

Do you struggle to feel satisfied with yourself? Does it feel like no matter what you do, it is never enough? Maybe you project a self-confident image, but internally you experience feelings of inadequacy and self-doubt. You long to feel at peace with yourself, but the self-judgment and pressure leave you feeling anxious, depressed, and isolated. You are tired of living like this and you are ready to figure out another way. I can help you overcome the obstacles that keep you feeling stuck, and will guide you to build healthier relationships with yourself and with others.

I specialize in working with individuals who struggle with self-criticism, shame, and low self-esteem. After working with me, my clients report feeling more grounded, whole, and confident in their own skin. They are better able to navigate personal relationships, life transitions, and work-related stress.

The way we relate to ourselves is key to our well-being. Unfortunately, in times of difficulty, we can be harshly self-critical. This can lead to depression and self-loathing, making it even harder for us to achieve our goals. I help my clients cultivate a kinder inner voice and develop greater self-acceptance so they can walk through life with more confidence and resilience.

Everyone encounters feelings of dissatisfaction and confusion in their lives, questioning their choices, their direction, or even who they are at the core. I provide a calm, nonjudgmental space for you to share the things that trouble you, especially the things that are hard to share or the parts of you that you may not feel good about. I work to help you see how what you feel makes sense, making connections to past experiences, and coming to new self-understanding and acceptance.

“Practice harm reduction by being radically honest about your messiness.”
-Chani Nicholas

As human beings, we walk the planet with a complex matrix of shame, hurt, and resistance that can be peeled away like layers of an onion. With patient, careful, and nonjudgmental guidance, we can work to discover the deepest core of our beliefs, desires, and needs, expanding our stories and drawing meaning from our experiences.

With this improved awareness, we can build tools and resources for addressing challenges and, perhaps more importantly, create a more peaceful relationship with those challenges. As a result, we become better at our relationships with ourselves and others. Better communicators. Better at boundaries. Better at compassion. Better at receiving the love and care we need.

Relationships can be the most rewarding, and the most frustrating, things in our lives.

We want them. Well, we want the good parts. And when we are not getting the good, we think
hey, maybe I am just better off on my own. But where does that leave us? Usually craving and
wanting a relationship again.

Love, communication, and intimacy are probably not the things you learned in school. Most
likely you are relating to others based on what was modeled to you growing up or what you
saw or read on TV, the internet, or in magazines.

Therefore, let's pause, take a step back, and start to explore what lies beneath the surface.

LOVE is the most organic thing—but it's also complicated.

Learning to be your own person in a relationship while developing deep intimacy is something
within your reach.

Whether you are coming to me as an individual or as members of a couple, I welcome the
opportunity to begin a dialog with you.

My role as a psychotherapist is to help clients acknowledge and harness their innate strengths, enabling them to attain and sustain the well-being they are searching for. What holds us back? What keeps us returning to habitual patterns that limit us? How can we heal from past experiences or learn to cope with current life challenges? Together we will examine your life from many vantage points, with compassion and curiosity. By expanding how you view yourself, relate to others, and respond to difficult circumstances, new possibilities will emerge.



My areas of expertise include:
• Cultivating self-compassion to combat shame, self-criticism, and threats to self worth
• Advocating for the unique issues LGBTQ individuals face
• Understanding and coping with depression and anxiety
• Examining the causes and harmful cycles of addiction and codependency
• Exploring intimacy concerns for individuals and couples
• Supporting clients coping with grief and loss
• Building resilience while navigating life transitions
• Embracing cross-cultural differences and attachment patterns in couples
• Working with childhood trauma

I specialize in psychospiritual integration, personal growth, and ushering along the path of awakening. My strength is in clearly seeing blocks and identifying and teaching shamanic and mindfulness-based techniques that can help. I deeply honor each soul's individual path. Using self-empowering spiritual practices such as vipassana meditation, tensegrity, qigong, and soul retrieval, I will help you to identify and create habits and behaviors that will lead you in the direction that matters to you most long after the therapy is finished.

Things have changed A LOT in a very short amount of time due to the Pandemic. You may be having fears about what may happen to you, the economy, or the world. Or you may find yourself relatively okay but, sometimes some seemingly small thing can leave you feeling completely overwhelmed. Is it hard to talk to friends and family right now? Or do you find yourself quarantined with people you like and/or love, but this much time together is simply too much! Would you like some support in the comfort and safety of your own home? Online therapy with me can help.

Online therapy can offer a place to talk to someone outside of the situation about your fears and anxieties. It’s a place you can destress, get resourced, and learn new ways to have boundaries that can actually strengthen your relationships. You may also feel more alone and/or lonely than you’ve ever felt, in that case, online therapy can be especially good because you have a set time each week to connect with someone and be real.

Covid-19/Telehealth Disclaimer

I currently see individuals and couples by video or phone. I have found it surprisingly easy to establish a strong emotional connection online.

Individuals
Among my interests:

• Harsh inner-critic and the cultivation of self-compassion
• Pandemic fatigue, including pandemic-triggered anxiety and depression (as well as pre-existing anxiety and depression)
• Relationship stress exacerbated by shelter-in-place
• Political angst in the Covid era (and more generalized existential angst)
• Stuckness in work and life
• Attachment/childhood trauma and healing
• Intergenerational trauma and healing
• Self-sabotage
• Codependency
• Shame, and healing from shame
• Trauma-informed resilience practices
• Nervous system regulation and stress management / distress tolerance
• Mindfulness in everyday life/meditation-in-action
• Creativity and play, and overcoming blocks to inner freedom
• Parts work, multiplicity, and dialectics
• Secular Buddhist psychology
• Unlearning white fragility, toxic masculinity, and white cis hetero American male-body supremacy

Couples
Love in the Covid era! Feeling more like roommates these days instead of lovers? Feeling unseen and unheard despite countless hours together? Longing for your partner to really get what you're feeling in these ever-uncertain times? You are in good company. Specializing in couples work, I can help you and your partner:

• Rekindle the love you once felt for each other
• Learn what it is you're really fighting about
• Understand how and why you get stuck, and
• Repair from the stuckness so you can return to feeling loved, supported, and cared for again

I am a trauma-informed, mindfulness-based, queer-allied and poly-friendly associate psychotherapist curious about anything and everything being evoked within and between you. Having navigated the serene and stormy seas of my own interracial marriage for over 20 years, I know firsthand the joys and challenges of intimacy in hard times. I want to co-create a space in which you each feel safe enough to share your deepest relational longing, for that longing to feel truly seen, heard, felt, and understood—perhaps for the first time.

My work is emotionally-focused and attachment-based. Mindful communication is a passion, as is offering practical tools for sustaining long-term intimacy such as learning and practicing your partner's love languages. It is my experience that couples therapy can have long-lasting positive effects, even from just a few sessions. It is also my experience that it can even be fun!

My therapy style is direct, authentic, and intuitive. I work well with people who are ready to do the work and are committed to their growth. My work as a therapist is to help you uncover your own intuition, courage, and strength so that you can embrace the life you've always wanted to live. If you're ready to dive into the depths, I would love to join you on that journey.

Restarting your life? Feeling directionless or immobilized by life’s challenges? Are you feeling lost, overwhelmed, isolated? Do you feel stuck in the past as you try to recover and learn from previous relationships? Are you concerned about a lack of motivation in your life? Or maybe you think you are powerless, too old, too young, too different, or low energy?

Scary emotions are often part of the process of change. As a compassionate, supportive, experienced, and trustworthy therapist and guide, I can help. I specialize in life transitions, whether you are leaving a long-term relationship, facing career changes, or the loss of a partner.

I offer a supportive sounding board as you invite change into your life such as:
• Trusting yourself in intimate relationships
• Identifying your right work
• Healing from old wounds
• Learning to put yourself first

Real courage is moving forward when the outcome is uncertain. First steps are hard, but change is possible. Let me help you navigate your journey!

Effective therapy is both challenging and nourishing. It helps you understand your thoughts, motivations, and feelings so that you can move through what’s in the way of your freedom and contentment in relationships, helping you find meaning and develop self-confidence.

I am a holistic therapist who works with individuals and couples to address transparency and truth, developing conscious relationships, effective communication, trauma, life purpose, career and relationship transitions, or the general feeling of stuckness or that life isn’t what it could be.

I excel with people that are interested in self-knowledge, transforming their relationships with an open and honest approach, and developing an ability to understand their romantic partner's perspectives and motivations.

I invite you to embark on a journey to explore the ways your multiple identities, relationships, and struggles weave together and impact the way you show up in this world. It would be an honor to travel alongside you. I will support you as you find what it means to show up authentically in all aspects of your life. I will be there with warmth, empathy, some direction, a bit of humor, and a lot of curiosity.

Finding the right mental health therapist is not always easy or convenient, but I hope your experience here is different. If you are new to therapy, it might feel uncomfortable talking to a stranger at first. If you have been in therapy for years, you might dread having to "start over" with someone new. Wherever you are in your journey, I will do my best to work with you in a way that is collaborative, integrative, and synergistic.

I specialize in PTSD, complex trauma, and recent traumatic events. After working with me, my clients report feeling calmer, more patient and self-aware, and able to express their own strengths, needs, and limits. They are able to notice how and when they might use internal and external resources.

With curiosity and openness, I work with the developmental, analytical, and mystical aspects of psychotherapy to support your skillful action and to make space for a clearer, deeper connection with who you really are.

Your path in therapy may involve inquiries on the physical, intellectual, psychological, emotional, and spiritual planes.

Holistic psychotherapy is an integrative practice rooted in alternative approaches to traditional therapy. This modality of therapy brings awareness to the whole self, body, mind, and spirit, allowing you to better understand, heal, and build acceptance of the self.

Holistic psychotherapy offers support through a gentle transformative process for those who wish to make positive changes in their lives. Through the use of various alternative holistic therapeutic methods and collaborative approaches, clients are able to develop life-changing habits to help them cope with all of life’s various obstacles. I believe everyone has the capacity for success and I am dedicated to offering you a guiding hand on your life journey.

"Wholeness is not achieved by cutting off a portion of one's being, but by integrating of the contraries."–Carl Jung

I believe that you are the foremost expert on your own experiences, and I know how difficult it can be to find a therapist who feels like the right fit. While my professional interests are LGBTQ+ identities, depression, bipolar disorder, anxiety, and college transitions, I welcome all teens and adults with a warm, playful, and encouraging style. My approach is integrative, strength-based, and client-centered. Together, we’ll discuss your unique past experiences, and discover how they influence you in the present and can lead to new choices and new outcomes in the future. I hope to help you create meaningful changes, stronger relationships, and a greater sense of self by focusing on your strengths and using a blend of different therapeutic styles that best match your individual personality and needs.

Life can be hard at times and not having the right tools can be challenging. Whether you are struggling with past trauma, relationship issues, depression, anxiety, addiction, or events in your life that are emotionally draining, we can work together to figure out the best way to live your fullest life. I have a direct, honest, and compassionate style of communicating that allows us to focus on your goals in a collaborative and constructive way, but most importantly in a way that makes sense to you. Let therapy guide you in the direction you want to go.

I help people who are seeking deeper meaning, connection, and purpose in their lives. As a queer- and spiritual-identified woman, I often work at the intersection of spiritual, sexual, and gender identity, supporting the complexity of that experience. People like me often find communities that will honor one part of their identity while ignoring the others. In my practice, LGBTQIA-identified individuals and couples in the Bay Area can access a safe therapeutic environment that affirms each layer of their identity, facilitates meaningful connections, and awakens purpose. My unique relational-Gestalt psychotherapy approach encourages clients to tap into their true potential and live a life with deeper meaning and fuller joy.

I also specialize in autism and educational therapy. Anxiety can have a large impact on quality of life. If you have autism, strict behavioral methods will not reduce chronic anxiety because they do not address the underlying social and emotional experience. My well-developed approach uses the latest findings in psychology, education, and neuroscience to tremendously reduce autism-related-anxiety.

It sucks to live with thoughts, feelings, and beliefs that aren’t welcoming, hopeful or kind, doesn’t it? When that inner stream is clouded with shame, negativity, or apathy, therapy can be a filter to clear out the toxins and make way for the new–the braver, the steadier, the integrated, the you that has the room and gumption to flourish. Getting acquainted with your badass, authentic self deserves your full attention, intention, and compassion. Leveraging somatic practices and the latest in neuroscience and clinical intuition, I am here to help you contact your innate self-righting capacity and embodied wisdom—a personalized treasure trove. Sessions with me often include attention to the body and the breath, mindfulness and visualization work, art, movement, talk, humor, and embodied metaphor. Let's get to it.

I identify as a biracial, bicultural woman of color, born and raised in the Bay Area, and a daughter of immigrants. I encourage the exploration of past experiences and cultural and family stories in order to better love ourselves.

Therapy is a place where you can uncover any barriers that may be limiting your relationship with others and, most importantly, with yourself, in order to find your voice. When we can access and understand our inner thoughts and emotions, we become empowered to make better choices, love fully, and live lighter.

I am keen on working with clients with trauma and helping them to uncover how our bodies and minds store traumatic experiences. Exploring the influence of our past experiences and cultural and family stories on how we love and see ourselves and love and see others is a vital part of my work.

I am a compassionate, direct, and bilingual therapist who will provide you a nonjudgmental space to discover what you need and what does not serve you. My practice is influenced by psychodynamic and strength-based perspectives. I am particularly skilled in working with people who are experiencing anxiety, depression, or tackling social justice issues and who are ultimately seeking the tools for self-empowerment. I am open and excited to work with a wide range of people. I specialize in children, teens, young adults, adults, and Black, Indigenous, women of color.

If you are feeling disconnected from yourself, struggling to form relationships, or feeling a loss of control, therapy might be the right choice for you. I will offer you a safe and supportive place to explore your experiences to help you trust yourself again. In the face of trauma, addiction, anxiety, and depression I can help you reclaim a sense of safety, pleasure, and joy. You are not alone, and yes, it can get better.

We are all worthy of love and belonging. My approach is compassionate and warm. My trauma-informed approach is rooted in relational therapy and somatic frameworks. I aim to meet my clients with respect, authenticity, curiosity, humility and humor. The connections that we make with ourselves and others are often the inspiration and the resource needed to build lasting change in our lives—to learn how to listen to the wisdom of our bodies and celebrate the brilliant creatures we have become. Your uniqueness will inform our journey together.

Is there something you've always hesitated to say out loud, because if you did nothing would stay the same?

Or…

Like in that serenity prayer, are you looking for the difference between what you can change and what you have to accept?

Wisdom's hard to come by in this angry world and serenity can be fleeting. This is your one shot, so you might as well speak your truth. Let’s figure out what you need and what you already have, so you can accept yourself even when it’s hard and participate fully in your own life. What you believe is your Kryptonite may also be the root of your superpower. I'd even bet on it.

Therapy with me can be talky, weepy, a laugh riot, companionable silence. It's my job to understand your world as you see it. We’ll make use of my professional training, life experience, imagination, and intellect to find new perspectives on your relationships, your past, and your present. We’ll experiment with ways for you to manage difficult emotions, feel more compassion toward yourself and others, and live with integrity and purpose.

Our relationships with ourselves can be complicated. Together, let’s better understand how your life circumstances have gotten you to where you are today. What is working for you? What is not working for you? How is your relationship with yourself affecting your relationships with others?

The beauty of therapy is that, despite your familiarity or lack of familiarity with psychology, your entry point is exactly where you need to be. Doing deep personal work is accessible to everyone, as long as you are willing to do it. My role as a therapist is to help you find that access point, no matter how new or unfamiliar this process of self-discovery might be for you.

In the midst of this pandemic, you might have moved back home to live with your family and are navigating that transition. Or maybe you are adapting to living on your own. Are you a student, struggling to adapt to doing school online? Perhaps you are non-partnered and are dealing with social isolation. Let’s talk about whatever is coming up for you right now.

To be seen and understood for who you are by someone with good intentions and real knowledge can help you know that you are real and your experience of life is also real. Being understood in this way is at the heart of being human. It is also at the foundation of building a resilient sense of self that allows you to overcome your wounds and achieve your full potential. We need to be fully human before we can evolve and transcend as either psychological or spiritual beings.

During this time, caring for our mental health is essential to get through this together. To do our part to flatten the curve I have moved all of my sessions to either over the phone or a HIPAA compliant online video service. Be well, Be safe.

Are you in transition? Struggling with anxiety, depression, self-criticism, or low self-esteem and tired of simply surviving? Wanting to feel more empowered in your life, relationships, and at work? Are you seeking a warm, caring therapist who will listen and help support you? Who is devoted to your wellbeing and can offer both the practical help and emotional support to help you to thrive? If so, I'd like to help.

I work with adolescents, women, men, and couples desiring new opportunities for themselves and their lives. Often at a crossroads, struggling with the aftermath of their early family lives, coping with overwhelm or loss, or trying to find ways to live more at peace with themselves and their loved ones, my clients come from all walks of life.

As my client, I will treat you with respect, thoughtfulness, and compassion. Whether you want to learn more about yourself and your feelings, develop new skills, cope with life's challenges, or pursue a journey of self-discovery, we will work together to create an experience tailored to your specific needs and goals.

If you are struggling or simply want an ally in creating a better life, I invite you to call me.

Ready to rediscover who you are?

I don't trust myself.

I'm tired of letting opportunities pass by because of self-doubt and tired of the regret I feel afterwards.

I know that changes in actions and beliefs can lead to growth and I realize that greater self-knowledge can help awaken a sense of purpose. But even though I've tried time and time again to develop a sense of empowerment, I'm not reaching my goals.

If any of these statements resonate with you, you're not alone. We live in a society that barrages us with negative external messages that silence our inner knowing— that powerful sense of intuition that rests just beyond our consciousness. When we are disconnected from our intuition, we can lose our sense of purpose.

Rediscovering your inner knowing can be hard work, but I'm here to help. Let’s work on making changes in a way that feels right and supports your process. You’ve been holding on to fear and negative messages. It’s time to let go. Let me help you on this journey.

Does it feel like nothing is ever good enough and neither are you? You don’t have to feel this way—therapy helps. We will work together so you can learn to calm yourself down, build confidence, feel more hopeful, communicate more effectively, build and have better relationships, feel comfortable in your own skin, feel whole, and much more!

My areas of focus include relationship issues; perfectionism; compulsive behaviors (overeating, drinking, dieting, work, sex...); trauma (e.g. rape, abuse, car accidents...); couples (interracial and interfaith); and cross-cultural issues. I have a warm and direct style and whether you’re seeing me as an individual or as a couple, you will come away from our work with more choice and freedom in your life.

Passion for my work combines my interests in the body/mind connection, love of diverse cultures, and fascination with human nature. I love what I do and truly respect my clients' willingness to bring their inner world to the forefront. Let's talk so you can begin the journey to feel better.

I know these are challenging times and our normal lives have been upended. I applaud you for seeking out support. I can help you to move beyond coping with life’s challenges and thrive. I embody a warm, anchored, and accepting presence. I seek to create an environment where you feel safe to share what matters most…your feelings, fears, sadness, hopes, and dreams.

I use my adaptive instincts to tailor my approach to the unique needs of each individual or couple. At the beginning of therapy, I might use tools such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) or Dialectal Behavioral Therapy (DBT) tools to improve short-term coping and lay the foundation for deeper work. To create long-term transformation I integrate several modalities including client-centered, psychodynamic, and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT).

I specialize in work with individuals and couples experiencing these issues:

• Relationship issues including breaking isolation and feeling more connected; addressing challenges between romantic partners; and adults resolving past and present issues with parents and family members.
• Transitions including adult life stages; grief and loss; and career changes.
• Marginalization—past or present—caused by early trauma; due to gender identity, sexual identity, sexual orientation or ethnicity; and due to not having your sensitivity recognized.

I specialize in working with people who struggle with complex trauma and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Complex trauma is often the result of growing up with a caregiver who was abusive, neglectful, and/or suffered from mental illness or addiction. Complex trauma can also be a result of growing up in an environment where there was poverty, frequent incarceration, violence, and oppression. Symptoms of complex trauma include anxiety, depression, difficulty with relationships, chronic pessimism, fear of success, and a sense of feeling broken or that something is wrong with you.

I am trained in various techniques that specifically work with trauma and I work with an anti-oppression perspective. I have a diverse caseload and include you and your family’s particular socio-political-historical context when considering the impact of intergenerational trauma. You do not have to identify with, or have suffered from, complex trauma to contact me. I also work with attachment and relationship issues, perfectionism, giftedness, gender and masculinity, and issues around immigration, acculturation, and belonging.

Relationships are unique and come in countless shapes and sizes over time. Right now, relationships are happening and changing in your life every day. I provide opportunities to explore your relationship to relationships; to gain customized tools for current and future relationships; and to catalyze what is working in your relationships and heal and transform what is painful and challenging.

Yes, all relationships shift and change. Yet love can regenerate again and again in the most mysterious moments and forms when we stay open and curious.

The co-creative journey of intimate relationships is a fundamental part of our human well-being.

You are lovable.

Do you feel like you are watching your life from the outside? Are you used to feeling “lost” in your relationships? Have you notice yourself trying to please others to the detriment of yourself? Does doing all the things you are “supposed to do” feel dissatisfying? Has a great loss pushed everything you thought you knew out the window? Are you wondering, “Who am I?”

Together we will explore any and all of the questions that brought you to therapy. I believe that you have an innate ability to answer these questions and that it is my honor to facilitate your process of self-discovery and healing. We will embark on this journey with curiosity, awareness, and authenticity. I will support you in developing empathy and compassion for all parts of yourself, especially the parts that you may have hidden away from yourself or disconnected from, the ones that feel shameful, scary, or overwhelming. Through cultivating love and acceptance for your entire experience without judgment, new possibilities and more choices will reveal themselves.

“The erotic is a measure between the beginnings of our sense of self and the chaos of our strongest feelings. It is an internal sense of satisfaction to which, once we have experienced it, we know we can aspire.”–Audre Lorde

As we grow up, we learn to survive in complex familial, social, and political systems. These inherently adaptive survival strategies lay the foundation for how we relate to the world around us, one another, and ourselves. Unfortunately, these strategies can leave us feeling cut off from longed-for parts of our experience. As adults we may begin to feel limited by old patterns that no longer serve us. This is often when we seek out therapy. I am interested in providing a space for you to remember your known and lesser-known parts. By drawing on your intrinsic source of vitality, rooted in the erotic, we will forge new pathways of connection as you learn to accept, love, and embody yourself.

In order to facilitate your healing, we will have real conversations about you and your life—the kind of conversations that sing in your heart and mind and take you to places you never expected.

My approach includes giving you space, security, and encouragement to explore your past and the deeper parts of the mind that may be driving your day-to-day decisions. We will look at what’s bothering you and find a way forward. Through deep listening, I help make sense of inner disturbances that are creating outer conflicts in your life. As you overcome anxieties and unhealthy expectations, you will discover your own alive and authentic self as well as identify and organize turbulent feelings, clarifying your expectations. We will work toward resolving old wounds and developing new ways of thinking as you disentangle from your struggles. Your interest in new skills and knowledge will be the starting point for further growth as you find a way to live life as yourself, free, open, and self-accepting.

Life can be very confusing sometimes! My understanding is that each of us is different and there are no easy answers for most of life's questions. I am happy to be engaged in the mystery of life with you. Using my humanistic and transpersonal approach, my goal is to help you create meaning out of life and develop coping skills. I acknowledge all spiritual and religious traditions, including atheism. At the end of the day, I don't know the "right" answer. All I know is that being kind and brave is important. I want to honor the things that are important to you too.

I can help by joining you in exploring your anxiety, your fear, your grief, and your relationships. Together we will be able to look at patterns which may be negatively impacting your ability to function and unravel them for a more fulfilling and satisfying life.

Therapy can help you:
• Decide how to have strong relationships with appropriate people
• Share what you hate and love about yourself and others
• Better communicate your needs and wants
• Discover ways to be kinder to yourself

It can be easy to lose sight of ourselves. As we move through life, we pick up patterns of relating to ourselves, to our environment, and to the present moment. Maybe we go numb, act out, or betray ourselves to please another. These patterns have likely helped us in the past, and yet now they might hold us back or even bring us more pain than relief. The things we once enjoyed may feel empty and our loved ones like strangers.

Whether passing through a difficult time, living with the repercussions of a tumultuous past, or a combination of both, we can find ways to build our own stable footing. With safety, compassion, and curiosity we can review and rework those patterns. We can unearth and tend to our authentic self and, choosing each moment, find our joy and our ease.

I work with individuals experiencing burnout, loneliness and blocked creativity in Marin and Berkeley. Maybe you’re experiencing apathy, hopelessness, overwhelm, negative self-talk or straight-up rebellion from your body. Being a human in these times is not for the faint of heart. Therapy can help. Working together, we can identify strengths you have, patterns you’d like to change and the resources to help sustain you.

I create a space for you to explore, breathe, relax, create, use metaphor, and get weird and playful to find answers and healing.

I'm here to help you understand and accept yourself, make sense of difficult experiences, and find more of what makes you truly happy. This might mean working through unprocessed trauma that is holding you back or examining your patterns in relationships. Whatever path our work takes, I believe self-knowing and self-compassion are at its core. Who are you, what is hurting inside you, and what do you need to feel whole? Let’s get curious and find out together.

Having a hard time? Feeling stuck? Let's talk. Intuitive and practical counseling with a skilled and compassionate therapist.

Choosing the right counselor is important. My approach is warm, open, and collaborative. I work with you to explore reactions, emotional patterns, and thought processes. I encourage honest exchange at your own pace while providing you with tangible techniques to take into your life.

I specialize in:
• Work-related problems and conflicts for managers or employees
• Parenting and step-parenting
• Relationship issues (dating, problems in marriage or significant relationship, and break-ups/ divorces)
• Managing stress
• Adjustment to life changes (new career, relocation, kids leaving the house, retirement, caregiving, and health problems)
• Trauma, anxiety, ADHD, and depression
• Anger, reactivity, feeling unfulfilled, and other unpleasant emotions

Psychotherapy can help you get what you want out of life. Feel free to call me for a free 20-minute phone consultation to see if it feels right.

**COVID-19 Update**
We are living in strange times. COVID-19 has made social distancing a new normal that changes so much about the way we live. However, though keeping distance is a present necessity, our need for connection remains the same. I am still accepting new clients and offering video/phone therapy for all seeking support during these times of uncertainty.

Humans are pack animals. We depend on our relationships to survive. So, when we are deprived of the love and care of supportive relationships, we find ways to meet these needs in their absence. These strategies help us minimize our pain allowing us to survive childhood and navigate adulthood.

Now you are finding that these survival strategies are becoming problems of their own. Do you struggle with letting your guard down, even for the people you love? Is it difficult to put your needs over the needs of others? Have you developed habits of avoiding "feeling" and find that you are disconnected from the world around you?

Therapy offers a unique relationship that invites you to explore your patterns and practice new ways of relating to others. I offer warmth, curiosity, and openness as together we seek out your ideal YOU and explore how to let this person shine through in all your relationships.

I excel at working with individuals, couples, and families with adult children. I focus on a wide variety of issues, including, but not limited to, stress, dating, relationships, sex, trauma, and domestic violence. I help people create better relationships and clear obstacles to those relationships. I help couples dealing with communication issues, financial issues, differences in desire and problems with intimacy, navigating nontraditional relationships, and problems with division of labor.

I offer trauma-informed psychotherapy to adults across the lifespan. My areas of focus include, but are not limited to, individuals who are undergoing major life transitions, recovering from traumatic events, experiencing grief or loss, and navigating career or school-related issues. I also specialize in working with those who are directly or indirectly impacted by disability or illness.

As a therapist, I am warm, authentic, understanding, and direct. I use a collaborative and integrative approach rooted in person-centered, biopsychosocial, attachment-focused, trauma-informed, and existential frameworks. I tailor my approach to meet your specific needs as we work together to identify and navigate your path forward.

Whatever reason has brought you to seek therapy in this moment is no doubt unique to you. It is my firm belief that you are the authority on your life and that each one of us deserves support. My goal is to offer support on your distinct healing journey. As a trauma informed somatic practitioner, I take into consideration your mind and your body, specifically how your nervous system is responding to whatever it is you are bringing to therapy. In a collaborative way we will find ways to bring more ease into your being.

Seeking support for life's inevitable challenges is a courageous and powerful choice. Consider me a partner on your path of increasing empowerment.

Therapy can offer a safe space for exploration and acceptance of a wider range of your life experience, which can lead to positive change. From my end, I will bring to our relationship a sense of non-judgment, warmth, and humor along with professional expertise.

I strive to be flexible, open, and inclusive, and thus draw from varied psychological and philosophical orientations. I am actively engaged in anti-oppression work, both personally and professionally. I honor diversity and welcome people from all walks of life.

I am currently offering therapy by phone and via the online video platform Zoom. If you would like to talk with someone during this time, please feel free to reach out to me.

I provide strength-based, trauma-informed psychotherapy to youth, adults, and families who are seeking support with healing what hurts, transforming patterns that no longer serve them, and creating a path towards greater resilience and meaning in their lives.

Although it might be difficult to recognize at first, painful transitions and experiences can provide opportunities for immense personal growth and deeper connection to yourself and others. Therapy can help you tap into your own innate wisdom and capacity to grow, while offering additional tools for navigating life’s inevitable twists and turns.

**In light of current events, I am now offering teletherapy sessions so I can meet remotely with clients. Somatic psychotherapy is very well-suited to processing the current fears and anxieties, lack of control, social isolation, and financial stress impacting us all. Please note, that at this time all psychotherapy services will take place online as video sessions in place of in-person sessions. This is a temporary safety precaution in an attempt to prevent COVID-19 exposure. In-person sessions will resume at a future date.

As one can observe in nature, our innate impulse is to heal. Sometimes our access to this resiliency is along an ever-winding path. Life—relationships, behaviors, community, culture—impacts our ability to fulfill this impulse. In our sessions we will creatively collaborate to rediscover and widen your access to the path toward healing. We will hold your innate wisdom and resiliency alongside the parts of you that feel incongruent, sticky, stubborn, and shameful, honoring that each part deserves to be listened to without judgment. We will learn how to find balance in the fullness of you.

Aren’t emotions the worst? You're chugging along in your routine that includes all the things you’re supposed to do to be healthy, happy and successful, and then- overwhelming anger or despair pops up out of nowhere! Despite your efforts, you haven't found a way to stop this from derailing and delaying your progress. You are intelligent and disciplined; you don’t need any more self-care tips. What you do need is someone there when you feel out of control, who won’t be intimidated by how deeply you feel and who in fact relishes the opportunity to walk with you on this terrifying and exhilarating journey of being human.

If you are feeling lost, broken, overwhelmed, or in need of something more from your life, therapy can help reconnect you to yourself. I provide depth-oriented individual psychotherapy to adults and adolescents in the East Bay. I enjoy supporting people who feel stuck due to depression, anxiety, difficulties in relationships, and distress related to past and present trauma. I have experience working within the LGBTQI+ community and welcome people who occupy non-conforming gender and sexual identities.

Together we will work to connect to your authentic thoughts and emotions, build insight into the origins of your struggles, highlight your strengths, and make space for the things that bring you meaning. This process of exploration can promote greater self-awareness, increased confidence in navigating challenging situations, and a deepened relationship to self and others.

In my office, you will find a safe and comfortable space where curiosity and compassion guide us towards your self-discovery and healing. Depending on your specific needs, we will shape our time together using creativity and what you already know about yourself. I respect your self-knowing and prioritize your pace and agency to guide our therapeutic dynamic and movement towards positive change.

Together we can increase your tolerance of anxiety, anger, and other overwhelming emotions and create more choices for you to feel empowered rather than stuck or reactionary. We can monitor and learn from your stress responses (fight, flight, freeze, etc.) in order to improve your communication with others, self-care, and general functioning. I can also guide you towards more self-compassion and wisdom, rooted in the body, where you can revisit and recharge when you need it.

Through our work, you’ll heal and move toward inner strength and wholeness by reclaiming disowned parts of yourself, parts you have othered or exiled, knowingly or not. We will make room for your multi-dimensionality and the intricate complexities within you. I believe in the work we can do to make peace possible for you.

I specialize in grief counseling and helping older individuals and couples navigate the challenges of aging.

We live in a world that has no time for grief and no patience for the physical and emotional challenges of aging. Because our culture has so little tolerance for these experiences, people are forced to push down their feelings and pretend that they’re not in any pain. As a result, it's easy to become lost in your grief and frustrated in your efforts to find meaning and joy as you age.

I also work with the families of substance abusers, helping them get their lives back on track and find a level of happiness whether their loved one is using or not.

In response to California's Shelter in Place, I'm now offering Telehealth/Online Therapy services by video or phone for short-term or long term work.

You’re not broken, though at times in life we can feel that way. Reaching out for support can be difficult, but it is the first step to feeling like life is working again. I help individuals and couples facilitate their process of living a fuller, deeper, more authentic, and balanced life through mindfulness-based and somatic psychotherapy. It’s an honor to sit with my clients and be a part of their journey.

In our frenzied, accomplishment-focused world, it is easy to lose touch with who we are, and how we want to show up in our lives. We may have reached our goals, yet find that we are not as satisfied or as joyful as we had imagined we would be. The therapeutic relationship is a great opportunity to slow down and examine our lives, and ultimately make choices that feel more aligned with what we want and how we want to feel.

I hold a non-judgmental space where all of you is welcome, even the ugly, scary, and forgotten parts. My goal as a therapist is to allow you to more fully experience yourself, and begin to let go of anything that does not feel like the most authentic, true version of yourself. I truly believe in the therapeutic relationship, and the value of a trusted witness in our healing process.

My approach is client-led, relational and humanistic. I integrate the body, mind, and spirit and work in collaboration with you as a whole person. While my training is grounded in psychodynamic theory, I draw from a variety of traditions. Above all, I treat each client as an individual and the therapy is ultimately led by your needs and intentions in doing this work.

I help men and women who suffered neglect as children, allowing them to become more self-actualized people in the world. Do you say yes when you mean to say no? Do you overextend yourself? Do the needs of others come before yours? If you have grown up in a neglectful family, you may not know how to advocate for yourself. I can help.

Is the state of the world making you question your purpose and direction in life? Therapy can help bring more clarity. Video sessions available at this time.

Do you have a hard time speaking up and expressing yourself? Do you have such empathy for others and the world that it can get in your way of knowing what you truly want and need?

When you anticipate a conflict or someone who may have a differing opinion than you, you tend to keep quiet to maintain the peace. Although you embrace this kind and gentle part of you that is what others see, you know there is more to you than these parts. You are capable, accountable, and have achieved a lot. There is more fire in you that wants to come out in the world and make things happen.

I can help you access the other parts of you that the world doesn’t get to see, the parts that you don’t acknowledge in you but can see and admire in others, and the parts that once they are allowed to come out can help you navigate life with less doubt, more ease and clarity.

Being a human being is challenging. We are all seeking some sort of reliable refuge. Unfortunately, most of us have internalized the notion that refuge is to be found in external phenomena–other people, places, and things. While these external phenomena can be pleasing, reality dictates that they are inherently impermanent and unsatisfactory. In addition, most of us have internalized our likes and dislikes in ways that have given rise to a crystallized belief in the existence of one’s self, the defense and protection of which may dictate much of our decision-making through adulthood.

I offer unique reality attunement therapy to help my clients move into greater alignment with the natural order of things. Through an integration of cognitive behavioral, Gestalt, and existential approaches, reality attunement therapy will help you move toward an internalized, felt sense of the true, ephemeral nature of things. You will become comfortable with the uncomfortable. You will come to embrace the not-knowing. It is through this attunement to present-moment experience that the discovery of reliable refuge becomes possible. It is my professional calling to help cultivate this grounded sense in others.

The impact of society on our sense of self is profoundly real. Our bodies are constantly processing in an overwhelming, oppressive, and chaotic world. If you're flooded with feelings of isolation, fear, doubt, shame or feel stuck and unfulfilled, you are not alone in this and I am glad you are here.

It is my belief that healing is a mirrored process and is possible when we feel seen. The core of my practice is to better understand the place where your external and internal experiences have met and have been at odds with each other. For many, especially those existing outside of dominant identities, this place can be the site of old and new wounds and inauthentic strategies, knocking us off of our emotional and spiritual center. Just as significantly, this space can hold cultivated resilience, awareness, and intentional community and connection; perhaps healing strategies you already embody.

The therapy I provide is particularly helpful for those working through trauma, depression, anxiety, attachment, identity, relationships, sexuality and general life transitions. I enjoy working with queer, femme, gender non-binary and gender expansive individuals, creatives, and highly sensitive persons, but my practice is open to all.

I am a somatic therapist who focuses on relational, attachment, and childhood trauma issues. I work with individuals and couples to address relationship ambivalence, codependence, anxiety, depression, major life transition, PTSD and trauma, shame and low self-esteem, and poor communication and conflict, among other issues. I help you build awareness of your thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations, allowing you to develop greater insight and uncover new choices.

Are you feeling self-conscious or anxious about your body? Do you often go to great lengths, spending huge amounts of energy, time and resources towards dieting/exercising to fit in? Is your body image affecting your time with friends, family or your partner? Are you constantly comparing you to others on social media and in the world and never feeling quite perfect enough? I welcome you wherever you are at in your journey to self-love and self-compassion. Therapy is a space to loosen the grip on perfectionism and explore new ways to deal with the anxiety and stress of a world that requires us to look a certain way to be accepted.

I welcome clients of all genders, all body sizes and from all walks of life who are hoping to feel better and more alive. I work from a social justice lens, with oppression and marginalization in mind with all of my clients. I am a compassionate and direct therapist who isn’t afraid to laugh. I work most effectively with those struggling with anxiety and depression, disordered eating, addictive behaviors, codependency, and relational trauma. I also work with adolescents, individuals, and couples.

You may be looking for help healing from a troubled past, facing fears and uncertainty about the future, or coping with the everyday challenges of your present life, work, and relationships. Help can take many forms. Support from family and friends, your faith, nature, pets, actions you take to advocate for your health and wellbeing, and encounters with healing places or people can change your life and shift your perspective. Help can also come through the authentic relationship you develop with a therapist who is a reasonably right fit for you.

My somatic psychotherapy practice is collaborative and trauma-informed. I work with adults and couples who want more satisfying, authentic relationships with themselves and others. I provide support dealing with interpersonal and emotional challenges, managing stress and anxiety responses, and facing the intensity of change, loss, and life's uncertainty.

I engage with you as a compassionate, therapeutic companion, work with you to lift burdens of past traumas, and transform internal patterns that interfere with being present in your life and relationships. I integrate training in trauma and touch into my psychotherapy practice and want to help you live in more accordance with what really matters to you.