Therapists in South of Market (SoMa), San Francisco, CA

Being a psychotherapist means being available to you in a way that is different to other forms of human relatedness. It means I listen to the painful events and relationships troubling you in your life and open a conversation about them between us. This conversation is private and confidential, yet allows for the most honest and accessible way to both explore and understand your reactions and feelings. Although the foundation of my knowledge lies in the psychoanalytic tradition, I incorporate contemporary knowledge and methods that have developed since Sigmund Freud's first discoveries at the end of the 19th century.

I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist working primarily with adolescents and young adults. I am passionate about reconnecting clients to pieces of themselves that have been fragmented by traumatic experiences, anxiety, anger, grief, and a host of other challenges we face in our daily lives. The majority of my passion and therapeutic experience has come from working with adolescents and young adults. I work primarily with clients dealing with challenges that include trauma and PTSD symptoms, grief, anger management, anxiety, relationship issues, and phase-of-life challenges.

Are you struggling to find peace, happiness, greater satisfaction, and healthier relationships? Do you continue to feel empty, angry, sad, or anxious? Do you feel as if you have limited ability to change? Self-knowledge is the key to understanding why you continue to struggle and how you can change the continuous negative cycle into a positive one. Through the process of psychotherapy, you will discover how your internal world interprets and affects your external world and how these mechanisms were developed. I can help you gain the insight and self-knowledge necessary for positive, lasting change.

Life can be full of challenges and obstacles that can lead us to feel off-center, whether in our relationships, jobs, mental health, or sexual behaviors. Many of us can have a hard time asking for help. Fear, shame, or the need to be self-sufficient are feelings that can get in the way of recognizing when we need help - and reaching out and asking for it. You're not alone! The HOPE Program offers a judgment-free zone to explore, understand, and manage your problem behaviors to help you build your envisioned life from day one. Let's leverage your strengths to identify, plan, and conquer challenges together.

California License PSY 19522 & Hawaii License PSY 866 ALOHA, I am a former headquarters Chief Psychologist for the State of California (DSH: Department of State Hospitals Forensics a California Health & Human Services Agency) – formerly known as the Dept of Mental Health (DMH). DSH is the nation’s largest inpatient mental health hospital system. I have also been engaged in nearly 30 years in private practice since the early 1990’s providing counseling-therapy, VA C&P Disability Exams, & 2nd opinion psych exams for adults & children in: the San Francisco Bay Area, El Dorado Hills, & Hawaii by appointment only.

Accepting clients Apr 2024. I help couples work their way through crisis events by helping them find their feet amist the chaos. My role is to help couples have difficult conversations. With my background is in probation/parole therapy, I bring strong elements of fairness, repair, and rehabilitation to couples who have faced injuries. Some topics I have strong experience in are: infidelity, bisexuality, addiction, codependency, anger management, emotional availability, parenting approach, and lack of sexual intimacy.

Accepting clients Apr 2024. Without judgment, I help clients overcome addictions to alcohol, weed, sex, food, and hard drugs by helping them face the very difficult triggers behind the addictions itself (such as unaddressed depression, trauma, and self esteem, etc; I particularly work with sexual addictions). This approach can be very emotionally difficult, so I recommend only clients who are ready for major life changes apply.

It's never too late to understand yourself. If you can synchronize your heart and mind, you can harmonize your life. The therapeutic space I create is to help you learn about who you are as an individual and see your blind spots. Regardless if you're coming on your own or as a couple, the therapeutic work that we will be done is not just about solving problems. It’s primarily to help you figure out what's behind these issues and increase your self-worth along the way. Therapy is challenging, but can be fulfilling. The goal is to facilitate you in witnessing your life in the healthiest of ways as you become closer to your true self.

Accepting clients Apr 2024. I help clients have happier and more fulfilling lives by overcoming their anxieties to create happy and healthy relationships. Let me help you learn to invest in yourself and your overall wellbeing through habit building, dating, socializing, and improving our overall self esteem!

Accepting clients Apr 2024. I help gay men - from the newly gay to the seasoned queen - navigate and understand topics related to dating monogamously, polyamory, sexual anxiety, fetishes, understanding Grindr, Sniffies, and bathhouses, drugs/alcohol/food/sex as coping, body insecurities, masculinity, developing self esteem, hobbies, and the most importantly - the friends we made along the way.

Welcome to my practice. I have been in practice since 2007 and have been featured on ABC, NBC, and KCAL as an expert psychologist. I work primarily with men who have hit “rock bottom” and would like help getting up. These men are often in crisis when we first meet. The issues I address are typically related to unhealthy sexual behaviors, infidelity, financial recklessness, gambling, drugs/alcohol, dishonesty/lying, and relational conflicts. My therapy approach is a combination of psychoanalytic, cognitive-behavioral, and the 12-Step recovery model. I also share insight from my own painful but redemptive recovery journey.

In far too many situations individuals with bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia have internalized messages that there is no hope, that they are simply victims of their mental illness, and unable to reach their life goals. My practice, Inspiration Psychological Services' primary purpose is to provide individuals who struggle with mental illness with the neccessary coping skills that they need to manage symptoms, cope with everyday life challenges, and improve the quality of their lives. I strongly believe in providing a supportive atmosphere that consists of understanding individual experiences, addressing needs, instilling hope, building on strengths, and recognizing potential.

RichTherapy is the private practice of Richard Lugo who focuses on Individuals, Couples and Groups with issues linked or related to addictive behavior or compulsion and its progression and affects on personal life, work performance and intimate relationships with self or others.

My approach is empathetic, compassionate, analytical and straightforward. I have a decade of experience in working with various specialties but the principal of my work has been to go deep and connect the conscious to the unconscious. With kindness, warmth and humor I provide a safe and supportive environment in therapy.

My work embraces two levels. 1. Licensed clinical psychologist with a range of classical methods. 2. Board Certified Senior Fellow in Medical Neurofeedback and QEEG (not consumer level for amusement/recreation). Clients develop a more powerful sense of relaxed self-esteem and an effective understanding of how to manage life traumas and stress more effectively. Several publications in mental health and medical neurofeedback. "The Encyclopedia of Mental Health", "Neurofeedback First 50 Years". The combination of clinical therapy and medical neurofeedback can be powerful, healing, and transformative in its ability to change lives.

I believe that as human beings, we are hard-wired with the need to get our emotional experience into the mind of a trusted other. My work as a psychotherapist is to find emotional resonance with my clients' life experiences, deriving both from their family of origin and from present-day situations and relationships. Whether a client is depressed, anxious, struggling with relationship problems, trying to overcome traumatic experiences, or trying to find their own unique, personal voice in a complex world, talking in psychotherapy can help to expand your capacity for growth and happiness.

Are you feeling sad, anxious, or lonely and you’re too ashamed or embarrassed to tell anyone about it? Do you pretend everything is alright as to not draw negative attention or cause problems in your relationships, yet inside you’re feeling despair? Do you feel confused and frustrated during conflicts, and you end up taking care of everyone else’s needs? Are you terrified to make decisions that go against familial or cultural norms? Do negative thoughts take over? Together, you and I will figure out what’s really going on with your discontent so that you don’t have to feel like a fraud or a helpless person. It’s going to be okay.

Do you feel overwhelmed and hopeless? Do you want to acquire skills and gain insights that will move you forward to a healthier and brighter future? In a compassionate and supportive environment, I will assist you in evaluating core beliefs, feelings, and behavior. Together we will develop effective and efficient solutions to problems you are facing. I work with my clients to alleviate their symptoms as well as find the root of the issue. Think of this as not only putting on a Band-Aid but also healing the wound! I am a certified clinical trauma therapist as well as a clinical certified PTSD and Complex-PTSD therapist.

I have a motto that states, “Not everyone needs therapy, but everyone can benefit from therapy.” Your decision to engage in therapy is a great start to prioritizing your mental health, relationships and wellbeing. You live in a fast-paced and ever changing environment that demands you to be many things to many people. Depletion of your physical and emotional reserve can lead to compromised mental and physical health, relationship conflict and an unfulfilled life. As a multi-faceted and high performing individual, you may need to pause and experience balance to prevent or lessen the effects of burnout and exhaustion.