Psychoanalytic Therapists in Berkeley, CA

You have a lot to offer. You worked hard to get where you are now. You sacrificed a lot. You are educated, skilled, and motivated. So what’s holding you back? Social anxiety.

Sometimes life leads us down an unknown path. Something unexpected happens. A job is lost, health falters, a relationship get shaky. Life comes in bringing unforeseen challenges. These challenges force us to take stock of our lives.

The basis of my practice is a commitment to meet each client in their own unique embodiment, style, and rhythm. The elements of each therapy will vary on the basis of my client's history and my ability to join them in their wish for understanding and change. I attempt to establish a productive therapeutic relationship within the first 5-10 sessions and make myself useful as quickly as possible. I am committed to my clients wellbeing and development, supportive to them as people, and challenging in the directions where the client seeks a transition.

Feeling success has alienated you from others? Feeling that satisfaction is illusive, despite having all the markers of a good life? Anxious or depressed? Worried that all will crumble around you? Relationships feeling transactional? Want to find help making big life changes? I can help

Anxiety, sadness, anger, regret are natural and human, but when one is stuck thinking and feeling these ways, something is wrong. If you are stuck, repeating the same kinds of experiences, or if there has been an unmanageable disruption in your life, I have been in practice helping people in similar situations for more than 20 years. Through talking and thinking together to deeply understand your experience, we discover and create new ways for you to think and act in the world. Your sense of self and of life expand, opening up space in which to move, breathe and grow.

While all people experience challenges throughout life, we each suffer in different ways and, as a result, develop a unique style of dealing with stress. During difficult times, ways of coping that once worked often lose their effectiveness. Even after identifying a problem or unhealthy pattern, it may be difficult to resolve the issue without the necessary support. Therapy often involves an increased curiosity toward one's emotional experience, and over time, awareness of how feelings relate to behavior. This allows for a deeper understanding of who we are and can help us approach problems and conflicts in healthier ways.

I combine LENS Neurofeedback with ancient wisdom, warmth and caring. Are you longing for someone positive to talk to who cares and understands? Someone who has experience with anxiety, ADHD, head trauma, PTSD, depression and finding your place in life and love? I can hold your issues and teach you mindfulness which brings happiness and relief. Days, evenings, some insurance.

One of the most important elements necessary for deep, self-reflective therapy is the presence of a respectful, emotionally engaged, and caring environment. Successful therapy hinges on the quality of the relationship. Over my 25 year career of working with both individuals and couples, my approach has been to engage people on several levels: addressing the current situation, early life experiences, conscious and unconscious parts of the psyche, as well as the underlying dynamics that interfere with progress toward healing and wholeness. I approach each individual based on the unique and specific circumstances of his or her life.

Therapy offers us a chance to relate AND become more fully present with ourselves. Together we contemplate the human journey. We can get familiar with our innate mindfulness and compassion. On my journey I've realized that wellbeing can be learned; achieved with a level of skillfulness, a window of tolerance. Getting triggered helps us learn. I join clients in studying their nervous systems and their "parts" -- a complex legacy of neurobiological attachment wiring. With a manner that is warm, relatable, and active yet non-invasive, I help my clients find meaning, hope, and the freedom to become who they were meant to be.

Psychotherapy offers help when you are struggling with something specific, or when you are feeling concerned about where your life is going in general. There may be patterns that you tend to repeat and wish to change. Common concerns include relationships, career, family, anxiety, depression, and childhood trauma. Depth-oriented therapy and psychoanalysis are approaches with transformative potential. They aim to go beyond immediate symptom relief to unlock your capacity to grow, and to live fully.

Modern life, with its ruthless velocity and endless provision of distractions, can sometimes leave us all feeling confused, anxious, exhausted, and somewhat disconnected from what is true and essential. Many clients come to me with a sense that there is something missing from their lives or that they are stuck and unsure on how to move forward. Sometimes this unease shows up as free floating chronic anxiety, moments of depression, or overall loss of direction. At other times, it is difficulties in relationships, job transition, relocation, or health issues that causes a person to seek out my therapeutic guidance.

Are you a worrier? Overwhelmed? Worn down or fed up with your life? I offer individual talk therapy so you will feel better, find your strengths, and can be yourself. Therapy is a focused time, place, and person to think things through with. It helps you gain perspective, feel connected, and feel understood. I use warmth and creativity to help you find compassion and insight to draw upon, especially for when you are preoccupied by your worries and dilemmas.

Welcome. I work with children, adolescents, and adults coping with relational, anxiety, traumatic, and mood disorders. In my practice, therapy often entails exploring the impact of early attachment experiences on our views of self and our ability to form close, meaningful relationships throughout life. In our work together, you will be treated with warmth, empathy, and openness. The most important part of our work is the development of a trusting relationship. This relationship creates a thoughtful, safe space to explore your strengths, challenges, and goals. My approach to clinical work is largely relational and psychodynamic.

My current availability starts in August 2022: Monday: 2:15, 3:15 4:15 (6:30 Every other week 1st and 3rd week) Wednesday: 1:15 3:15 4:15 2:15 Every other week (1st and 3rd week of month) Friday 5:15 Every other week only (2nd and 4th week of month)

The goal of therapy is for you be happy in your love and work. At the heart of it, therapy is about increasing your capacity to alleviate your suffering; feel more connected with yourself and others; expand and enrich yourself; recognize what you want; and recognize the internal and external forces that keep you from getting what you want. These are powerful antidotes to anxiety and depression.

In a society that expects us to be constantly producing, connecting, and consuming, it is hard to take stock of the inherent complexities in our everyday lives, whether we are children, teens or adults. I see my role as creating a space for pause, reflection and calibration. I pay attention to themes that emerge from discussions we have, tracing the influences of past experiences to present decisions and emotions, helping to connect interactions in the therapy room to problems that emerge outside the therapy room.

If you are reading this, you have gotten my name from a person or a search. You want to know why to call me. Some reasons why include: I am direct, perceptive, and can tell you quickly whether and how I plan to help you. I have special experience with couples, GLBTQ clients, parents, people with mood disorders, therapist clients, and psychoanalysis. I have been a teacher and supervisor as well as a therapist for thirty years, which helps me have language and a plan for what we do. Call me if you think we might be a match.

Feeling understood, feeling helped, and feeling supported are at the core of psychotherapy. Therapy can help when life’s challenges become too much to approach alone. Together, we can explore and understand difficult issues you are experiencing. Some common therapy goals are to understand important relationships, alleviate anxiety and depression, work through life transitions and losses, deepen self-understanding, and unlock troubling stuckness. In a safe setting with warmth and engagement, I provide an opportunity to gently move through what is bothering you most.

I offer a holistic approach, drawing on depth psychology, somatics, spirituality, psychedelic medicine, relational theory and social justice activism in my work with patients. I am interested in working closely with adults, adolescents and couples, supporting them in their development and helping them reach their goals.