Therapists in Kentfield, CA

I offer couples and individuals immediate insights, deeper clarity, and long-term improvement in an accepting and collaborative therapy environment. I'm a very experienced, analytical, and highly-trained psychotherapist (educated at UC Berkeley), yet I am practical, warm, and open. I work with people experiencing marital, parenting, career, spiritual, emotional, sexual, infertility, and addiction concerns; I'm expert at addressing those concerns. I enjoy working with couples and individuals who desire the help of a dedicated partner to more effectively navigate their relationships and lives.

I help clients of all ages process and heal from traumatic experiences; these are things that happened earlier in life that may have been overwhelming and created false, negative core beliefs about oneself, others, and the world. Beliefs such as “I’m not good enough, I can’t trust people; I'm not safe” can significantly impact how a person feels, thinks and reacts to the world, and lead to issues such as depression, anxiety, and substance abuse. I help clients process those experiences, transforming the negative beliefs into positive, helpful ones. This allows clients to experience more joy and ease in their life and relationships.

My passion is helping couples repair their relationships. I’ve been a psychotherapist for 25 years and have worked with many populations but I find couple’s work to be most rewarding. I like the energy and the challenge of holding two differing points of view without judgment (and teaching couples to do the same). I enjoy debunking the common myth that conflict is a predictor of divorce. Conflict is normal in close relationships and not an index that something is wrong. Disagreements are full of existential meaning and the opportunity to know one another better, but couples need to know how to make these conversations safe.

I have been in practice as a licensed psychologist for the past 28 years in Marin County where I was also born and have raised my two boys. My approach to assessment and therapy is integrative as it attempts to consider all relevant biological, psychological and environmental influences on a person’s current well-being. Sessions leave ample space for depth-oriented, psychodynamic/attachment based processing of inner struggles and vulnerabilities. They also include collaborative, practical, and hands-on problem solving as well as exploration of cognitive behavioral tools and strategies appropriate to the developmental age.

Bringing your suffering and pain in to meet a new therapist is scary. I respect the hard work that clients do by sharing their vulnerability and honesty in therapy. By working with clients in a non-judgemental space I help them begin to understand, accept, heal and change. People who work with me find me to be compassionate, honest, and human.

I am passionate about helping clients discover more of themselves and bringing a more confident, whole self into their relationships and work. It can be so tempting to exist on the surface of things, afraid to go deep into our internal worlds out of a fear of what we might find. We learn to wear masks in order to feel safe and try to manage other people's perceptions of us. However in doing so, we have to cut off parts of ourselves and we can lose our sense of who we truly are. I help my clients find their way back to themselves so they can heal the places within them that need attention and show up more fully in the world.

I am a seasoned clinical psychologist with extensive experience providing mental health treatment. I work from the perspective that people strive to understand themselves, and want to create positive change in their lives so they can meet their potential. I believe that treatment works best when it is tailored to your individual personality and needs .

I believe that people enter therapy with the desire to make their lives happier and more fulfilling, and a great deal of trust is invested in the client-therapist relationship. As such I strive to establish a safe and trusting environment in which change can take place. In my thirty plus years of practice in Marin County I have helped numerous clients understand and dispel deeply held negative beliefs and feelings that get in the way of them reaching desired goals. I bring considerable expertise to my practice, and receive positive feedback for my work with individual adults, couples and groups.