EMDR Therapists in Pasadena, CA

I’m passionate about helping women transform their lives. Supporting them on their path to growth and healing. Being a woman in today’s modern world is hard. There’s pressure to have a healthy relationship, successful career, to be a good parent, and to be physically and emotionally healthy. High expectations of us take a toll on our minds and our bodies. Many women I work with talk about losing themselves and feeling frustratingly stuck. You want to feel grounded and confident. You need time to look inward and heal. You’re ready to develop a pathway forward, one where you feel hopeful and in control. You're in the right place.

Do you need a place to be yourself? To be seen and fully accepted for who you are and encouraged to take leaps and risks to craft who you want to be? The fear of failure and judgments, our own and others, often holds us back from exploring the edge of our possibilities. I am passionate about creating a nurturing relationship where you can begin to practice and embody the changes you want to create in your own life. I work with individuals, couples, children, adolescents and families. I specialize in women who are reinventing themselves and family members of individuals with mental illness.

I work with all adults, and I have extensive training in working with couples. You can create a satisfying relationship regardless of your childhood, past injuries, or current circumstances. A new relationship requires new strategies and tools that can be learned. They are proven strategies that will help you maximize shared happiness and minimize distress. Your problems are opportunities. Even a crisis can be the motivation to learn the right tools to succeed. You can heal and learn and make dramatic positive shifts in your relationship.

Have you ever experienced not being able to make sense of your feelings or your behavior? Do you feel like you are stuck and you don't know how to move on?  Whether you are struggling with depression, anxiety, trauma, and/or identity issues, I am equipped to walk along side you in this progressive journey.  I utilize  psychoanalytic, CBT, EMDR and trauma informed to treat a wide variety of emotional issues. What does that mean? My goal through therapy is to improve your self awareness so that you would have a clear understanding of your current behavior, which might have been caused unconsciously by past experiences.

Living with the detrimental impact of traumatic experiences can be a terribly painful journey. I have specialized over the past 25 years in helping people to overcome the pain that lingers in the form of depression, anxiety, troubled relationships, acute stress and post-traumatic stress. One thing I know is that there is hope for a vibrant future and healthy relationships in healing of trauma.

I am passionate about working with people who want to heal past trauma and find more safety and happiness within themselves and their relationships as well as those who are moving through grief and loss. Is the past interfering with your quality of life and ability to sustain healthy relationships in the present? Do you feel stuck and unsure how to move forward? Have you recently lost someone you love or experienced a major life transition? Do you experience feelings of shame and hopelessness, nightmares, ruminating thoughts or addictive behavior? I provide a safe space to address past and present traumatic experiences and losses.

Are you considering therapy, If so I might be the right therapist for you. I use a client centered approach to psychotherapy and I am an EMDR trained clinician. Trained in many specialities, I create a targeted treatment plan with you, designed to address your personal concerns. Are you facing a relationship or career change, are you feeling anxious or panicked, are you experiencing disabling depression, is your family business facing a challenge? If so, Contact Me to schedule a short phone call to discuss working together.

Seeking the support of a therapist can be a powerful step toward increasing self-awareness and the ability to change patterns that are no longer working. Change in therapy happens through a process of increased self-understanding, practicing new ways of engaging (with yourself, with others, with a particular problem or set of issues), and development and practice of coping strategies. I collaborate with my clients to identify and work toward treatment goals, using a combination of practical skills and deeper work to explore and repair root issues that may be contributing to current problems.

Trauma, anxiety, and addiction can make you feel stuck. The most important step towards healing is to address the unresolved emotion inside you. Healing requires feelings. Acceptance slowly dissolves pain. When we function from the fear and scarring of our trauma, the cycles continue until we learn how to transmute that energy into love. I apply a Holistic approach that integrates physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual forms of well-being, addressing the “whole” self. Through a holistic framework tailored to your unique needs, the goal is to support you develop a deeper understanding of the self on all these levels.

You can heal from TRAUMA. If you are living with traumatic events from your past, ranging from sexual abuse, incest, rape, humiliation, violence, and attachment wounds, therapy could be a safe space to address these injuries. Through a collaborative approach and taking into account the mind & body, I join my clients on a journey of exploration, growth, and healing. I can assist you in reconnecting with yourself and your body, feel grounded, and helping you manage your life more smoothly.

I often work with individuals who want to better understand themselves and their relationships, improve difficult emotions, rediscover joy, and redefine themselves from painful life experiences. Learning about the mind-body connection, unpacking problematic beliefs of self and/or others, developing effective communication tools, and living authentically are common themes in my practice.

Karina is a bilingual Spanish-speaking associate marriage and family therapist in Pasadena, California, specializing in infant and child development, including work with at-risk youth, neurodivergent disorders, and developmental delays. Working from an attachment-based lens, Karina is passionate about supporting families and children experiencing conflict and a variety of stressors, including high conflict family dynamics. Karina has a strong appreciation for the relationship between the body and the brain, thus integrating mindfulness, self-regulation, and other somatic-based modalities into her work.

I'm not sure I'm the right therapist for you, but if you've had bad feelings about yourself or unhealthy behaviors, thoughts & emotions that don't go away no matter how long you've tried to change them, we could be a good fit. We work to help you change & rediscover that healthy real self you were born with. Every client has their own unique story, so we work to heal the wounded parts, like anxiety, depression, shame & anger. I've been a therapist for 23 years, & I'm an experienced EMDR therapist. With EMDR you can feel better and healthier in months rather than years.

I work with couples, individuals and families. I was born and raised in Japan and speak Japanese as well as English. I've been trained in grief & loss issues, as well as trauma issues. I'm a certified EFT (Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy:http://www.laceft.org/) therapist and also a certified EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) therapist. I am also trained in a very effective and deep processing model called, AEDP (Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy).

I love working with people who are focused on personal growth and healing. I enjoy helping clients understand their own story, which often results in changing their current narrative to one that is more empowering. My hope is to see clients walk in greater freedom and see tangible changes happen in their life, while also enjoying this messy, yet beautiful process of healing as much as possible! I believe that as we grow in self awareness and develop a deeper sense of identity, that shame, disappointment and negative beliefs no longer have the same hold over us and we can move toward a deeper sense of fulfillment in life.

These are challenging and chaotic times that can lead to feelings of uncertainty, loneliness, and anxiety. I create a space that is warm, compassionate, and empathetic so you don't have to deal with these emotions alone. I love to work with young adults (20s-40s) experiencing depression, anxiety, PTSD, relationship difficulties (whether you're partnered or trying to date in the 21st century), grief, life transitions, and issues related to spirituality. Often our work will involve processing and releasing pain centering around belonging, self-worth, and safety so you can find new ways of relating to yourself and the world.