Therapists in Hayes Valley, San Francisco, CA

Do you have a hard time speaking up and expressing yourself? When you anticipate a conflict or someone who may have a differing opinion than you, do you tend to keep quiet to maintain the peace? The world sees you as gentle and kind. You are capable, accountable, and have achieved a lot. But There is more fire in you that wants to come out 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. Once these parts are allowed to come out, they can help you navigate life with less doubt, more ease, and clarity.

I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with 20+ years of mental health experience. I work with children, adults, older adults couples, and families. I have a wealth of diverse experience which includes mood / anxiety disorders, substance disorders (chronic alcoholism and eating disorders), and providing couples and family treatment. I specialize in trauma and relationships. Healing is often a hard and painful process, but it also can be joyful and lead to a more fulfilling life and improved relationships. I would be honored to accompany you on your journey towards happiness, acceptance, greater intimacy, peace, and recovery.

'Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?' - Mary Oliver. Choosing a therapist can be an intimidating process and reaching out for help can be uncomfortable, but we all need support in order to thrive. Within a warm, open and compassionate environment, my practice helps clients make sense of the challenges they face and use this understanding to navigate their lives with increased resilience and grace.

Counselor and Therapist for Men: Gay, Straight, or Bi. Feeling stuck, depressed, isolated, or anxious? Escaping via porn or addictions? We live in a complicated world, a world where we often need a guide and trusted advisor to help us. I help men discover where they fit in the world, how to find love and acceptance from self and other, how to navigate life challenges, and how to find greater meaning and happiness in life. My work is one of my greatest passions and I have many success stories.

As a self-identified gay man, I am quite familiar first-hand with the process of 'coming out' in a predominantly heterosexual normative, patriarchal, society. I can be your ally dealing with issues of self-esteem, anxiety, depression, guilt, shame, how they affect relationships, be it romantic, sexual, purely platonic, or work-related, and any compulsive behavior you may experience in response to developmental trauma. I am equally at ease and experience working with individuals and couples across the entire gender and sexual identity spectrum.

If you’re searching for change in your relationships, mental wellness or your use of substances, my focus is using the latest in neuroscience to get you there. I keep up with the latest findings on the brain and the mind and weave it into my therapy approach. I use as many of the advances as possible to change clients’ anxiety, stress and depression. I approach therapy as a collaboration between me and the individual or couple. What works best for the individual or the couple is what I emphasize. I offer articles, books and blogposts for couples and clients to use and refer to in between sessions to enhance the work we’re doing.

I am a certified sex and dating coach who helps individuals and couples of all kinds overcome sexual concerns like mismatched desire, low desire and sexual communication difficulties. My clients see an increase in the quality of their sexual interactions with partners and more confidence to ask for what they need after working with me. I also provide individual dating coaching to help people find the right partners and navigate the tricky waters of online dating. I identify as a feminist and work with all genders, orientations and relationship structures.

Stepping into therapy with someone is an inherently risky process. You are courageously opening up to someone that you don't really know, in hopes of changing, of finding something new, of building a relationship that can create positive change. I respect those who take the leap and I get the importance that you find the right therapist so that you can be understood at a deep level and begin looking more closely at the places in your life that you would like to see change.

I am a Marriage and Family Therapist located in Lower Pac Heights and have a passion for supporting people of various identities find space to explore their lived experiences. I have experience supporting adolescents, families and adults with issues of anxiety, depression, self-esteem, substance abuse, sexuality, gender identity development, grief/loss, and multi-generational trauma. I also work with a large number young adult and mid-life individuals facing career stress/fatigue and life challenges. I welcome clients who are motivated to take the first step toward personal healing.

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.

My therapeutic style is grounded in a humanistic approach and Cognitive-Behavioral therapy with a pragmatic, down-to-earth style. Each client's therapy is individualized, collaborative, and strengths based. I help clients learn to regulate and manage feelings that overwhelm them and negatively affect their thoughts, moods, and attitudes that, in turn, lead to destructive behavior. Whether it is anxiety, depression, diminished self-esteem, or relationship issues, individual clients come to understand their present circumstances in light of their past. I am committed to helping clients improve relationships and gain self knowledge.

Pursuing therapy takes courage, and it can feel intimidating to enter into a new space, without a clear sense of direction. I believe that the trust and relationship between us is the first step to a successful therapeutic environment. It is important to me that we take the time to build and foster a collaborative, safe, and supportive dynamic for you to explore, heal, and grow. Through our work together, I hope to support you in exploring what makes life worth living, building insight, developing creative coping skills, enhancing connection with others, and instilling self-compassion into your life.

I am not your run of the mill therapist. Oh sure, I listen well and am very compassionate and calm. But I just don't sit there and ask you how you feel. I do care about your feelings but I am more curious about your experience and how we can increase your awareness so that you can make helpful and inspired choices. As you can imagine I help people deal with any issue you can possibly think of- from depression to life transitions to the loss of a loved one or trauma.

I am an integrative therapist, using a holistic model and techniques from somatic, relational, inter-subjective, and transpersonal psychology, as well as techniques from my own long-standing spiritual practices, such as drumming, chanting and Vipassana Buddhist meditation practice. I got my masters in Psychology with a Somatic Concentration from JFK, Orinda, CA in 1997. As LGBTQIA identified and a Pacific Islander, I know that both trauma and healing can come from our individual and cultural histories. I welcome anyone seeking growth or healing and I'm committed to healing within marginalized communities. My areas of specialty include people with histories of trauma and/or addiction, people looking to integrate spiritual experiences, people of color and members of the LGBTQ community.

I specialize in working with you in times of change whether wanted or unwanted; un-coupling or committing; wits-end or letting go or starting again. By looking at habits, patterns, defense structures, and super powers, we build awareness of their purpose and see how we can repurpose them, let them go or build new ones through deepening and allowing, owning disavowed parts, crafting new narratives. We help you find compassion and respect for self and others, growing your self esteem and relational wisdom.

Absolute "sex addiction " elite level expert 25 years 40,000 hours sexual misbehavior specialist psychotherapy provided brings better insights. Evidence based research oriented treating of Infidelity/Cheating/Affairs, Prostitution Use, "Seeking Arrangements", Sex Apps, Strip Clubs,Massage Parlors, Sex Misconduct, Certified Specialist. I created government funded sexual misbehavior programs, utilizing highly effective clinical models. I use most up to date understanding to have you change your thinking and learn how to not act out these self destructive actions while simultaneously loving yourself and the life you have.

As we move through life, we collect wounds that are often never given the attention they need to properly heal. These wounding experiences influence the way we relate to ourselves and the world, and we often become stuck in distressing feelings and behavioral patterns that don’t serve us well. In therapy, we cultivate awareness, and open to parts of our experience that we have pushed away. When we do this, it is uncomfortable while we are increasing awareness and still stuck in resistance to the feelings, but as we continue to open, resistance naturally falls away.

There are many reasons to begin therapy. No issue is too small or unworthy of consideration and care. Sometimes the stated reasons for seeking therapy are beacons for something deeper, which may or may not be related to the present problem. Together, we can focus on alleviating distress in the short term while beginning the more in-depth process of addressing issues at their core. In this process, many of the people I work with discover what is most important to them, what can be changed, and what can be actualized within their relationships and career.

Psychotherapy with me will be a guided, supportive exploration of how you think, feel, act and relate to others. I am a relational therapist: an approach to therapy which combines self-understanding and self-acceptance in relationship to your significant others, both past and present. We all need to be understood. This is my primary job with you: to understand how you think and feel. Once you feel understood, together we can figure out what is getting in the way of living a happier, more fulfilling life. I am an expressive therapist, and you will never go away from a session wondering what I think.