Therapists in Presidio Heights, San Francisco, CA

My name is Lara Curry. I'm a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I've helped people struggling with anxiety, depression, alcohol use, relationship issues, and relapse prevention. I employ EMDR, Family Systems, Psychodynamic, Trauma-focused, and Solution-focused brief therapy modalities. I assume anyone seeking psychotherapy genuinely desires to help sort out the difficulties in their lives. I try to work as a co-investigator to understand the issues and help explain how they evolved and how to resolve them in an informal, caring partnership with my clients.

Nate Hinerman, PhD, LMFT, is Dean of Undergraduate Programs at Golden Gate University, San Francisco, where he is also a tenured Professor of Psychology, as well as the Chair of the Psychology Department. He is also on the faculty at the University of San Francisco, teaching in the Nursing School, and in the Religious Studies Department. He serves as Chair of the San Francisco End of Life Network, a community-based support and education group for hospice and palliative care professionals and patients, now in its 23rd year (www.sfeol.org).

I'm a general psychologist, and I provide individual, couples, and group psychotherapy to a wide variety of clients. I have an extensive background in working with anxiety disorders and stress reduction. I can also bring a number of techniques to bear in helping you overcome depression. Because of my background in business (Wharton MBA), I work particularly well with successful professionals who are seeking greater meaning and fulfillment in their careers and personal lives. My style balances patience and deep inquiry with energetic engagement. For people in recovery, my approach is a good complement to 12-step work.

Psychotherapy offers emotional and psychological space for change. It is an opportunity to decode what is not working and with therapeutic guidance provide clients with a scaffolding to try out new thinking and ways of feeling. I see psychotherapy as a kind of lab, where clients safely get to try new approaches out, notice what works and what is most effective. My work is about helping clients; whether a problem to be solved, a desired behavioral change, or finding meaning during a life challenging experience. I encourage individuals to contact me and explore that change. I am here to help.

I think you know what would make you happy but don't know how to make it happen. This applies to both individuals and couples. People stop themselves from moving forward because they think they can't or don't deserve to get their own needs met. I can help you overcome blocks, fears, guilt, depression, and/or self-defeating behaviors so you can free yourself to be happy and more successful. It seems daunting but, with support and direction, it is possible to improve your life. This is even true for people who are suffering from more debilitating problems such as Bipolar Disorder, OCD,or Schizoaffective Disorders.

My goal is to create an empowering space to draw from your strengths in overcoming current challenges. I work collaboratively with clients to establish ongoing, flexible goals for therapy to make our sessions most effective. I individualize therapy to each person using a range of techniques and approaches. I am particularly interested in the stories we tell about our lives and the meaning we make of them. My clients describe me as warm, positive, and insightful.

My practice is devoted to supporting children, teens, parents, and young adults in creating a life they find meaningful and can thrive in. My style is warm, and building a strong and trusting relationship will be essential in our work together. I strive to appreciate and understand you or your child’s unique story and struggles, offer insights on issues that might be beyond your awareness, and share adaptive tools in managing your life’s challenges.

I work with adults who struggle with depression and anxiety. I help my clients understand themselves and what triggers them, and importantly, I provide skills to help them manage their reactions to the stress and difficulties in their lives.

The Pacific Anxiety Group (PAG) was founded in 2012 by four Stanford-trained clinical psychologists with expertise in the treatment of anxiety, stress, and depression, and a passion for bringing evidence-based treatment to our clients. Over the past eleven years, we have grown into a thriving group practice dedicated to providing compassionate, culturally-attuned, effective treatment to help children, teens, adults, couples, and families overcome obstacles and lead more fulfilling lives. We specialize in treatments that are known to help make a difference, including cognitive-behavior therapy and acceptance and commitment therapy.

I am here to tell you, you are not broken, even if your mind may tell you so. When we are anxious or in despair, we can’t think straight or engage our usual survival strategies. It can impact our health, body, emotions, relationships, perception of self and reality. We can't make sense of the distorted thoughts alone. We need a therapist to help guide us. I often help young women who are feeling shy, anxious, obsessive, depressed, struggling with perfectionism or life transitions. I enjoy helping girls and women achieve developmentally appropriate social-emotional, verbal and non-verbal communication skills.

With the complexity of being human, it’s normal to experience waves of feeling lost, confused, and anxious. Different seasons of life bring different challenges and can provoke questions such as: Am I content with my relationships? Am I going in the “right” direction? Am I happy and comfortable with myself? Is this the life I want to live? I believe you have the answers and wisdom inside you, and I am here as a guide to help you uncover them - whether you’re looking to address distress in your relationships, feelings of anxiety or depression, or older, deeper wounds.

We all experience challenges in life. At times, these can seem beyond our ability to handle. I would like to offer you my support. I welcome individuals and couples of all ages, backgrounds, and orientations into the therapeutic journey.

Perhaps you are seeking healthier ways to cope with stressful life experiences or want to make more enduring changes to how you relate to yourself and others. In my work, I aim to not only help you feel better but provide you the tools to lead a more meaningful life. I help clients recognize and harness their own personal strengths while learning new ways to challenge negative thought patterns and unhealthy behaviors that can keep us feeling stuck, depressed, and anxious.

I help individuals who are feeling anxious, lost, disconnected, overwhelmed, unstable, or alone. These feelings may be related to a specific season of life or could be ways that you’ve felt for a long time. My areas of focus include anxiety, depression, developmental trauma, identity exploration, survivors of intimate partner abuse, life transitions, and relationship issues. My approach is compassionate, engaged, and warm.

In my 30+ years practicing psychotherapy, I have had extensive experience working with adults who are trying to adjust to the problems that life presents to us---a difficult childhood, trauma, anxiety, depression, postpartum depression, stress, working with a child who has a difficult mental illness, sexual abuse,couples' relationship struggles (heterosexual, gay, and lesbian), and grief from the loss of someone treasured. Always my treatment goal is to facilitate the improvement in the quality of life for each individual and to look for the creative aspect within the destruction. Healing is a natural process, but sometimes it is difficult to remember that fact.

I treat clients whose daily functioning, self image and way of relating to others has been negatively impacted by anxiety, depression, and various external or situational stressors. Compassion and collaboration are crucial in facilitating healing and creating a functional therapeutic rapport that allows for increasingly greater presence of mind. Education and 15 years of clinical experience underscore my belief that people can feel better as they practice more adaptive thinking and behavior in the present.

I am licensed clinical psychologist and school psychologist working with preschool children through adults. Clients who usually fit well with me have often reached a point of thinking that enough-is-enough, whether that is problem behaviors with a child, teens who are anxious/irritable/depressed, college students who are having major life changes, or adults who are having work or personal difficulties. I particularly specialize in the treatment of Trauma & Stress-Related Disorders. Clients who allow me to look out for them the way they do for their friends/family often find our work together to be helpful.

Relationships are challenging no matter what. They are especially difficult if you've had minimal guidance in learning healthy ways of dealing with conflict or asking for what you need. This lack of exposure to healthy ways of relating can show up in friendships, in a romantic relationship or at work through behaviors such as avoidance, accommodation or other ineffective actions. The result is disconnection and dissatisfaction. It is important to understand how you show up in relationship in order to make a healthy change. I am here to help you with this process.

Are you tired of feeling that your anxiety/depression is in the driver’s seat and your innate creativity is held captive in the trunk? Are you ready for your anxiety/depression to take a back seat and choose what drives you - to feel creative, playful and confident. I am an expert in supporting creative folx who are feeling stuck, anxious, and alone and with no outlet, to feel seen and heard, and give expression to unspoken parts of themselves, to get clear on their needs, wants and their truth. Moving from a place of unbearable pain and stuckness to living full, creative, purpose-driven lives.