Therapists in Oakland, CA

I tend to work mostly with men who are searching to find balance, deeper meaning, and purpose in life. I specialize in working with professionals, including other therapists, but have clients from many other backgrounds as well. I view therapy as a sacred experience to help you connect with your highest self in order to create a unqiue path to growth and overcoming challenges. Traditional psychology tends to work on healing the self, whereas I see spirituality as more concerned with transcending the self. My perspective is both are important on the journey toward wellness and fulfillment in life.

As a practicioner on a creative, spiritual, or healing arts path, you face a unique set of challenges, and your work can bring up unconscious issues that you might have never noticed otherwise. Sometimes working with someone to heal on a deeper level can be useful. Together, we can work to help you access your inner clarity and wisdom, feather out the personal, interpersonal, social, creative and spiritual facets of your experience, and bring them together in new and healing ways. You don't have to do this alone! Call me to see how I can help.

I am a seasoned clinician with expertise to accompany you on your inner journey. I am flexible in my approach so that I can respond to the particular needs you bring to therapy. At one point you may need support and practical tools for addressing experiences that are painful or challenging. At another time, you may need room to explore the patterns of thought, feeling or behavior that are puzzling to you, including more unconscious factors that may be exerting their invisible influence on your life. I see people from a variety of backgrounds, including many therapists.

Are you feeling stuck or overwhelmed in your life? Lost your sense of self and confidence? Confused by how to set boundaries and build healthy relationships? I am here for you! I can help you understand what is happening in your life and how you can heal, grow, and transform to be living the life you want. I have a trauma-informed, integrative style based on mindfulness, somatic psychology, ecotherapy, expressive arts, humanistic and transpersonal psychology, neuroscience, spirituality, and my background in holistic health, nutrition, massage, and fitness. I have a gentle yet directive, relational style.

Welcome! The focus of my practice is to work in partnership with my clients to help build resilience and facilitate positive change. Fostering kindness and compassion with a mindfulness based approach is at the heart of my work. I provide a safe and nurturing environment in which to explore options, and also offer the respect, understanding and empathy that encourages exploration and growth. As an experienced therapist, therapy can assist with clarifying, setting and maintaining your specific goals, as well as provide a space for self-exploration.I will be there to accompany and collaborate with you on your unique journey.

I believe that healing happens in relationship, and offer warmth and curiosity to help you explore and name the truth of your experience in order to heal from anxiety, relational trauma, and embrace life's challenges. I work with individuals & couples who want to improve boundaries and communication, create meaningful connection, and align their choices with their values. I support you through circumstances life throws at you - affairs, loss, aging, marriage, divorce, raising kids, job stress. I am keen to explore issues related to gender, culture, health, spirituality, sexuality, monogamy, polyamory, and psychedelic integration.

Are you wanting to feel better once and for all? Maybe you can't move on from the past or you're worried about your future. If anxiety, panic, or even depression is stealing your joy, I get it. If traditional talk therapy hasn't helped you feel better, it's time to try a new approach to heal at the source of your pain. For 12 years I have refined my approach through professional training and experience in Relational-gestalt therapy and Brainspotting (derived from EMDR) while centering social justice and trauma-informed care.

My practice emphasizes integral, psychodynamic psychotherapy and consultation for a variety of psychological, relational, medical, cultural, and spiritual issues. I specialize in working with adults who grapple with anxiety, depression, loss, stress, health, disability, identity, sexuality, relationships, transitions, trauma, creativity, spirituality, life path/purpose/meaning and fulfillment. I also enjoy providing consultation to colleagues. Building on my fifteen years of private practice experience during my twenty years as a licensed clinician, it is my joy to combine private practice in Oakland with my teaching at CIIS.

My role as a psychotherapist is to help clients acknowledge and harness their innate strengths, to attain and sustain the well-being they are searching for. I am passionate about gently questioning unspoken norms and expectations, whether learned from family or society, that can limit our ability to connect with our most authentic selves. I empower clients to take supported risks, guiding the therapy with empathy, honesty, humor, and a belief in the transformative power of relationships.

Therapy can help you overcome difficulties, live creatively, and feel more alive. Many people become stuck in ways of thinking and living that no longer serve them. Through a caring therapeutic relationship, you can develop the courage to live in a meaningful and fulfilling way. Over the past 25 years, I have helped people with a wide variety of issues work through significant challenges, freeing them to make better choices. In addition to my clinical work, I teach and supervise at various training programs throughout the Bay Area, and was the Director of Counseling at California College of the Arts for 15 years.

I hold therapy as a human relationship rooted in care, respect, and remembering our freedom. I listen deeply and honor the wisdom and strength already present within you. At your own pace, we will gently explore painful and stuck places so that we can invite understanding, compassion, and new possibilities. We will also look critically at systems of oppression and their impact on you. Through awareness and self-trust, we will strive to unlock energy and imagination to build the life and relationships you long for. Optionally, we can bring in creative/artistic modalities, body-based practices, dreamwork, spirituality, and ritual.

Are you wanting to experience more ease and happiness? I want to congratulate you on taking the first steps towards finding someone to come alongside you during this time. Maybe you are experiencing a big life change like the end of a relationship, a change in your career, a move, or a recent loss. Maybe you have often found comfort in spirituality and nature but still have a sense that something is still missing. Maybe you feel the weight of these last few years of covid. We have all been through a lot!

You are hurting, or anxious, are considering psychotherapy and whether to trust me to facilitate your healing. My experience with adults, couples and children will support your inner journey and that of loved ones. We will create space for you to contemplate internal, external and relationship challenges. Through an attuned therapeutic relationship, I will help you address internal challenges - depression, anxiety and trauma. Empathically, I help you face external challenges - discrimination, immigration and life transitions. I also support you in navigating relationships, in which your internal worlds connect with those of others.

I have created a unique approach to helping people change. My goal is to honor and respect your individuality and to empower you to access your internal resources and infinite potential for growth and healing. I use hypnosis, guided imagery, dream work, somatic awareness and meditation as well as psychodynamic, cognitive and behavioral approaches. I will make you a tape and teach you to use hypnosis to overcome anxiety and depression, stop smoking, change unwanted habits, control pain, improve performance, enhance self-esteem and deepen spirituality.

I have been working with clients for over 20 years, helping them make significant changes in their lives. I work with depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, self-judgement, family and relationship issues, marriage and sexuality, past trauma and spirituality. There are many things in life that can be difficult, and I help people see and understand the meaning and purpose in their experiences. I believe that change comes from awareness. If you cant see what is causing you suffering, you cannot tend to it. I help you know yourself and your circumstances so that you can feel empowered as opposed to victimized by life.

I work particularly well with both men and women with emotional and life issues, childhood trauma, and gay and straight couples with communication and other difficulties. I help individuals with serious mental illness make positive changes in their lives,and work with their families. I work with addictions and the intersection with emotional issues, particularly using 12-step programs.

Our lives here on earth are a creative experience! At times, we need a place to rest and tend to our inner world. I view the therapeutic process as a brave space to access parts of ourselves that we want to grow and transform. My goal in working with you is to provide a supportive environment that will cultivate an increased awareness of your needs, self-compassion and understanding of who you are becoming.

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.

In my private practice I work with individuals, couples and families. I help individuals feel more personal freedom, alignment and ease in relation to stressors and dilemmas. I help couples connect with deeper clarity, intimacy & autonomy. I specialize in psychotherapy for healthcare workers, particularly physicians and nurses, to address burnout, emotional exhaustion, and workplace dynamics. I've also worked extensively with couples, family and those suffering from anxiety, panic, dissociation.