Trauma and PTSD Therapists in Oak Center, Oakland, CA

Are you at a turning point in your life? Struggling with life's daily complexities? I focus on: Trauma and PTSD, Substance Abuse and Dual Diagnosis, Grief and Loss and much more. I use an eclectic model of healing from a person-centered, strengths-based perspective that is Anti-Racist and Anti- Systems of Oppression in its foundation. To allow oneself to show up as our best selves in and out of the therapy room. Each person brings a multi-faceted expression of their true selves to therapy that can be unlocked with strength, courage, and the acknowledgment of one's right to self-determination and self-efficacy.

I provide relational somatic therapy for adults, kids & teens. Therapy with me is integrative, including woven layers of modalities designed with your specific needs in mind. Our work is a collaboration with your mind, body, and soul. Non-judgement. Warmth. Active conversations and appropriate humor. Integrative therapy works successfully to treat mental health issues, emotional distress, and trauma triggers, and is great for kids/teens through art-therapy, body-awareness, and non-directive play. Psychotherapy, to me, is personal, political, & social. It takes courage, strength, and hope to live into who you really are.

I strongly believe that the most healing aspect of therapy is directly related to the safe connection with the therapist. Trainings inform the therapy but only feeling safe and seen will provide the ground for deep exploration and emergence of the new... almost like a birthing process. Client based, my style is warm, compassionate, nonetheless, assertive. Experience and various trainings keep supporting the importance of breath, grounded presence and mindfulness in any therapeutic setting and healing/life process. Therefore, those are central to my work. My sessions combines several psychotherapy approaches together with various somatic practices such as bioenergetics, movement, mindfulness & trauma work.

How would your life shift if you felt nourished and integrated? Many of us could use more space to reconnect with our inner compass, and tend to old hurts, and practice presence in relationships with those we love. You may feel stuck and unclear about how to assert yourself authentically; you may want to learn how to discern what's your intuition versus your fears. Perhaps, you are aware of what's holding you back from inner ease, but can't seem to let go of the somatic charge and/or feelings enough to come out the other end. I'm here to help.

I provide individual, couples, and group psychotherapy to children and adults. I have experience in treating numerous psychological disorders and supporting patients through difficult times, grieving, pandemic related stress, conflictual relationships, and troubling emotions. Along with the general areas of psychology, I specialize in the treatment of trauma. I have worked as a trauma researcher for ten years at the Palo Alto VA and Palo Alto University, publishing a book chapter on personality disorders and paper in the Journal of Threat Assessment and Management. I also provide assessment and expert witness services.

Sometimes we need extra support to get through difficult times in our lives, or a sounding board when making difficult decisions. I am here to provide a safe space for you on your path towards positive change and healing. If you are looking for a change in your life or struggling with feelings of depression, anxiety, grief or trauma, please reach out for a free consultation. If you are not sure if therapy is right for you, I am happy to discuss what you are looking for and support you wherever you are in this process.

Seeking help is often the first step in making a change for the better. My goal as a therapist is to support you in your steps towards wellness. I work with children, adolescents, adults and families with a wide range of emotional concerns. I support children and adolescents struggling with emotional or behavioral issues, adults managing life stress, individuals facing life transitions, or families struggling with communication difficulties. As a therapist I will work collaboratively with you to build upon your strengths to create change and will tailor my treatments to meet your unique needs.

Are you looking to heal from past experiences, work through a stressful life transition, or improve your family dynamics and relationships? Do your relationships feel overwhelming and you can't seem to find your way to better days? I aid individuals in understanding how past traumas and other negative experiences affect behaviors and their interactions with others.

We all try to cope with our wounds & stresses in the best way we can. Complex life experiences teach us complex ways to cope by perhaps— suppressing our feelings, staying hidden to avoid unwanted attention or punishment, acting out to explain the inexplicable, performing exceptionally & anxiously well to stand out or gain approval, or taking care of others at the expense of ourselves to compensate for our family legacies & cultural dynamics. Whatever the nature and range of your experiences, you may be struggling with your past and how it impacts your present, your work, your relationship with yourself, loved ones, & the world.

I use my personal, educational, and professional experiences and strong attunement to my intuition to guide my therapy style. My clients describe me as caring, personable, gentle, and real. My sessions are collaborative, empowerment-based, and include moments of humor. Due to my value of cultural humility, I use holistic (mind-body-spirit-soul), trauma-informed, and social justice approaches to establish a soulful connection and unique healing experience for each person I support. Working with diverse populations and mental health settings (i.e. college, inpatient, healthcare, etc.) also allows me to be adaptable to each client.

Learn how to feel more connected to yourself, others and the world around you. Therapy provides all the elements of intimacy: honest communication, vulnerability and trust. Good therapy is challenging yet warm, providing both structure and empathy for your unique experience. We are a collective of therapists with a wide range of specialties. Our intake professionals will help connect you with the right therapist for your needs. We make appointments easy, offering evenings and weekends and flexibility for creative professionals who can't make the same time each week.

Whether you are struggling with difficult emotions or you would like to have a more vital life, therapy can help guide your personal journey. There are moments when we all struggle, get lost, and stray off the path towards our goals. We get stuck in unhelpful patterns that are hard to break free from. Insight into these patterns can lead to making different choices that are empowering and life-affirming. I create a warm and inviting space for exploration and personal growth. While I provide therapy for adolescents and adults, I also provide psychological evaluations to clients across the lifespan.

I have years of experience working with people of all ages experiencing depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, addictions, and other clinical issues. My style is to create a safe space for clients to explore feelings, address emotional pain, and try new conceptions of themselves. I can also support people who have had experiences with expanded states and wish to integrate them; I have many years of experience in psychedelic research and publications. I am also trained as a level 1 IFS therapist., and am excited about this work.

I enjoy working with people who have been successful in their fields and yet have come to an impasse in how they think of themselves in terms of self esteem and self respect. The people I work with often question the significance of their lives and how loved they are by friends and family. These doubts often have their origin in their birth families and can be helped by an in-depth understanding of their role in their families.

I am about the soft life. Soft life is a life of self-care where you make yourself a priority. It is a life that emphasizes reduced stress, dispelling false narratives and good boundaries. You are worthy and it is your time to breath. I provide individual therapy for a range of issues including stress, grief, multi-cultural issues, anxiety, and depression.

Please note: I am currently living abroad and have suspended my in person practice, but I am continuing to provide on-line therapy. You are unique so your therapy path should be too. If working on-line sounds like it would fit with your lifestyle and schedule please contact me and we can discuss if this is a good fit for you.

I am an experienced children's psychotherapist, with a private practice in Alameda and have provided therapeutic services for children, teens and families for 20+ years. I have been able to help families deal with a variety of issues including trauma, loss, family-conflict, children/teens with learning disabilities and a variety of behavioral issues, as well as familial substance use issues, post-divorce issues, severe anxiety and depression.

Thank you for taking the time for yourself to understand how therapy can help aid and assist you at this time in your life. I hope that I can give you a sense of myself and style and how I may be a good fit in supporting you in such a process. In my private practice, I specialize in working with individual adults, older teens, and couples. I practice from a psychodynamic and relational modality in which I am mindful of where you come from and the ways in which you have learned to adapt to each environment and relationship around you, including the relationship that we form. Mindfulness is a lens through which I practice as well.

I work from a relational, holistic approach because I believe making sure my clients have a safe space to fully show up as themselves, while taking into account all aspects of their lives that could be contributing to their presenting challenges, is of high importance. All of you Matters. My approach to therapy is Client-Centered and Integrative. I incorporate other evidence-based techniques including Narrative, Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), Mindfulness, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of California.