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Not necessarily. Talk therapy or Psychotherapy has its roots in Sigmund Freud’s Psychoanalysis, where one spends a good amount of their therapeutic time discussing their past with a focus on integration of unconscious thoughts and feelings inherited from our parents/families into consciousness. This empowers clients to decide what thought/feelings they actually align with and what was just sent to them from their parents/families of origin. Since then, research and development in therapeutic theory has blossomed so much so that some therapists today just focus on the present and/or future. Some focus on the past as well.

What does having a social justice orientation mean in psychotherapy?

Social Justice is the concept of promoting human rights and equity with the acknowledgement that we do not live in an equitable society. As a somatic social justice sex therapist, I specialize in working with people who are privileged and wanting to explore what that means in their bodies and their minds. When we have privilege, it is often not talked about in our culture. There can be shame around it or it can go unnoticed. Yet, when someone who has privilege invests in acknowledging their privileged reality, they can actually do so much more to thoughtfully make space for others. Rather than deal with what has been generationally and/or socially inherited, they will have more control over their own thoughts and feelings.

My clients are interested in feeling empowered and connected deeply with those around them. This means, looking internally at the models they put forward to their children and how they can make space to process the inequity that exists in our society. This is not easy, yet, it feels so much better than the shame so many feel when privilege is noticed. When you can be honest with yourself and with others, you deepen intimacy and spend so much less time masking discomfort. It’s so relieving and also opens up some lovely space for greater embodied sensuality, sexuality and pleasure overall!

This is a great question and one that I find myself thinking of often. Let’s face it. Many of us didn’t have great models of couples in terms of communication and sexual health. I know that sometimes therapy is used as a last resort to help heal a dynamic in a couple’s relationship system that may seem broken. However, I am more interested in noticing your strengths and working with you to heal, grow and create a bonded, empathetic relationship where there is freedom to play together and the brave spaces to process negative emotions together. In couple’s therapy, I will help you learn tools to practice skills towards empowerment. We also incorporate somatic (of the body) awareness, so you listen to your mind, and also identify how your body feels. This is the beginning of connecting mind and body and working towards embodied experiences. This is the beginning of feeling your sexuality and learning how to weave with each other what your sexual worlds can be and how to learn to weave together over time. Relationships change as we change. Couples therapy is the process of inviting introspection, sharing about it and learning to listen. It’s here that you learn what connections are really present for you at this point in your partnership.

Relational therapy involves supporting emotional development through the specific lens of acknowledging the client-therapist relationship. As your relationship builds with your therapist, different feelings about your interactions will inevitably come up. Processing these feelings can often be a wonderful way to understand yourself better. This process of adding insight helps create more space for you to understand the roots of emotional reactions to different reactions within you, often creating more compassion and added space for newness in how you choose to move/interact in the world.

Earth Circles Counseling Center in Oakland and Blue Oak Therapy Center in Berkeley are both good resources for individuals, couples and families.

We live in a culture where medical treatment often presents itself with “accurate” doses of medication based on large scale studies involving animals and human beings. While psychotherapy can be scientifically validated like medical treatment, it is also different in terms of measuring what worked and what didn’t for each person in treatment. Psychotherapy is about healing and growing your emotional capacities. A good way to measure if it is working is to try it out and consider what is helpful for you about the process. Sharing your feelings about different parts of the therapeutic process with your therapist will assist in developing a custom tailored treatment plan for you. This is so important! This is one reason why it is very important to like your therapist (see below) enough, that you could really tell them what’s up for you.

A large portion of your therapeutic process being successful will deal with your relationship with your therapist (also termed the “therapeutic alliance“). For this reason, it makes a lot of sense to find a therapist that feels like a great, solid fit for who you are as a person at this time in your life.

I believe desires are important to listen to and navigate. My desire as your therapist will be to listen to your presenting issues and help us create goals for your therapeutic process. My work incorporates body-mind grounding and resourcing. We will incorporate insight-building and skills towards communication for bonding in relationship with others. Ultimately, I do believe that no one of us should be treated by a therapist through a rigid formula. I will take time to see you, in your own unique being and work with you to develop a set of tools and perspective that encourage greater fulfillment and grounding, which in turn, is better for your external relationships too!