Process therapy is an experiential way of working, rooted in “the here and now,” that evolved out of Gestalt Psychology. It’s an interactive process of guided self-inquiry.

I work by introducing you to all of the parts of yourself, so that every part of your being can agree on where to go next. I do this through role-play, chair work, expressive arts, somatic work, teaching mindfulness based stress reduction, meditation, and working with your nightly dreams. If you’ve been frustrated by therapists and counselors who sit and listen passively, or who have a set idea of who you are and who you aren’t —— this isn’t that kind of therapy! Our work together should feel like a visit each week to a fabulous museum, where all of the exhibits are about you. You determine where we go, and I act as a guide; inviting you to engage deeply with the material we find there. I’ve been trained to respect and trust my clients’s own innate inner knowing, and their own processes.

How did you decide to become a therapist?

I decided to become a therapist as a means of honoring both my intense geeky fascination for the human mind, as well as those who aided and guided me on my own path (teachers, therapists, curanderos/curanderas, brujos/brujas, and friends), enabling me to become the person I am today.

I was born to a White American mother of primarily Irish and Scottish ancestry, and an undocumented Mexican immigrant father, himself the son of a Mestizo man and a Mexican First Nations mother (P’urepecha & Mexica/Azteca). I grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and spent half my childhood here. The other half I spent living on a ranch in a rural community in Southern Arizona, not far from the US/Mexico Border. I identify as Multiracial, Mexican-American, Irish-American, Celtic, Indigenous, Xicanx, Latinx, First Nations, feminist and Queer (Bisexual/Pansexual).

While I identify as a cisgender woman, I welcome and invite all genders of people into my practice. As someone who benefited from both conditional-white privilege and cisgender privilege, I make it my business to be self aware and to act from a place of humility and “beginner’s mind” whenever I find myself working with anyone, (and especially with people who have less privilege than myself). I try to “walk the walk, and talk the talk” as much as I can in my work as a therapist, and I do that by remaining receptive to feedback and committed to my own growth as a person.

As I came of age, I explored many different philosophies, and many different religious traditions. Amongst the spiritual traditions I studied or experimented with are: Celtic Spirituality, Paganism, Tibetan Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, Sufism, Santeria, Voudon, Hoodoo/Rootwork, Alchemy, Anglicanism, Catholicism, Reform Judaism, and Quakerism, to name just a few! And so, I grew up betwixt and between many different cultures and with a fascination for the world around me and what makes human beings tick. I identify both as a Mystic, and as a huge Nerd. So whatever your beliefs or practices may be, know that your spirituality, (or lack thereof), is safe with me.

It took me a while to find myself and my place in the world, and my childhood experience of feeling like an outsider or like “a square peg in a round hole” has been a strength for me in my work as a therapist. I know intimately how lonely it can feel to be “different,” how scary it can feel to finally “come out” as the real you, and the unique unpleasantness of being expected to explain “what you are” to strangers. I also understand the unique issues of interracial, interfaith, and cross-cultural families and couples from the inside-out.

Whatever your identities, gender expression, sexual orientation, faith traditions, socio-economic origin, immigration status, or colonial experience, I want to invite you into a warm, caring, nonjudgemental space where the only expectation is that you show up as your authentic self— whoever that may be! I know we are living through challenging times, but it really does get better. And you don’t have to go it alone.