About Me

Welcome! I’m so glad you’re here.

Hi, I’m Christina, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in San Francisco. My style of therapy is warm and interactive; I do not just sit in silence. Our work is collaborative and my style is engaged and responsive. I believe that you deserve not only to be heard, but also understood. Research shows that therapy is most impactful when you have a solid relationship with your therapist. In my practice, I prioritize our relationship and establishing safety in addition to the clinical aspects of the work. This is a safe space, free of judgement. In session I have heard “thank you so much for not judging me, I know I can say anything in here”.

I provide compassionate understanding and will also invite you to consider new ideas or patterns in a productive way. It can be difficult to see or notice some of our own patterns, so I think this is a really crucial step in therapy. In session I’ve also heard things like “thanks for that gentle call-out” or “I actually hadn’t thought about it like that.”

After initial sessions of getting to know each other and gathering background and history info, a session with me will generally consist of seeing how you are doing, a quick recap of our last session and me asking you what you would like to focus on today. While I have a sense of your goals and what you would like to prioritize, it’s important that you have a say in this week to week. We are complex, dynamic beings.

I received my Masters Degree in Counseling Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies, with a focus in Expressive Arts Therapy. Incorporating the creative arts (writing, visual art, poetry, movement, music, etc.) can be an incredibly healing experience and a rich way to access parts of our psyche that talk therapy alone can’t reach. Brainspotting also allows for this access. Also know that you will never be forced to do anything that you don’t want to.

I work from a lens of therapeutic frameworks that include:

  • Psychodynamic and relational

  • Attachment-based

  • Brainspotting

  • Trauma-informed

  • Emotionally focused

  • Person Centered

  • CBT and DBT tools

  • Expressive Arts Therapy

  • Mindfulness

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Areas of focus include

  • Relationships

  • Trauma and PTSD

  • Childhood trauma

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Work stress/burnout

  • Life transitions

  • Grief and loss

  • Gender Expansive youth

  • Perfectionism

  • Emotional neglect

I have advanced training in

  • ABFT Attachment-Based Family Therapy

  • Attachment

  • Brainspotting

  • EFT Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (Externship)

  • Childhood trauma and ACEs Study

  • Expressive Arts Therapy

  • Sandtray

  • California State Certified Sexual Assault Counselor

  • Domestic Violence (child and adult exposure)