I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in private practice in Burlingame, California. My work is based on Attachment Theory, Developmental Psychology, Self Psychology, Gestalt Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. My fully interactive and transparent approach embraces the notion of therapist as a guide and witness. I am sensitive and fully present with clients. I honor and understand their experiences and able to create a deeply trusting relationship.
I have a multi-cultural background and I am fluent in both Persian (Farsi) and English. I have extensive experience with Middle Eastern and European as well as American clients.
My years of clinical training, since 1994, includes individual, couples, family, and group therapy, with a focus on stress, depression, and issues such as employment, relationship (including cross-cultural marital problems), sexual and physical abuse.
I am also a certified Integrated Body Psychotherapist (IBP). In this 4 year specialized program, I studied with Dr. Jack Lee Rosenberg and his wife Dr. Beverly Kiten, focusing on couples therapy and sexuality. IBP is a somatic approach, based on the belief that emotional injuries and their lessons, especially those sustained in early childhood, are held in the body. In therapy, clients learn to identify feelings in their body and verbalize them in such a way that they can be “heard and seen” by others--including their intimate partners, children, parents and friends. IBP believes for every insight there is an inside felt somatic experience in the body; our bodies know the “truth”.
I have given a variety of presentations and workshops to the general public. Also, I offer workshops on couples, parenting and child development, as well as mother-daughter relationships and fatherhood.
Areas of expertise:
Anxiety or Fears
Anger Issues
Cross Cultural Issues
Couples Therapy and Sexuality
Depression
Divorce
Family Therapy
Infertility and Adoption
Loss and Grief
Parenting
Physical, Emotional, Sexual and Political Traumas
Prenatal psychology and Pregnancy Losses
