Hello! My name is Ankita Mohanty (ahn-KEE-tha mo-HAHN-thee), and I use she/her pronouns. My work is informed by my training in relational psychodynamics, expressive arts, and Buddhist psychology, as well as personal practices in conscious dance, vipassana meditation, poetry, and nature-based ceremony/ritual. I received by BA in Psychology and Women's Studies from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor in 2010 and my Masters in Social Work from UC Berkeley in 2015. I have lived on unceded Ohlone land in the Bay Area for the past decade. I am the eldest child of Indian immigrants and was raised on unceded Chippewa land in central Michigan.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
Sessions with me can feel tender, evocative, and expansive. They can result in more questions, a natural response to touching into our own great depths. You may leave sessions with a hunger for self-knowledge and introspection, and a deepened capacity for self-love. May our sessions leave you feeling less alone and alien in a world that can be harsh, unjust, and propagates the myth of non-belonging for folks who do not fit prescribed normalcy. May you leave feeling you have true home here. In our first session, I intend to meet you with an invitation to "arrive" in your own time and at your own pace. By this I mean you are welcome to share what is on your heart and mind to the degree that feels comfortable for you. I will offer reflections, observations, and questions, and possible pathways for going forward. It is an opportunity for you to feel into "fit," or the therapist-client match, name what you are hoping for in your therapy, and share any past experiences of healing you have had that inform where you are now.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
I seek to co-create an environment of depth, care, and respect that honors and excavates your wisdom, your knowing, and your power. Judgment, shame, anxiety, insecurity, fear, anger, grief, and other difficult feelings are considered natural and are welcomed as part of the therapeutic process. I am committed to learning how to be with you, and to the gradual and sometimes challenging process of building trust between us. My personal life is devoted to cultivating presence and peace within myself so that I can in turn be in service to you. I bring to you what I strive to bring to myself: emotional attunement, resourcefulness, humor, patience, and kindness. May that be felt in our time together.
About Ankita Mohanty
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Appointments
VirtualMy treatment methods
Compassion Focused
Meeting you with compassion is foundational to my role. This means I offer reflections that might reframe a more judgmental or critical view, especially toward yourself. I fundamentally believe we are all doing our best, and bringing a compassionate context to our challenges can be a practice in self-love and love for others.
Culturally Sensitive Therapy
I believe cultural sensitivity is necessary to building trust and safety in any relationship, and therapy is no exception. I humble myself to learn about you, your cultural identities, and how they shape and influence your life. And I offer what feels true and authentic from my lived experiences as well. I hope to contribute to therapeutic environment in which you have a chance to relax into your multiple identities and feel known within them and beyond.
Psychodynamic
My post-graduate work was in a private practice setting for two and a half years training in an intensive relational psychodynamic program. Psychodynamics point to what is under the surface, acknowledging that our thoughts, feelings, and beliefs are formed not within a vacuum, but influenced by the relationships we had and have. This modality sees the therapeutic relationship as the primary vehicle for change, and honors depth, connection, and attending to the relationship as sacred.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
I have eight years of training in vipassana, or insight, meditation in the Buddhist Theravada tradition. I have completed a Buddhist Psychology training program which integrates Western psychological concepts with Eastern spirituality. My mindfulness practice strengthens my ability to remain present with what is arising in session and invite in heightened awareness of bodily sensations, emotions, and thoughts. This in turn allows for deeper understanding of oneself and creates pathways for self-soothing, self-care, and insight.