LCSW, 5 years of experience
New to Grow
Hello, my name is Anna Kramarz and I would love to welcome you to therapy, whether you are a seasoned veteran or it is your very first time. My practice offers a warm, open, and collaborative space for adults who seek learning, growing, and healing within themselves, their relationships, and the world around them. When I’m not in the therapy room, you can find me exploring the trails of Oakland’s beautiful regional parks with my dogs Sunny and Penny (whom you might meet as well!). I love to cook elaborate meals with friends, binge my comfort TV shows, and dance the night away to girly pop, hip-hop, or house music. I have always called the Bay Area my home, but half my heart lies in New York City. I have traveled some of the world and hope to always continue to explore more out there and here in my own backyard.
The goals of therapy will be based entirely in what you hope to get out of our sessions. You may want to develop healthy coping skills for dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, or grief; you may want to build healthier relationships with yourself and with others; you may want to learn to sit with challenging and painful emotions. All of our work together will be collaborative and adaptive to your changing needs.
My approach to therapy is based in the Liberation Health Model, which explores how the personal, cultural, and systemic factors of an individual impact their sense of self and how they experience the world. With a better understanding of the context in which you live, we will be able to develop your toolkit for navigating challenges, examine patterns and behaviors that are no longer serving you, and strengthen the resiliencies you have already developed throughout your lifetime. I also incorporate approaches from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavioral Therapy, and Emotion-Focused Therapy to support clients in building a toolkit of skills to utilize outside of the therapy room for navigating challenging situations and uncomfortable emotions.
“Caring for myself is not self-indulgence, it is self-preservation, and that is an act of political warfare.” - Audre Lorde. Self-care is more than bubble baths and massages; it is honoring our needs, accessing our emotions, and practicing self-compassion. Learning to care for ourselves strengthens our resilience and our capacity to care for ourselves and others. Those seeking to care for the self through changing destructive patterns, relieving anxiety, alleviating depression, mending old and building new interpersonal relationships, and learning to sit with challenging emotions will find here a safe and supportive environment.