LCSW, 10 years of experience
Hey! My name Alyssa. Is it just me, or does searching for a therapist online feel a little like online dating? You scroll through profiles, a picture catches your eye, you read all the “best parts,” and wonder: Will we be a match? It’s vulnerable, overwhelming, and full of uncertainty. And yet—finding the right person can make all the difference. I’m a licensed therapist in California with 10 years of experience, as well as a certified yoga and barre instructor. My approach blends Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), somatic and polyvagal-informed practices, and mindfulness. I believe you are capable of healing, growth, and creating a life that feels aligned. My role is to guide and support you along the way. I help people who are navigating challenges such as: Anxiety: When worry feels constant and your body is on edge, I help you calm racing thoughts, regulate your nervous system, and build coping skills so you feel steady. Life Transitions: When big changes leave you uncertain, I help you reframe anxious thinking, strengthen resilience, and trust yourself as you step forward. Grief: When loss feels unbearable, I provide space to honor your emotions, gently challenge painful thought patterns, and help you find moments of relief without rushing the process. Parenting Challenges: When guilt and stress feel heavy, I help you regulate your nervous system, shift expectations, and respond with patience and connection. Trauma & PTSD: When memories or beliefs keep you stuck, I use trauma-informed, somatic, and CBT approaches to restore safety and self-trust. Self-Esteem: When self-criticism overshadows your worth, I help you quiet the inner critic and build a more compassionate, confident relationship with yourself. Together, we’ll work toward relief, resilience, and a grounded connection to yourself and the people you love.
In the first session, I will introduce myself, we’ll have a brief discussion about confidentiality and then I’ll give you the floor to ask questions about me, my approach, my experience, and whatever else is on your mind about the progression of our work together. After that, I’ll introduce the concept of brave spaces and we'll discuss what you need from me to make this a brave space where you can show up authentically and vulnerably. Then we’ll talk about what has brought you to therapy at this time, your goals for therapy, as well as, your concerns, and expectations for therapy. The goal of the first session is to begin getting to know each other. I’m going to ask you a lot of questions about life's current challenges, joys, and past experiences. I’ll ask you to describe your childhood, your relationships with your caregivers, siblings, friends, community, and yourself. I’ll ask you to share large milestones and important memories. I’ll ask you about your current relationships, how you handle stress and other emotions, and other important details. I invite you to be as open as possible and to share what feels important. The conversation will flow naturally and won’t be pressured or interogational. You’re welcome to let me know if you’d like to shift the conversation or discuss something that we skimmed over more thoroughly. At the end of each session, I do my best to ask for feedback. To do meaningful work together, it’s important to create a space where you feel welcome to tell when something isn't working for you. If there is anything that needs adjusting, I would love to know so that I can have an opportunity to discuss it with you and make that correction moving forward.
After 10 years as a therapist, I have learned to attentively listen to the client. I remain attuned to the client and offer the tools, strategies, and insights that will address the specific concern and help to change the perspectives. My clients often express gratitude for my warmth, openness, and ability to make them feel seen. They also comment on how my questions are thought-provoking and offer insights into their experience and their subconscious mind. What stands out about my approach is the way I integrate different methods to support both your body and your mind. Healing isn’t just about changing thoughts, and it’s not just about calming the body—it’s both. Bottom-up means we’ll pay attention to your body and nervous system, using somatic and polyvagal-informed practices to release tension, regulate emotions, and restore a sense of safety. Top-down means we’ll also work with your thoughts and beliefs, using CBT and other cognitive tools to shift unhelpful patterns and create new perspectives. Together, this helps you not only talk about change but actually experience it—feeling more grounded in your body while also thinking in ways that are kinder and more supportive. Clients often tell me they appreciate how seen and cared for they feel in our work, and how my questions spark insights they hadn’t considered before. They also notice how I make complex ideas simple—using metaphors, visuals, and practical strategies—so you can apply what you’re learning with ease and begin noticing real shifts in your daily life.
I am best positioned to serve adults who are feeling anxious, overwhelmed, or stuck at a crossroads in life. Many of my clients are navigating big transitions—such as parenthood, career changes, loss, or relationship shifts—and are looking for guidance to move through uncertainty with more steadiness and clarity. Others come to me because they’re carrying the weight of trauma, grief, or self-criticism and are ready to experience relief and self-compassion. I especially enjoy working with people who are curious and motivated to understand themselves more deeply. You may already be aware of your patterns but need support in actually shifting them. My integrative approach helps you do just that—working with both the body (to regulate your nervous system and release stored tension) and the mind (to reframe unhelpful thoughts and beliefs). Whether your goal is to feel calmer, more confident, or more connected to yourself and others, I can help you build practical skills and embodied awareness so you can move through challenges with resilience and create the life you want to live.
Many of us try to “think” our way through stress and difficult experiences, but our bodies carry their own stories. Somatic therapy helps you listen to those stories and release the tension that gets stuck in your nervous system. By combining talk therapy with body-based practices—such as breathwork, grounding, mindful movement, and guided awareness—we create space for both your mind and body to heal. ✨Anxiety: Somatic work helps calm the nervous system so you can recognize your body’s early signals of stress. Together, we practice ways to shift out of racing thoughts and into grounded presence, giving you more choice and ease. ✨Life Transitions: Big changes can feel destabilizing. Somatic practices provide tools to anchor yourself during uncertain times so you can move forward with more clarity, resilience, and self-trust. ✨Self-Esteem: When self-doubt feels overwhelming, we focus on reconnecting you to your body’s natural wisdom. Feeling your strength, steadiness, and vitality helps you rewrite the story of who you are—beyond old patterns of criticism. ✨Grief: Loss often lives in the body as heaviness, numbness, or restlessness. Somatic therapy offers gentle ways to process those sensations, allowing grief to move through instead of staying locked inside. ✨Parenting: Parenting asks so much of us. I help you notice when your nervous system is stretched thin, and guide you toward regulation practices that support patience, presence, and healthier connection with your children. ✨Trauma & PTSD: Trauma can leave us feeling disconnected from ourselves or stuck in cycles of hypervigilance or shutdown. Somatic work offers a safe, gradual way to release what your body has been holding, restore a sense of safety, and reestablish trust in yourself and others. My approach is compassionate and collaborative. I believe your body already holds many of the answers—we simply create the conditions for those answers to surface.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the foundational tools I use to help people create meaningful and lasting change. CBT helps us notice the connections between our thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. Many of us develop patterns of thinking that feel automatic—often self-critical, anxious, or hopeless—and those patterns shape how we feel in our bodies and how we show up in the world. In our work together, I combine CBT with somatic and polyvagal-informed approaches. That means we won’t just stay in the “headspace” of thoughts—we’ll also pay attention to what’s happening in your nervous system and body. By noticing both your mental patterns and your body’s signals, we can create new responses that feel safer, more grounded, and more supportive. Here’s how that can look in practice: ✨Anxiety: We’ll identify the thought loops that fuel worry, while also practicing grounding, breathing, and nervous-system regulation so your body learns to feel steadier. ✨Life Transitions: CBT helps reframe “what if” thoughts, while body-based practices help you build resilience and flexibility when change feels overwhelming. ✨Self-Esteem: We’ll uncover critical inner narratives and pair new, affirming beliefs with somatic practices that help those new beliefs land in your body, not just your mind. ✨Grief: Together, we’ll honor your loss, gently challenge the painful thoughts that intensify suffering, and use body-based regulation to soften the waves of grief without rushing the process. ✨Parenting: We’ll look at the beliefs and expectations that add pressure, while also practicing ways to regulate your nervous system so you can respond to your children with more presence and calm. ✨Trauma & PTSD: Trauma often lives in both the body and the mind. With CBT, we’ll challenge trauma-related beliefs (“I’m unsafe,” “It’s my fault”), while polyvagal and somatic practices help you release stored stress and restore a sense of safety. This integrated approach is never about “just think positive.” Instead, it’s about working with both mind and body—helping you notice patterns that no longer serve you, build skills to respond differently, and experience more calm, clarity, and choice in your daily life.
I support clients through a Polyvagal-informed lens, which means I pay close attention to how your nervous system responds to stress, connection, and safety. Rather than only talking about your challenges, I help you notice what’s happening in your body—your breath, your posture, your energy—and guide you toward practices that restore calm and connection. When anxiety, grief, trauma, or big life transitions feel overwhelming, the nervous system can get stuck in states of fight, flight, or shutdown. Together, we’ll gently build awareness of these patterns and explore tools that help you shift into a more regulated state—where you can feel grounded, clear, and connected to yourself and others. This approach can be especially helpful if you are: ✨Living with anxiety and want practical, body-based ways to calm racing thoughts. ✨Moving through life transitions such as career changes, separation, or relocation and need steadiness through uncertainty. ✨Navigating grief and loss, learning how to be with waves of emotion without shutting down. ✨Parenting under stress, wanting to respond rather than react and create a sense of safety for yourself and your children. ✨Healing from trauma or PTSD, where talk therapy alone may feel overwhelming or not enough. ✨Struggling with self-esteem, ready to reframe your worth from productivity or perfection into presence and authenticity. Polyvagal-informed therapy doesn’t mean “fixing” you—it means helping your body remember how to find safety, balance, and resilience so that your natural strengths and wisdom can come forward.
Mindfulness-based therapy is at the heart of the way I support clients. It’s not about forcing yourself to “clear your mind” or striving for perfection—it’s about learning how to be with yourself, in the present, with compassion. Together, we practice slowing down enough to notice what your body, thoughts, and emotions are actually communicating. This awareness creates space for choice instead of reactivity. ✨For anxiety: I help clients tune into the early signals of stress in their body—like racing thoughts, tightness in the chest, or shallow breathing—and use mindfulness practices to calm the nervous system before it spirals into overwhelm. ✨For life transitions: Whether it’s a new job, a move, or a shift in identity, mindfulness helps you anchor into the present, easing the uncertainty of “what’s next” while staying grounded in your strengths. ✨For self-esteem: We work on noticing the inner critic without fusing to it. By gently observing thoughts instead of believing them as facts, you can begin to rebuild trust in yourself and feel more at home in your own skin. ✨For grief: Mindfulness provides a safe container to sit with the waves of loss. Instead of pushing feelings away, we learn how to honor them, allowing grief to move through in its own rhythm while staying connected to moments of peace and memory. ✨For parenting: Mindfulness supports parents in responding instead of reacting. It helps you notice when you’re triggered, pause, and choose a more compassionate response—toward your child and yourself. ✨For trauma and PTSD: Mindfulness helps restore a sense of safety by teaching you how to stay connected to the present moment without being hijacked by the past. Through grounding techniques and gentle body awareness, you can slowly retrain your nervous system to feel calm, stable, and resilient. At its core, mindfulness-based therapy is about cultivating presence, self-compassion, and resilience. It allows you to meet life’s challenges with steadiness, clarity, and a deeper connection to yourself.
Strength-based therapy focuses on what’s working in your life and the inner resources you already carry. Together, we highlight your resilience, creativity, and values so you can approach challenges with more confidence and clarity. ✨Anxiety: Build on moments when you’ve felt steady to create calming routines. ✨ Life Transitions: Draw on past successes to navigate new changes. ✨Grief: Connect with inner strengths that help you hold loss with tenderness. ✨Parenting: Lean into your natural patience and care to meet daily challenges. ✨Trauma & PTSD: Recognize the survival strengths you’ve developed, and gently reshape them into tools for healing. This approach helps you remember: you are more resourceful than you think.
1 rating with written reviews
May 5, 2025
Expertly and organically uses interventions. Every little thing she says/asks is valuable, intentional, useful and guides me towards what I need in that moment.