Hello! I’m Nina, a Licensed Clinical Therapist who has been working in trauma intervention for 17+ years. Before becoming a therapist, I worked as a rape crisis counselor, a trauma-healing self-defense instructor, and trauma-informed care consultant for non-profits. I approach therapy using multiple modalities. I believe in the mind-body connection and integrate mindfulness and body-based interventions where needed, including a focus on the physiology of stress and emotions. I use a wholistic approach to therapy, exploring all your identities, ambivalences, and values, and believe that understanding your upbringing and cultures are critical to how you cope and relate to the world and yourself in it. I specialize in working with trauma survivors, and specifically with people from the following communities: - adult children of multicultural, multiracial, and immigrant families - LGBTQIA+ - survivors of sexual abuse/assault - veterans - people seeking sex and intimacy support and exploration (including people practicing kink and non-monogamy).
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
In our first session, I will offer you space to tell me exactly what challenges you're facing, what you're looking for in therapy and your previous experiences with therapy, and answer any questions you might have about me as a therapist. I will tailor a therapeutic plan specifically to your needs and share that plan with you as it develops. Because I believe that safety and comfort in the therapeutic relationship matters to your progress and healing, I always consider our first meeting as an opportunity for us to assess whether we feel like a good fit. We'll have a conversation about this at the end of the first session and consider whether to try working together. If in the end, we decide the vibe isn't right or you'd be better served by a therapist with a different skill set, I'm happy to help refer you elsewhere.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
I deeply value and practice a relaxed therapy space - laughing, putting your feet up, and speaking in the ways that feel most natural and comfortable to you are encouraged! I aim to create a culturally sensitive space where you can bring the many parts of your identities. I offer sessions in English, Spanish, and Armenian, as well as Spanglish and Armenglish! As a queer person, I welcome other members of our beautiful community to my practice, and use a queer lens in many of my therapeutic approaches.