LCSW, 10 years of experience
Hello, I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in California. I earned my Master’s degree from the University of Southern California and have been working with clients for the past 10 years. I work with adults ages 18 to 60 who are navigating anxiety and depression, and my passion is helping people cultivate greater self-compassion, build confidence, and feel more capable in their everyday lives.
In our first session, we’ll talk about the challenges you’re facing as well as your hopes and goals for therapy. Together, we’ll outline a treatment plan—including the approaches we may use and the expected duration—so you have a clear sense of what to expect and how we’ll move forward.
Opening up about personal struggles can be difficult, and it is common to feel shame or anxiety in the process. My goal is to create a safe, supportive, and validating environment where you feel comfortable sharing and exploring your experiences.
I enjoy working with clients who are open to exploring what may be keeping them stuck and motivated to create meaningful change. My role is to provide guidance, encouragement, and practical skills, while empowering you to take the lead in your therapeutic journey. Together, we’ll build the tools you need to move forward with greater confidence and resilience.
My primary focus in CBT is to help clients understand the underlying reasons "core problems" behind their thoughts and behaviors, and to support them in moving beyond patterns that may keep them feeling stuck. I recognize that many clients experience significant shame even in sharing these struggles, so I place strong emphasis on fostering self-validation and compassion as essential tools for processing their challenges and creating pathways toward meaningful change.
I often integrate DBT skills into my work because our private experiences and emotional sensitivities are not always fully understood by others. This can lead to painful self-judgment and self-criticism. Through DBT, my goal is to help you build greater self-respect and compassion, while reducing self-invalidation and shame, so you can feel more grounded and empowered in your daily life.
Exposure is challenging because we need to directly approach our fear, but we want to avoid or escape from the distress. For the reason, I spend a lot of time to motivate and cheerlead my clients to overcome their struggles.
Many people have experienced some form of trauma in the past, which can profoundly impact how we view ourselves, others, and the world. I find Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT) to be especially valuable in helping clients reorganize unhelpful thoughts and beliefs related to safety, trust, power and control, esteem, and intimacy. Even when trauma is only partially processed, CPT can be highly effective, as it provides both psychoeducation and practical skills to support healing and growth.
1 rating with written reviews
February 11, 2025
I really like Dr. Ninomiya. I feel like our personalities match pretty well and that is something very valuable to me when seeing a therapist