I’m a therapist for couples and individuals throughout California. With skill and empathy derived from both extensive training and personal growth, I support couples where one person is neurodivergent (dyslexia, ADHD, PTSD, autism, etc), an engineer or mechanic, and/or a creative. I can help you reinvigorate your relationships, learn new communication skills, and connect deeply to the self-love you deserve. Through our work together, you will develop a deeper understanding of yourself and what’s important to you. Living an energizing, fulfilling life happens one decision at a time. My work centers compassion, accountability for our choices, and autonomy.
What can clients expect to take away from sessions with you?
After our free consultation, you will book your first session and electronically complete intake paperwork prior to us meeting. Your first therapy session with me is a wonderful sign of your commitment to yourself--commitment to improving your life, working on your own growth, and getting out of your comfort zone. I want to know about your life: what is happening, what do you want support with, who the important people in your life are (current and past), what was your family like growing up, what's your family like now, any significant experiences (positive or negative)? I want to know you as a person so that I can understand where to focus our work together. And, your story is yours to tell at your own pace. I have to earn your trust. So, in that first session, you decide how much you want to share. From there, we discuss the diagnosis that I will be applying in order to use your insurance benefits. We openly talk about what this diagnosis means for you and your life, and your reactions to it. Lastly, we come up with a few focused goals to guide our work together. The goals can be rather vague or very concrete; it's up to you! As we continue our therapeutic work, we will come back to these goals, assess how we're doing, and develop new goals as needed. Then, we spend some time processing how that first session felt! I may assign a simple reflection or "homework assignment" to guide us into the next week's session.
Explain to clients what areas you feel are your biggest strengths.
At the core of what makes therapy "work" is the relationship between therapist and client (look it up! it's true). It is a joy to me to truly get to know the people I serve. The foundation of my success with supporting individuals and couples is our warm, honest therapeutic relationship. I keep it real and my clients feel they can trust me with their fears, shame, pain. My therapeutic work is tailored to each individual and unique couple, drawing from my years of experience over the past 14 years as a psychotherapist, infant mental health specialist, neurological disease clinical research assistant, and developmental disorders researcher. This extensive, varied training equips me with a compassionate and analytical perspective that encompasses brain development, attachment styles, physical health, and psychology. We zoom way out and see your real-life problems from many different angles. Centering self-compassion, accountability, and authenticity, I help you build the relational and emotional skills that will empower you.
Describe the client(s) you are best positioned to serve.
People find me when they are ready for profound changes in their personal relationships. My clients are open-minded, deeply self-aware, and motivated to improve their emotional lives. If you and/or your partner are: --Blue collar workers (mechanics, builders, etc), STEM professionals/engineers, or creatives --Neurodivergent (ADHD, Autism, OCD, PTSD, dyslexia, etc) --Raised in different backgrounds (ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status) then you may experience difficulties in communicating effectively, and run into trouble when it comes to supporting one another emotionally and opening up. Through my experience serving people from these backgrounds, I have developed a therapeutic style that can successfully support you both as you learn to establish healthy boundaries, communication styles, and show up as your authentic self.
About Suzanna Osuna Aissa
Suzanna Osuna Aissa offers therapy covered by Health Plan of San Joaquin - Medi-Cal in California.
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VirtualMy treatment methods
Acceptance and commitment (ACT)
I draw from ACT's emphasis on values as a driving force for our everyday choices. ACT is also incredibly useful in helping clients with OCD and other neurotypes to manage intrusive thoughts.
Attachment-based
Attachment experiences early on in life set the tone for the rest of our relationships. As a former infant mental health specialist, I am trained to understand how early caregiver relationships can be supportive or less than ideal. I take this lens when understanding what is going on in your life: self-esteem issues, family dynamics, sexual relationships.
Psychodynamic
While you will develop many new communication and relational skills through our work together, much of therapy is also a deep exploration of unconscious pain, early attachment experiences, and emotional coping mechanisms that we may not be fully aware of. It's the dreamy, messy, sticky side of therapy where it doesn't always feel like we are "getting anywhere" in the moment. Sometimes it's talking about your dreams, exploring a dynamic in your life, and examining the ways your emotional processes spill out into your close relationships.
Psychobiological Approach Couple Therapy
I love this approach because its integrative nature is very powerful when combined with the other treatment methods. PACT examines a couple in "real time" on various levels--verbal communication, tone, body posture, emotional dysregulation, micro expressions. We work together to help you attune and respond to these elements of non-verbal communication in your conversations, and gain skills to master emotional regulation.
Imago Relationship Theory
Imago Therapy has many exercises that I draw from to help partners cultivate compassion for one another, and develop the capacity to see their partner's dysfunction as the result of a child whose attachment needs were not fully met, whose psychological development may be stuck at some point along the way. Of course, this applies to both partners. Imago therapy also asks each person to be fully accountable for the harm they may have caused and offers wonderful ideas for how to practice this accountability.