Licensed to practice in California and accepts 9 insurances. Specializes in First Responders/Healthcare Workers, Trauma and PTSD, Life Transitions and 5 more.
(she/her)
Hi, I’m Maxine Soriano, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. I work with high-achieving BIPOC and first-generation professionals who may look like they have it all together but are privately dealing with anxiety, burnout, perfectionism, shame, family pressure, or the feeling that they’re never doing enough. My approach is warm, direct, collaborative, and down-to-earth. I’m also trauma-informed and social justice-oriented, so I don’t look at your struggles in isolation. I want to understand the whole picture—your identity, culture, family, relationships, work, and the systems and experiences that have shaped you. For many of my clients, therapy is about making sense of the pressure they’ve carried for a long time while figuring out what they actually want for themselves. You don’t have to choose between honoring where you come from and creating a life that feels like your own. My goal is to help you understand yourself more deeply, challenge the patterns that are no longer serving you, and feel more comfortable taking up space as yourself.
Your first session is a chance for us to get to know each other and for you to get a feel for what therapy with me will be like. We’ll talk about what brought you to therapy, what you’ve been experiencing, and what you’re hoping to get out of our work together. You don’t need to have everything figured out or know exactly what to say. My approach is trauma-informed and social justice-oriented, which means I look at the whole person, not just your symptoms. We’ll explore how your identity, culture, family, relationships, community, work, and the larger systems around you may shape your experiences. I want to understand both what you’re carrying and the context that helped create it. We’ll also talk about your goals and how I can best support you. I’ll explain my approach, answer your questions, and we’ll begin thinking together about where to start. Most importantly, you’re not expected to share anything you’re not ready to discuss. Come as you are. My goal is for you to feel heard, understood, and comfortable enough to decide whether we’re a good fit.
I’m warm, direct, and down-to-earth, and I’m not afraid to be real with you. I bring a trauma-informed and social justice-oriented lens to my work, which means I’m interested in understanding the whole picture—not just what’s showing up on the surface. I want to understand who you are, where you come from, and the experiences that have shaped you. That includes your culture, identity, family, relationships, work, community, and the systems you’ve had to navigate. I don’t believe everything can be explained by an individual diagnosis or symptom without looking at the bigger picture. I’m also collaborative. I won’t sit back and expect you to do all the talking while I take notes. We’ll work together to understand your patterns, make sense of what you’re experiencing, and figure out what actually feels helpful. I’ll challenge you when I think it could help, but always with curiosity and respect. My goal is for therapy to feel like a place where you can be honest about what’s really going on—not another place where you have to perform, achieve, or have it all together.
My ideal client is a high-achieving BIPOC or first-generation adult who is used to being the strong, responsible, dependable one. On the outside, you may look like you’re doing well—career, relationships, family, responsibilities—but internally, you may feel exhausted, anxious, disconnected, or like you’re constantly falling short. You may be navigating burnout, perfectionism, shame, people-pleasing, difficulty setting boundaries, or the pressure to make your family proud. Maybe you’re an eldest daughter who has spent years taking care of everyone else, or you’ve felt pressure to be the provider, the successful one, or the person who is expected to keep it together. You may have learned that vulnerability is weakness or that your worth is tied to what you accomplish. You can love your family and culture deeply while still feeling frustrated, guilty, or conflicted about the expectations placed on you. You may be struggling with figuring out where your responsibilities to others end and where your own needs begin. You don’t necessarily need to be in crisis. You may simply know that the way you’ve been coping isn’t working anymore. You’re ready to understand yourself more deeply, unpack the messages and experiences that shaped you, and build a life that feels authentic to you—not just one that looks successful from the outside. Most importantly, you’re open to being curious about yourself, having honest conversations, and doing the work together.
My approach is psychodynamic, trauma-informed, and social justice-oriented. I’m interested in understanding not just what you’re experiencing, but where those patterns come from and how your relationships, identity, culture, and past experiences shape the way you move through the world.
I use a narrative approach to help you examine the stories and beliefs you’ve developed about yourself and your life. Sometimes the messages we receive from family, culture, relationships, or society can become so familiar that they start to feel like facts about who we are. Together, we can explore those stories, question the expectations that may be holding you back, and make room for a more authentic understanding of yourself.
I recognize that experiences of racism, discrimination, microaggressions, stereotyping, and navigating systems that were not designed with you in mind can have a real impact on your mental health. We can explore how these experiences may affect your sense of safety, identity, relationships, self-worth, and ability to trust yourself and others. This work also includes making space for the emotional weight of what you’ve experienced without placing the responsibility for systemic problems on you.
I take a trauma-informed approach by considering how your past experiences may have shaped the ways you cope, relate to others, and understand yourself today. Rather than asking, “What’s wrong with you?” I’m interested in understanding, “What happened to you, and how did you learn to survive it?” We’ll move at a pace that respects your boundaries and recognize the strengths and resilience you’ve developed along the way.
I take an eclectic approach, which means I don’t believe therapy should be one-size-fits-all. I draw from different therapeutic approaches based on your needs, goals, personality, and what we discover together in therapy. This allows us to be flexible and intentional rather than forcing you into a specific treatment model. My goal is to find what is actually useful for you while staying grounded in our work together.