Narrative Therapists in Berkeley, CA

I am a trans Licensed Clinical Social Worker specializing in working with trans, queer, genderqueer, and gender-nonconforming teens and adults. I have a non-pathologizing approach and deeply value identities outside the "norm." I have fifteen years of experience as a mental health provider, including support groups with teens and adults, individual therapy, and crisis work. I am a Bay Area activist who has fought for transgender rights by organizing provider trainings and public demonstrations. I am a visual artist and storyteller who believes that underrepresented individuals expressing themselves creatively and authentically is powerful and important.

While I work with a diversity of people, I specialize in working with LGBTQ individuals, couples and youth. As a Marriage and Family psychotherapist, I seek to help my clients find their way through the hardships that life can bring. I believe in the healing power of the therapeutic relationship as well as each individual having the power to heal themselves. I believe in a strength based, solution focused approach to therapy and work with my clients to not only overcome their current circumstances but to also develop tools and strategies that they can use moving forward in their lives.

Are you or your middle school/high school age child needing the support of a gender specialist? Or are you an adult needing a LGBTQ+ affirming transgender/nonbinary therapist to support you in building greater resiliency and mental health? Welcome to my practice! I'm Dr. Townsend (he/him or they/them). I bring research, clinical, and lived experience to my work with the LGBTQ+ community. My approach combines tailored interventions, a warm interpersonal style, and fostering a safe and supportive environment to support you or your teen to reach greater authenticity and actualization.

I offer neurodiversity-affirming, client-focused care to children, adolescents and adults. My clients tend to have several of these qualities: They are highly intelligent and verbal. They often feel like they don’t fit in, but may form fewer and deeper friendships. They throw themselves enthusiastically into the things they’re passionate about. They struggle to find appropriate outlets for intense emotions. They often have “geeky” hobbies. Many identify as neurodivergent, autistic, or a person with ADHD, with or without a diagnosis.

I’m a bilingual (English/Spanish) Marriage and Family Therapist with four years of experience treating cultural diversity issues. I believe every individual is unique and finding the strength to defend that uniqueness is my goal as a clinician. Many times, we find ourselves dwelling in a place of discomfort because we are in transit, in a new position, a new career, a new family or a new country. We are living constantly transitioning from one culture to another one, through life phases, starting new traditions. My goal is helping you to succeed in your own special journey.

My commitment is to the practice of working with individuals to heal their whole system through a multidisciplinary and personalized approach by touching many aspects of one's life, including somatic, emotional, spiritual, and historical imprints. I believe that healing is an integral and whole experience unique to each individual's ecology. I am committed to exploring what makes us feel healthy, happy, and whole. I believe that we are intrinsically powerful beings with the capability to have radical healing experiences, enhance our lives with joy, to release trauma that affects us in our lifetime.

Greetings, I am Genean, a practitioner who is dedicated to providing holistic counseling services for those seeking to enhance their well-being by exploring the interconnectedness of the mind, body, and spirit in mental health. My primary objective is to assist individuals in effectively managing stress, anxiety, and emotional hurdles, while concurrently fostering physical wellness through the utilization of mindful movement and relaxation strategies. I am committed to offering guidance that enables clients to attain equilibrium, inner tranquility, and holistic wellness.

As a psychologist, teacher, mother and trauma specialist, I enjoy working with teens, young adults, adults and couples who are trying to feel better. If you are wanting to stop the challenging patterns in your life, we may be a good fit. If you are wanting to find (or re-find) the joy in life, we may be a good fit. If you are wondering how your history may be affecting your current life, we may be a good fit. If you are looking for a psychotherapist who will help you help yourself, we may be a good fit. You and I will develop a warm, accepting, compassionate environment where we work to establish hope. Give it a try!

I support people of various ethnic groups, sexual orientations, gender identities, and socioeconomic backgrounds to bring meaning to their lives, connect with their aliveness, and expand their sense of personal choice and freedom.

You're considering therapy. It is often a complicated and difficult decision but sometimes we just know that it's time to try something new. I believe taking the courageous step to begin therapy helps individuals and families address challenges that keep us from our full potential. Whether you are suffering from anxiety or depression, relationship issues or isolation, financial preoccupations, or a desire for a new career, you know it is time to work to make things better. I am a psychologist providing flexible, relational therapy to help you to address a range of issues. My style is warm, compassionate, and down-to-earth.

All life is a relationship. From our very first moments and onward, what happens in relationship teaches us about how to be in the world. We continually form certain core beliefs, ways of thinking, patterns of tension, and ways of moving our body that can be both healthy and limiting. Trauma, abuse, neglect, and other wounding contribute to how we form our relationship with the world and with ourselves. All of our past experiences have an impact on our present experience. Our day to day life can then be full of a sense of meaninglessness, emotional and physical pain, chronic anxiety, mistrust, or general unease.

I’m not beating around the bush here: things are pretty messed up right now. And when it feels like the world is on fire, of course you’re going to be freaking out. Maybe your life seemed fine until recently, and maybe you’ve been struggling longer than you can remember. Either way, I am here to help. I work with all ages, genders, sexualities, racial backgrounds, cultures, and subcultures. From work stress to identity crises, communication problems to childhood trauma, all issues need space to breathe, and a big part of that is finding a therapist you can be real with.

You met someone; you fell in love…is it time to build a family together? What about all the fights you have been having recently? Now you are a mother/father, juggling childcare, professional development, housework… what about US? What about ME? How to teach our kids when we don’t even agree? Things are not working out; Shall we give it one last try before separating? My partner wants to open up the relationship/marriage. What does it even mean?

I am bilingual in Spanish, and offer therapy for individual adults, couples, families, teens, and children 6 and older. My specialties include trauma, interpersonal violence (IPV), and loss, especially for human beings who have experienced displacement and/migration. I offer services for expecting and new mothers to aid in the transitions and attachment issues that arise. Also I am interested in bridging periods in human development. I embrace a culturally humble stance, and am LBGT welcoming.

I see you as a unique individual from a systems perspective and want to understand the interrelatedness of your current relationships, social systems, belief systems, and family history in order to see how certain patterns have emerged in your life. I work with OCD, anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship issues, transitional stages in life, racially mixed relationship issues, Asian American and BIPOC community, mixed-race, gender affirming, LGBTQIA+ community, neurodiverse community, parents, adolescents, and more.

My therapy style is down to earth, warm, inviting and active. I believe therapy is most effective when it is a collaborative process between the client and the therapist. We will work together to explore, reflect and identify areas in which insight and change are needed to achieve your goals. In sessions, I openly share my thoughts and my perspective as a guiding force but respect and believe that you are the leader in the room. I provide therapy as a transformative experience or a space to just let go, it can be whatever you need it to be, as long as the purpose of this space is for you to heal and find more joy in your life.

We were born to connect with ourselves and others, to be alive in our bodies and awake in the world, and to anchor into a sense of purpose. Painful experiences and negative patterns can disconnect us from our innate ability to full-heartedly live life. When you are stuck, dissatisfied in relationship, challenged by life transition, constrained by depression or anxiety, unable to heal from trauma, or simply feeling called to step more fully into your best self, therapy can be a powerful ally. I offer tools you can use to reconnect with your own power, resilience, and wholeness.

Hello! If you are reading this, you are already taking important steps towards something different, perhaps better. Together we can develop ways for you to experience more fulfillment in your relationships, work, emotional life, and your creative life. We can work towards a better understanding of how the past has shaped you and focus on healing, self-discovery, and growth. Therapy is a collaborative and creative process, and I believe problem solving and self-discovery is best approached by developing original, constructive and productive approaches to the questions raised by life's struggles with mindfulness and self-compassion.

Every journey.. your first thought to call a therapist when you need to talk to someone, begins with a single step. When anxiety, depression, stress, personal, family, work relationship problems lead you to reach out, I will listen and help you find the best way through. Experienced licensed psychotherapist, 40+ years in general psychotherapy practice, I provide a safe place to talk, explore, resolve, heal what is challenging or troubling. I bring compassion, perceptiveness combined with patience, curiosity and many years of knowledge and skill to our collaboration to help you find effective solutions and make better life choices.