Therapists in Oakland, CA

I am an experienced psychotherapist with offices in both San Francisco and Berkeley. I provide therapy for adults and adolescents as my primary focus. I meet with individuals, couples, and families to help them overcome areas of emotional and relational difficulties. I have an active, open way of working and am curious, engaged, honest, and direct. I take people's need for change very seriously, and am an advocate for finding ways to help people live with greater depth, satisfaction, and choice. While this can involve diligence, resilience, and perseverance, play and creativity are also integral in the process.

Two Chairs was founded in 2017 with a mission to build a world where everyone has access to exceptional mental healthcare. We're creating a better experience for both patients and clinicians by starting with an in-depth, research-backed matching process to ensure the ideal patient-therapist fit, offering hybrid care that gives patients and clinicians flexibility between in-person and virtual sessions, and measuring outcomes to ensure patients get better faster.

My extensive work with trauma, grief, and loss has earned worldwide attention spanning across four decades. Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and International Certified Life Coach, I work with individuals, families, and groups to transform mental and emotional challenges into experiences of thriving health and well-being. My early career defining work began in the 80’s alongside John Bradshaw and focused on addiction, recovery, and codependency. Together with a team of cutting-edge psychotherapists, I developed groundbreaking techniques for understanding trauma: when it starts, how it affects the brain, and how to heal.

I engage with each person as an individual that requires a unique set of skills specifically altered to address your personal sources of distress. I offer a safe, non-judgmental, compassionate and supportive environment so that you can create the change you are seeking. There are times in our lives when we struggle with the most valuable relationships in our lives. It helps to be able to reflect together, problem-solve toward solutions and ways of coping with someone who can remain objective and supportive. I believe a strong therapeutic relationship is important in order to grow in therapy.

Dealing with depression, anxiety or stress can be overwhelming — it isn’t easy to do. Every one experiences “ups and downs” in life but some “downs” can be more problematic than others. Let me help you. I offer compassionate and honest help for: repetitive relationship problems, difficult with emotional intimacy or closeness, problems at work or school, periods of marked depression or anxiety, over-consumption of alcohol or drugs, compulsive or addictive use of a computer, phone, tv, shopping, food, exercise, work or obsessive thinking and vulnerability to self injurious or self-sabotaging behaviors.

Dr. McQuinn is a licensed Clinical Psychologist and a licensed Marital and Family therapist. Dr. Anna McQuinn has been a Tenured Professor of Notre Dame de Namur University where she has been chair of the Clinical Psychology Graduate Department since 1987. She has also been an Adjunct Faculty member at the University of San Francisco graduate Psychology program. Currently she is a Professor Emeritus at the NDNU & has a private practice in San Carlos. She believes that Psychotherapy Healing takes place within the relational model. There is a profound unconscious connection between therapist and client & a mutuality of influence.

Marriage can be extremely challenging, especially if your childhood was less than ideal. I help couples learn to listen to each other and talk about difficult issues without being triggered by past events or experiences. These reactions can cause defensiveness, or result in attacks on, or withdrawal from, the other. I help change these patterns, facilitate productive discussions and help you get the love and closeness back in your marriage. Couples can heal, become stronger in their bond and rejoin in love even after an affair or infatuation. I have 29 years of experience as an insight-oriented psychotherapist working with individuals and couples.

My clients tend to be people who want to feel more in control of their emotions, more effective at getting what they want, less stuck, more flexible, more connected and really just more at peace. They seek relief from patterns - sometimes chronic and severe, sometimes only subtly troublesome - of painful emotions, negative self-talk and thoughts, rumination, relationship instability and self sabotaging behaviors. Many of my clients tend to have had very painful formative or recent experiences of invalidation that have been difficult or confusing. https://insightgrouptherapy.com/christina-young-polony

My objective is to make your life better now and into the future. Therapists helped me over the years, taught and inspired me to become one. I pivoted to my career as a therapist 16 years after earning a B.A. in Economics at University of Chicago. I earned my LCSW at Smith College. I'm a mother of two and a first-generation child of immigrants. In my practice I want you to make the most of your time with me. I work with a range of clients, from executives to college students. My office is tucked into hills and trees. Clients are from my town, Mill Valley, Sausalito, Kentfield, Tiburon, San Francisco and the South Bay. I Zoom too.

Welcome to my practice! Are you feeling anxious, depressed, overwhelmed, or frustrated? Unhappy with your relationships? Challenges at work or school? Feeling like something needs to change? You've come to the right place. Find your inner strength and discover your true potential through therapy. It takes courage to reach out when you need help. Call me for a 15-minute complimentary consultation to determine your options.

Therapy is an invaluable tool to our well-being— a tool that aims to support individuals through difficult times. I strongly believe our purpose on earth is to grow and evolve as individuals along this journey of life. We are all born with unique personalities into a world that heavily influences the way we perceive love and fear. Our early experiences shape the path we take. It is not easy to separate that which is truly us from what was imposed upon us. The therapeutic process provides space for vulnerability and exploration of our individual life so we can strip away that which does not belong to us.

For the past 15 years, and after completing her graduate degree from Santa Clara University, Esmeralda (Esme) Valencia has been providing therapy for those facing a variety of personal and mental health difficulties. Esme specializes in working with individuals on their journey toward personal growth or as they face struggles with relationships in their life. A primary focus of Esme's work has been in working with with parents, youth, and families as they face a multitude of barriers among them concerns over communication struggles, depression, anxiety, intimacy problems, parenting, working with teens, trauma, grief and loss.