Therapists in San Mateo County, CA

Are you tired of fighting the same battles in your head? Feeling overwhelmed by the pressures of adulting? Does social anxiety keep you on the sidelines? Unlike traditional therapy focused on "fixing" you, I guide clients on a journey of self-discovery and acceptance. We'll explore your inner world with compassionate curiosity, helping you understand and befriend your emotions, not silence them. This approach unlocks lasting changes that go beyond temporary symptom relief.

My foundational work and experience is rooted in decades of hands-on social justice, advocacy and community organizing work primarily with communities of color, immigrants, refugees, LGBTQ+ folx and survivors of partner violence, sexual violence and labor exploitation.

Hello, name is Claire Castle, and I am a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist (LMFT) based in Long Beach, California and working with clients statewide via telehealth. I work with adolescents and adults specializing in the LGBTQ+ issues, gender identity, women's issues, neurodivergence, anxiety, and depression, using Interpersonal Neurobiology, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, and Narrative Therapy to provide my clients validation and teach them an expanded emotional vocabulary, so they can live the best version of their lives.

While you can't always avoid the challenges that arise in your life, you do have choices about how you address them. My approach draws from the idea that there is much to learn from these struggles, and that by decreasing the shame that makes it hard for you to face yourself, you create opportunities for making real and enduring changes in your life. But you don't have to do this alone.

I have been working and teaching in the mental health field for the past 18 years and have helped many people grow, live a more authentic life and form stronger bonds with the ones they love. I believe a good therapeutic relationship forms the foundation from which emotional growth and change occur. I create a warm, playful and collaborative environment where your thoughts and feelings can be safely experienced and explored. Ultimately, a good experience in therapy should help you to become more yourself and feel more secure in who that is.

Most of us lug around a suitcase full of our thoughts, feelings, family history and past experiences and have no idea what's in there. Our current responses to and experience of life come from the contents of that suitcase. Together in therapy we gently unpack it. We will see what is working for you, what needs more support and what has served it's purpose but no longer works. I work collaboratively and am curious about all the things that make you who you are. I am particularly interested in working with people who feel misunderstood or unimportant.

Life is increasingly busy and complex. Compassionate Brain Life Coaching (CPLC), helps you to press the pause button, slow down and remember and or newly discover who you are. Science tells us that our brains at rest are actually programmed to be happy. But it sure doesn't always feel that way. CBLC equips you with the cognitive and mindfulness tools to counter the self-critic and manage difficult times. I will help you identify, name and validate the places you go under stress, with a view to exploring what works and creating newly, including moving from surviving to thriving.

I have been in private practice since 1996, and although I've worked with many different populations, I specialize in young adults between 18-29, and woman struggling with depression or anxiety who are undergoing a life transition, such as graduating high school, college or heading into motherhood. I also lead workshops and provide personal coaching for mothers who need more self-care. My work is primarily strength-based and informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and trauma-informed interventions. I focus on working with strengths, values and interests to help you create a life worth living.

I offer a holistic approach, drawing on depth psychology, somatics, spirituality, psychedelic medicine, relational theory and social justice activism in my work with patients. I am interested in working closely with adults, adolescents and couples, supporting them in their development and helping them reach their goals.

I am a longstanding Marriage Family and Child psychotherapist with extensive experience working with all traumas, depression, anxiety, attachment and relationship difficulties. I'm committed to being a culturally competent therapist, my practice is diverse and includes individuals, families, adults, adolescents, children and couples of all ages, races, genders and sexual orientations. I specialize in working with postpartum depression and infant parent therapy with mothers and babies. I supervise for MFT interns at USF's Family and Child Center and am an Adjunct Professor in USF's Graduate School of Counseling Psychology.

Psychotherapy offers emotional and psychological space for change. It is an opportunity to decode what is not working and with therapeutic guidance provide clients with a scaffolding to try out new thinking and ways of feeling. I see psychotherapy as a kind of lab, where clients safely get to try new approaches out, notice what works and what is most effective. My work is about helping clients; whether a problem to be solved, a desired behavioral change, or finding meaning during a life challenging experience. I encourage individuals to contact me and explore that change. I am here to help.

Do you feel that your everyday challenges are beginning to overwhelm you? Have you set goals for yourself, but you have not been able to achieve them? The solution is in sight. With skill, professionalism, empathy, and compassion I can help you to achieve your goals and the life that you want. Because you are a unique individual, I will tailor my treatment methods to fit your unique situation and needs. I believe that we all have what it takes to meet and conquer life's many challenges and difficulties.

Longing for a different outcome? Want to write a new story? You are probably hoping to find support with the process of healing something that isn't feeling right. Psychotherapy can help by offering an accepting space to look, non-judgmentally, at whatever feels stuck, painful, or unresolved. Use my support and encouragement to help you approach these challenges in new ways, and find new solutions. My goal is to provide you with acceptance and ways to access your own innate wisdom and energy. I offer individual and relationship psychotherapy. Short and long term therapy options are available, depending on your concerns and goals.

I provide relational somatic therapy for adults, kids & teens. Therapy with me is integrative, including woven layers of modalities designed with your specific needs in mind. Our work is a collaboration with your mind, body, and soul. Non-judgement. Warmth. Active conversations and appropriate humor. Integrative therapy works successfully to treat mental health issues, emotional distress, and trauma triggers, and is great for kids/teens through art-therapy, body-awareness, and non-directive play. Psychotherapy, to me, is personal, political, & social. It takes courage, strength, and hope to live into who you really are.

I am a caring, empathetic, and experienced therapist with more than 20 years in practice. I can assist you to find your unique life's path, overcome obstacles such as difficult emotions and past trauma, and expand your potential for happiness. I work with individuals, families, and people in many sorts of relationships, especially in the areas of anxiety and stress management, trauma and post-traumatic stress, depression, self worth and self-actualization, gender identity, sexuality and intimacy, and life transitions.

I trust that people come to therapy seeking a more authentic happiness; and I work as best as I can to help clients let go of concepts and mistaken views of themselves that have led to more pain and confusion. I work with individuals, couples, children and families, bringing warmth and understanding to the relationships and life problems that surround us. Sometimes the first call is the most difficult. I am often available to speak briefly or will return your call as soon as possible, making the next steps and new perspectives possible.

People come to see me when they feel challenged by life circumstances, by depression, anxiety, or because they know that life holds more for them than they are currently experiencing. We can come to understand the roots of these experiences and to see where the blocks are to either living a life that feels like your own, or being more of yourself in the life that you have. I have found there to be a wide range of people who feel comfortable working with me, quite varied with regard to gender, age, stage of life, cultural background and sexual orientation.

As a non-pathologizing humanistic-existential Gestalt therapist, I will meet you exactly where you are. I recognize that you are the expert of your own experience and that you already possess the skills that will aid you in healing your pain. As your empathic witness, advocate, and guide, I will help you increase your self-awareness, self-acceptance, and sense of agency. Essentially, I will help you re-examine your life and re-experience yourself and others, in different as well as new meaningful and healing ways. My approach is mindful, intuitive, and tenderhearted.

Bianca Aarons is a San Francisco based Couples Therapist and Individual Therapist who works in an integrative way, incorporating a psychoanalytic, relational, and somatic styles of working. Bianca treats couples who struggle with communication, survivors of sexual abuse, and others to help people find their voice, to feel empowered, and to access healthy anger and boundaries. Bianca also works with people who struggle within relationships because of anxiety and past family issues which may have let to lower self esteem and perfectionism. She works in a direct and honest way while also being very compassionate and empathetic.