Brainspotting Therapists in San Rafael, CA

The heart and emphasis of my work is to help you know and trust your deepest feelings and to live an emotionally authentic life. When you become more intimate and present with yourself you become more intimate and authentic with others. As you know yourself better, you'll discover how certain emotions, behaviors and beliefs have shaped your life and relationships and you'll become empowered to make many important changes. For over 20 years, I've helped couples and individuals develop increased self-trust and self-awareness, greater life purpose and more conscious, loving and intimate relationships.

I am a licensed psychologist. I see both children and adults in my private practice. My work with children and adults utilizes our human ability to express ourselves through imagery in art, play, imagination, and dreams in ways that catalyzes healing and inner transformation. With children my work includes collateral sessions with their parents. With adults I also draw on my many years of spiritual practice, using such techniques as mindfulness and Yoga Nidra with my clients.

As a psychotherapist, I work collaboratively to support and empower individuals in the process of self-discovery, growth, and healing. My treatment approach is integrative/holistic, informed by training, continuing education, and clinical experience. The modalities/frameworks I provide are derived from but not limited to: Mindfulness, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Hypnotherapy, Brainspotting, Integral Somatic Psychology, Gestalt, Depth Psychology, Brief Psychodynamic Therapy, Humanistic-Existential Psychology, and Transpersonal Psychology.

As an AASECT Certified Sex Therapist as well as a Certified Sex Addiction Therapist- Supervisor, I am dedicated to helping you identify and overcome any intimacy challenges within the sex therapy realm, including sex/love addiction. This encompasses behaviors such as desire discrepency, successive unfulfilling relationships, affairs, excessive internet porn usage and intimacy anorexia. I also am a Certified Partner of Sex Addicts Specialist, and through a trauma based model, am able to help the Partner work through their own painful experience of loving and being involved with someone with out of control sexual compulsivity.

Opening up around the vulnerable and intimate details of our lives can be very uncomfortable. There is so much pressure to be “happy”, “better”, or “perfect”, while receiving messaging that being anything else is unacceptable. We are very adaptive yet often struggle to effectively get our needs met, so may engage in avoidance behaviors and withhold or internalize our feelings to try to prevent things from getting worse. You want to feel more like your true self and get more satisfaction out of your relationships. You need an unconditionally supportive, non-judgmental, creative, and humorous therapist who accepts you however you are.

Wednesday afternoon appointments still available!- Welcome! My name is Dr. Annie Buxbaum. I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and have a Doctorate in Human and Organizational Psych. I work with couples struggling with communication, intimacy, and overall wanting a change in their relationship. My passion also includes supporting clients who are pregnant, postpartum, or struggling with miscarriages and infertility. I am skilled with Brainspotting to support clients wanting to work on Trauma.

I offer a relational, insightful, effective approach to therapy. I often work with people who are anxious, sensitive, deep-feelers who can be overcritical of themselves. I have a good capacity for attuning to my clients, and to be present with their depth and grief as we work through important places. When working through traumatic experiences I offer tools such as Brainspotting and the Safe and Sound Protocol to help calm and regulate the body and brain, and allow new perspectives and patterns to emerge. In our work I hope to foster acceptance of your whole self, allowing more connection to community, and to the cosmos.

Are you Super Loyal? An excellent listener, who perhaps doesn’t share much about yourself? The one everyone leans on for support, advice, money, or favors? Are you the glue in your family, and the one who puts out fires? Many of my clients who identify with these kinds of qualities struggle in characteristic ways. Many are uncomfortable acknowledging their own feelings & desires. They make too many sacrifices to avoid being "selfish". They fear confrontation and the possibility of upsetting or disappointing others. They often get drawn into imbalanced relationships... or worse, toxic ones with selfish or narcissistic people.

Do you have the feeling that something is missing in your life? Are you single & dissatisfied, or married but discontent? Is your social or work life not as fulfilling as it used to be, or difficult family relationships getting you down? Positive, solution-oriented therapy can assist you to: *Learn more about your unique personality type, and how you can work with it, instead of against it, to create more fulfillment in your relationships and life;* Develop your ability to understand, empathize with and relate to others with ease & joy;* Discover effective ways of dealing with your core issues, so you feel more fulfilled & alive.

Specializing in trauma and addiction. I believe that addiction, alcoholism, depression, the things that push against your joy, calm, serenity, and sense of security, are powerful and baffling. Still, something unique inside of you is ready to push back against it all. The fear, anxiety, depression, and trauma that press against your head and chest are real, but they should not define you. I feel my role is to help you find the resources within to overcome the challenges and suffering that life may bring.

YOU ARE DOING "ALL*THE*THINGS," but you’re emotionally and physically exhausted all the time. You're on autopilot, going through the daily motions, but not living your best life. You put your needs last, with caring for others first. You don’t want to burden or worry your friends or family, with your problems. You self sacrifice only to stay stressed and unfulfilled, with your life and relationships. There is no work-life balance and you don’t know where to start. You don't have to continue down this stressful path, you can gain back energy. CHANGE IS POSSIBLE. With getting the right help, you can create a life worth living!

Are you and your co-founder and business partner on the verge of a transition or expansion? You’ve put in tremendous effort to build your business, overcoming countless obstacles. While you’re proud of your achievements, the long hours and dedication have taken a toll on you both. You want your business to have a greater impact, but you're also fearful of losing the original spirit and dream as the expansion gains momentum. Before moving forward, address the cracks in the foundations of your business and partnership, and further grow your capacities. Misalignments make transitions and expansions even more difficult and complicated.

My goal as a therapist is for you to feel supported and inspired. Our work together is directed towards balancing and healing your health and life issues. When you come in to see me, we start where your concerns are. You may come to recognize your pain as an opportunity to expand your insight and empowerment. As you increase your self-awareness, you become more whole. Frequently, your concerns are designed to focus your energy upon imbalances that need attention, so you can discover your innate strength and wisdom.

Marriage is complicated. When trouble starts, most couples try to fix it on their own. That's a good thing. The problems come when the couple isn't able to repair what's broken, yet they don't seek professional help soon enough. One study reports that most couples wait six years before going into therapy. By then, the layers of pain have piled up. <> After working with couples for many years, I've developed a unique method of untangling the hurt and getting to the heart of the matter. Most couples can heal relatively quickly and enjoy lasting results.

Whether it's families, couples or individuals, I bring my enthusiasm and warmth to each person I work with. In therapy with me you won't be bombarded by psycho-babble or heady interpretations. What you will get is my full attention, real talk and an emphasis on being in the moment. Together we will slow down, get grounded and deeply consider what you want for yourself and look at what is getting in the way. I am passionate about helping you see your strengths and fortifying areas that need reinforcement. I also offer support to parents struggling with family life.

Therapy is most successful when the work is done carefully and thoughtfully through a process of unfolding and bringing into light those parts of ourselves which have been hidden or misunderstood. It's a collaboration that includes tapping into your own wisdom while also considering new perspectives. We do this work with the utmost compassion and consideration for what is needed in each moment to produce the best possible long term outcome. There will be many new insights which lead to more satisfaction and a deeper understanding. It's my privilege to work with you as we take these steps together toward a higher quality of life.

My goal as a therapist is to help my clients learn how to effectively manage anxiety and stress, decrease depression, support positive life transitions, improve social connections, and build effective parenting skills. I use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, combined with Mindfulness, Psychodynamic, and Client-Centered therapy techniques to help clients navigate the challenges they face. This allows my clients to learn from their life experiences, understand the impacts of their current patterns and decision making, and explore and develop new ways of thinking and acting.

You wake up each morning feeling stuck and alone. The anxious thoughts just won't go away. Perhaps they are related to things going on in your life, or maybe they feel like they are coming out of nowhere. Either way, these feelings overwhelm you and you're just not sure what to do about it anymore. You notice that your relationships, work and even your ability to care for yourself are starting to be affected. You set goals in an effort to make a positive change, but quickly give up because you just don't have the energy. You are starting to lose hope that you can get yourself out of this.