Meet Alexa
I got here the ordinary way.
Which is to say: therapy worked on me first, and I have never really gotten over how much.
The Honest Version
Why I Do This
My own therapy is the reason I have this job. I went in for the usual reasons and came out with a different relationship to my own history, and then went back for trauma work that changed how I actually live, not just how I understand myself. That is the difference I am trying to offer, and it is why I trust the deeper end of this work.
I also have ADHD. I spent years treating it as evidence of a character problem before I learned to build a life that works with my brain rather than in spite of it. That is not a credential, but it does mean you will not have to explain the shape of it to me.
What I like in a client: someone who thinks and feels deeply, wants to actually understand themselves, is open to being challenged, and has kept a sense of humor about the world. If that is you, we'll work well together.
What It Is Like to Sit With Me
Warm first. Direct second. Both, eventually.
I am not a blank slate and I am not going to nod at you for fifty minutes. I will reflect what I notice, ask the question you are steering around, and tell you when I think you are being unfair to yourself, which is usually.
I will also laugh with you. A lot of what happens in this room is genuinely funny, and grief and comedy have always lived closer together than people admit. Nothing you bring is going to shock me, and you never have to perform being fine here.
Training
Training and Credentials
- License
- Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, California · #140766
- Education
- MA, Marriage and Family Therapy
- Certifications
- EMDR Practitioner · Certified Narcissistic Abuse Treatment Clinician (NATC) · Trauma-Informed Yoga Teacher
- Modalities
- EMDR · Psychodynamic · Integrative and holistic
- In practice
- Six years
- Delivery
- In person in Pasadena, and telehealth across California
Beyond the Room
The rest of it.
The yoga training is not decoration. Trauma lives in the body and I work that way when it helps, which is more often than my graduate program suggested.
Outside of sessions I am usually doing something creative, which is also why I work well with creatives. If your identity is bound up in making things, and the making has gone quiet, I understand what that costs.
Come as you are.
A free, confidential ten-minute call. No paperwork, no pressure, and no obligation to book anything afterwards.