Therapist Profile

My Approach to Helping

I listen to my clients. I listen to what they are saying and to what they are not saying, to their body, to their tone of voice. I listen to myself: my feelings, my thoughts when I'm listening to them and when I'm remembering our time together. I'm curious about their experience: how they feel and think right now, what they've been through and what it was like for them, their dreams, their wishes. I do my best to be as present and real as i can be in every moment, to fully experience my time with my clients. I see this work as a collaborative one: my clients and I are in work creating a new experience, the purpose of which is for my client to be able to experience the world in a full and real way. To be free of fears and illusions that prevented him/her from doing so in the past. To know, not only intellectually but also in their body, who they really are (as much as we, as humans, are able to know such things). We are both changed by the process. Therapy can be a long and risky. It involves building trust and knowing each other on a deep level. It is a way that us humans can support each other and do good in the world- i find that it is quite an exciting thing to do.

More Info About My Practice

I have a masters degree in expressive arts therapy and have been studying psychoanalytic theory in various settings in the past three years. I have worked in schools, agencies, hospitals and private settings with groups and individual adults, teens and children in Israel and in the Bay Area. I have been working with people dealing with chronic illness and disabilities, mental health problems. I have special interest around issues of parenting, immigration, sexual identity and adoption as well as relationship, creativity and family difficulties. My practice is in Berkeley, two blocks from north Berkeley BART station. I have daytime and evening appointments and a sliding fee scale.