Welcome to your safe place to be your full, real self.
In-person sessions available in Los Angeles
Virtual sessions for all of California
Hi there! I’m Alyssa (she/her), and I’m so glad you’re here.
I’m your friendly neighborhood queer who would be absolutely fucking honored to be your therapist as you get to know and love your full and alive self!
Therapy can be a great addition to your support system, especially when we’re going through things that we feel like others don’t get, or we feel shame or embarrassment about, or when we’ve felt invalidated or unheard.
Some of the things that often come up in therapy are:
Shame and guilt
Grief and loss
Distrust of yourself, your feelings, your body
People-pleasing
Perfectionism
Difficulty with boundaries
Exploration of sexual identity and sexual desires
Depression and anxiety and feeling like you have limited resources of coping or resilience
Binary, black-and-white, or all-or-nothing thinking
Difficulty accessing a sense of hope
And so much more!
What I hope for my clients to experience in their therapy journey is to:
Feel supported, heard, and deeply seen
Believe that what they think and feel are valid, even if there’s also sometimes room to reshape those things so that they can feel a little lighter
Feel less weighed down by the painful things they’ve experienced
Connect more to their emotions and their bodies and to feel a deeper sense of trust in themselves
See things in different ways than they ever have before (and feel more hopeful as a result)
Be in relationships with others and the world around them in supportive, caring, and well-boundaried ways
Have unending compassion for themselves
Get more comfy with nuance and complexity so that the black-and-white thinking that exists so strongly in our world doesn’t have as big of an impact
Know that there is no “right” way to grieve, to feel, and to process…and there is no “right” speed to healing
If any of this feels like something you’re craving…
…you are in the right place.
Therapy definitely isn’t the only way to support yourself, but I do know (both as a therapist and a client) how powerful therapy can be when we’re struggling and feeling alone.
Click below to send me a message and request a free 15-minute consultation. I’d love to chat with you and see how I can support this deeply important journey you’re about to embark on!
Specialties
So now you might be thinking, “Ok, this sounds kind of interesting, but can you help me with what I’m going through?”
Great question!
As a therapist, I’ve helped clients with a lot of different things! Over my years of supporting clients, I’ve found a few things that I now really focus on in my work. You can find out more about those by clicking the button below! And if you don’t see yourself in these areas, but you think we might be a good fit, please still reach out—I love helping clients through a variety of things, and I’ll always be honest if I don’t think we’d be the best fit.
Let’s connect! I’d love to support you on your journey of self-discovery, connection, and healing.
Life can feel fucking hard in so many ways…and our systems aren’t really set up to help us feel any better.
So what do we do?
First, we recognize that struggling to cope within a world of inequity and injustice probably just…make sense? You know?
Then, we come together. We connect. We work to find the ways that we might access healing, joy, pleasure, community.
The way you’re feeling probably isn’t (read: definitely isn’t) because of some individual failure…and also, that doesn’t mean you don’t deserve to work toward a life that feels more like how you want it to, even in a world that so often makes that feel impossible to do.
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I offer individual therapy for adult clients. The therapy I offer is centered on a deep compassion for my clients. I honor your agency and your strengths, and I always see you as your own best authority. I am not a "blank slate" therapist, as I find it useful to be a person in the room rather than upholding an unnecessary feeling of formality and professionalism (with me, you'll be met with connection, humor, and a fair amount of cursing). Through a mix of narrative, client-centered, humanistic, feminist, holistic, strengths-based, somatic, and cognitive tools, I see myself as your guide on your journey to gain greater insights so that you can shift your stories to reflect how you want your life to feel and how you want to shape your identity. The work is unique to each client, but always contains unconditional care, curiosity, and respect. I believe that the therapeutic relationship is the foundation where all of this can take place, and it is my honor to cultivate a space of warmth, safety, compassion, and humanity.
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The short answer is: it depends! Each client is different. What you will bring to the work, as well as if a short-term or longer-term approach feels most supportive to you, is all up to you to determine. I will say that typically, I see clients on a more long-term basis, and I find that as we work on the initial things that bring clients to sessions, more things can pop up that clients want to work on!
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I do not take insurance, and so all of my fees are self-pay. I offer every client a self-selected sliding scale so that the fee structure can best work with your budget and needs. Head to my "Services & Fees" page to learn more!
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I use Simple Practice for everything in my practice! It is a web-based, HIPAA-compliant electronic health record that houses all of your paperwork, appointments, payments, and video sessions. We can also use the messaging in the Simple Practice portal instead of email if you prefer that!
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Great question! First, we can schedule a free 15-minute consultation so that you can make sure that working together feels like a good fit and would meet your needs. This can happen by phone or video call. If after that, you decide you want to move forward with therapy, I would send you your New Client Paperwork to your email - this would allow you to complete everything online via your client portal on Simple Practice. Once you complete all the paperwork and let me know what fee would work for you within the sliding scale I offer, we would schedule our first session!