My therapeutic approach weaves together extensive academic and clinical training with my own life initiations into illness, disability and loss. I come to this work with a profound sense of awe for our humanity in both our vulnerability and our immense creativity and resilience as we attempt to navigate the complexity of our inner and outer worlds.
I am a graduate of Stanford University where I received my B.A., with distinction, in Cultural and Social Anthropology. I pay careful attention to how culture and one's environment influences psychology and shapes our self understanding. I earned my Master's in Counseling Psychology from The Wright Institute (Berkeley, CA.). I am licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist in the state of California (Lic. #90764).
"Eva knows how to interweave both intellect and feeling in a highly skilled and sensitive way. In her calm and caring presence one feels a sense of spaciousness to explore the complexity of one's experience and discover new meanings."
Dr. Jessamy Cadigan
I completed post-graduate clinical training programs at Community Institute for Psychotherapy (San Rafael, CA.), Alameda Family Services, and Women's Therapy Center (Berkeley, CA.). I have over a decade of experience working with young adults, adolescents and their families--both in school and community mental health settings--and treating individual adults in short and long-term depth psychotherapy. I was formerly the school psychologist at Castilleja School in Palo Alto, California, where I developed a speciality working with adolescent girls.
My therapeutic approach is grounded in a relational psychodynamic orientation and combines training in Narrative Therapy and Mindful Self-Compassion Therapy. In addition, I am trauma-informed and pay close attention to the wisdom of the body, helping you to become more self-aware of how and what your body is communicating.
I consider myself a holistic psychotherapist in that I tend not only to mental health (i.e. thoughts and cognitions), but also to the emotional, spiritual and soulful dimensions of one’s experience. Dreams are of special interest to me, along with metaphors and images that can help amplify our understanding of underlying desires and dynamics. My approach to psychotherapy is integrative: I can offer both very concrete skills you can put into practice on a day-to-day basis along with tending to deeper existential questions and spiritual struggles.
My work with clients is influenced by two decades of meditation and mindfulness practice. My hope is to help you cultivate mindful awareness, slowing down to tend to a full range of emotional experience with more curiosity and compassion. With an extensive background in the arts, including expressive movement, writing, drawing and ceramics, I approach psychotherapy as a highly collaborative and creative process.