About Me
I distinguish myself as a person who appreciates creativity, originality, spontaneity, honesty, and authenticity in relationships with self, friends, family members, colleagues, and clients.
I have faith in the fluidity and organic nature of relationships, value kindness, and cherish the love for family, culture, and traditions. My family is an integral part of my identity: it inspires and motivates me to thrive and help others. I value learning, versatility and intellect. I believe that learning contributes to social connections and growth, and serves as an antidote for stagnation.
Continuous learning is quintessential for a good therapist. I call upon personal knowledge, growth, and experience to establish collaborative relationships with clients, while showing sensitivity to their culture. This process of learning helps me understand unspoken contemporary laws of society and detect the awareness of authentic existence in clients. I enjoy being a part of the healing process and find myself learning from my clients and growing with them.
I learned to value and accept reality through experiential existential learning. In 2012, I decided to fulfill my dream and made the decision to leave corporate career and become a therapist.
I hold a Master of Arts degree in Counseling Psychology from Santa Clara University and have received extensive training in various Therapeutic Modalities with emphasis in Existential, Psychodynamic (Object Relations), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Brief Process Group Therapy. I have completed a four module NARM Practitioner Training course and currently working on becoming certified in Neuroaffective Relational Model (NARM) of treating developmental and shock trauma.
I conduct therapy in both English and Russian languages and welcome referrals for new clients (ages 18 +) of diverse cultural, gender, and orientation background. Currently, I am not on any insurance panels. I accept cash, checks, and all major credit cards and provide a monthly summary of expenses, Superbill, for insurance reimbursement purposes.
My Approach
I provide comprehensive, empirically validated treatment to individuals, couples, families, and groups. My services mostly focus on treating compound and multi-generational trauma, identity formation, relationships and life-transitioning, grief and loss, chronic pain, health-related issues, as well as depression, anxiety and somatization of such conditions.
I emphasize a gentle, healing approach of helping patients reconnect with their inner world, restore identities, improve relationships, and grieve openly. As I witness my clients’ experiences in session, I develop curiosity in learning about what stands in the formation of their actions. The answers are hidden in the meaning that each client assigns to personal experience.
I begin with establishing collaborative therapeutic relationships with clients through synergy, empathy, kindness, cultural and spiritual sensitivity. This alliance is necessary for the clients to develop a sense of safety, genuine acceptance, and a will to engage further in therapeutic process.
My interventions are specifically catered to the unique needs of each client. I draw from the principles and techniques of a variety of traditional (Existential, Psychodynamic, and Cognitive Behavioral theories), and modern therapeutic modalities.
There is no single therapeutic approach that will be effective in treating all psychological issues. Evidence suggests that certain issues, such as depression, anxiety, chronic pain, obsessive compulsive disorder, etc. are best treated by behavioral approaches, such as CBT, SFT, or ACT. In addition, a certain type of individuals who tend to have very logical and orderly lifestyles, prefer and respond better to behavioral approaches. On the other hand, such approaches are not appropriate for those who are grieving significant losses, struggling with memories and aftermath of past abuse and terror, or suffering from stagnation of meaningless lives. In addition, individuals who prefer to express themselves in a more metaphorical language, have strong artistic, spiritual and philosophical inclinations, tend to respond better to more humanistic, psychodynamic or emotive approaches, such as Existential, Object Relations, NARM, IFS, Somatic Experience, Narrative therapy, Creative expression, etc.
My interventions are often accompanied by expressive art and experiential exercises, which help externalize emotions and identify feelings. The change occurs through awareness of individual feelings. In addition, I facilitate my client’s love for self and the unique balance of wish and will to restore personal identity and promote healthy existence.
I believe that my clients possess innate resources to help themselves heal. It is my goal to realize what constitutes each client’s resilience in the moment of full distress. What can be done to increase each client’s unique capacity to transition from numbness to meaning. The outcome is transformative and life-changing. Clients develop a sense of freedom, creativity, and harmony in being with self and others. They gain an experience of living life meaningfully and authentically.