Hello and welcome!
My specialty areas are depression, anxiety, body image issues, perfectionism, life transitions, and trauma. Common marketing wisdom dictates that this is the part where I ought to speak to my “ideal” client, but I would rather let you decide if you feel like I would be your “ideal” therapist. Perhaps you’ve been to therapy before or maybe this is your very first time trying to navigate the process of finding the person you can entrust with your story; either way, taking the leap to ask for help can feel like a huge task. Whether you’re totally new to this or a seasoned veteran; I’ve tried to include as much information here to help you make a decision on whether I might be a good fit for you.
I believe that good therapy is founded just as much on who we are in our relationship as on what we do in our session. I enjoy creating meaningful, deep connections with people. I believe in holding space accept all parts of ourselves fully leads to healing. While I have a fair bit of training and experience with behavioral therapy approaches, I consider myself to be a humanist at heart. If you’re new to therapy, or have just scrolled through a whole lot of therapists’ pages to get here, you might be asking the very valid question: “What the heck does all that jargon mean and why are there so many pictures of bridges/rock stacks/winding paths?” (What can I say? We therapists love a good stack of rocks!)
On a more serious note, here’s what the jargon means: behavior therapy is founded on the idea that our thoughts, feelings, and actions are connected and repeatedly reinforced to create patterns in our lives (i.e. procrastination, overeating, self-harm, etc.) Behaviorism allows us to focus in on and outline those connections to help you develop new coping skills, challenge cognitive distortions, and create new and more adaptive habit loops. I like to think of this as the technical nuts and bolts of what makes us tick. Humanistic approaches focus on deepening our understanding of ourselves in the big picture of our lives, family systems, and larger society. Humanistic therapy is focused on finding meaning, connection, and emotional themes in the broader context of what it means to be human. For example, we might examine ways in which your early attachment relationships affect your current relationships, how to tune in to your emotional needs, externalize fears, examine personal narratives, and explore longings.
I find value in blending both sides of the therapeutic spectrum, however, I prefer to view people as inherently capable of healing, curiosity, and compassion. I don’t believe in a deficit model. While I can and sometimes do diagnose mental illness, I don’t believe that it is something that has to define people in their entirety. Diagnosis in my view, is merely a vehicle for labeling and conceptualizing the parts of self that need attending to. Having a diagnosis doesn’t mean you’re “broken” and therapy for me is not about “fixing” you. I believe in self-compassion, health at every size, acceptance of neurodiversity, and learning how to be better, kinder, more accepting humans. I believe that we all have a space within ourselves that is curious, intuitive, whole, and capable of leading us out of darkness so long as we can trust it enough to let it guide us. My job is to help you find and connect with this part of yourself.
Now on to the bit about the resume:
I am a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with over 10 years of experience in providing mental health services. I have a B.S. in Psychology from UC Davis and an M.A. in Marriage and Family Therapy from the COAMFTE accredited program at the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University. I am certified in Brainspotting and have training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Cognitive Behavior Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Internal Family Systems Therapy, and Parent-Child Interaction Therapy as well as a whole host of other areas such as trauma-informed care, attachment, and early childhood development. I’ve had the privilege of working in community mental health, group practice, and solo practice with a very wide variety of age ranges, presenting concerns, and communities. I have also been honored to teach classes in counseling across cultures and working with gender, sex, and sexuality at the University of San Francisco. I feel that these experiences have given me a broad and rich overview of the human experience across the lifespan and have made me a better practitioner.
I love incorporating mindfulness into my work with clients and I am an avid reader, so be forewarned that I will probably be assigning reading if you decide to work with me.
My top favorite things about being a therapist range in this order:
1. The moments of genuine connection and trust.
2. The space to learn what it means to be human: to laugh, cry, and celebrate with people I care about.
3. Learning about brains, biology, sociology, history and how our bodies connect to our internal experiences of our emotions and mental states.
4. The excuse to buy fidget toys, coloring books, stickers, play-doh, and glittery finger paint.
In my spare time I enjoy reading, playing video games that involve building a house, or a farm, or a town (bonus points if I get to have a cute pet), snuggling with my cat, cooking, baking, swimming, yoga, meditation, playing with glitter eyeshadow, Bollywood movies, pretending that I have the gardening skills to keep a plant alive, drawing, and (most recently) needle felting.
If all this makes me sound like someone you could connect with, you should definitely reach out! I am currently offering a hybrid of telehealth and in-person services.
In other fun news, I recently wrote a book on managing worry and anxiety! Feel free to check it out if you’re interested!
—Jane Teixeira, LMFT