You’re in good hands, here
The way I see it, you are already whole, even when it doesn’t feel that way. I will help you remember that, and I’ll tell you what I'm noticing even when it’s not the comfortable thing to say.
Our work is conversational - we'll talk like two people figuring something out. I bring a trauma informed container, questions, mirroring, and practices that help you trust yourself. You bring your inner world.
We can honor the ways you've survived, and find our way toward something that feels like thriving.
Many of you have been doing your own work for a long time.
You know how to look inward. What's shifting now is the recognition that the answer was never just to get better at holding it alone. You're waking up to how much you can't self-care your way into authentic connection.
So while this therapy is one-on-one, I'm the kind of therapist who will name systems theory often, and point you toward resources that let you build your village and receive support. I see this work as part of something larger, the slow unwinding of old colonial and patriarchal patterns, and a rising trust in more matriarchal ways of caring for each other. I'm part of your care team, here to help you build the internal capacity and external structure that makes reciprocity in relationships your norm.
While I'm rigorously trained and hold a professional license, I also lean into the sacred. I have an affinity for transpersonal and depth psychology, and I weave in language about the soul into sessions. I believe all rivers lead to the ocean, so nothing I hold will come as some universal truth. That said, I think we feel more alive when we can follow synchronicities, and balance the clinical with the cosmic. I've been changed in ceremonial spaces. My own healing has been shaped by the sacred feminine and Gnostic lineage rooted teachings of Mary Magdalen, as well as the Yoga and Shipibo traditions.
I've worked in private practice supporting hundreds of women for over a decade - both in San Francisco and now my hometown of San Diego. Regular therapy continues to be part of my own care practice, and informs how I hold space for clients. Today I appreciate simple things like the feeling of sun on my skin, a pealing left hand wave, and a good burger. I live in Oceanside, California, with my husband, son, and a cool kitty named Thecla. I spend my off hours swimming, surfing, gardening, and holding simple rituals around a fire pit.
“I always leave our sessions feeling lighter, more understood, and equipped with tools to handle whatever challenges in my life come my way.”
What People Are Saying
“My time with Dana has saved my life…she’s helped me feel my gut, hear my own instinct, and trust my voice.”
“Dana carries a depth of wisdom, intuition, and wit that gently illuminates parts of me I wasn't aware of, helping me embrace the full depth of who I am.”
B.A. in Interdisciplinary Studies, University of California, Berkeley - focus on “comparative approaches to Education and Social Change”
M.A. in Counseling Psychology, emphasis in Somatics from the California Institute of Integral Studies
Clinical Associateship at the Center for Somatic Psychotherapy, San Francisco.
Clinical supervision with senior Hakomi trainer Scott Eaton, LMFT, and other practitioners including Meridel Tobias, LMFT and Scott Balderson, LMFT at the Center for Mindful Psychotherapy.
Level 1 Brainspotting, a trauma-healing modality that releases neurophysiological sources of emotional and physical pain
Training in Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) for anxiety
Level 1 trained in the Gottman Method, bringing evidence-based relational tools into a somatic frame
500 hours of yoga teacher training, through Laughing Lotus SF and Sukha Mukha in Sydney, Australia. Several years of study and practice of traditional Mysore Ashtanga with Devorah Sacks and Vance Selovar, following a decade of teaching Vinyasa and Hatha styles.
Trained as a surf therapy facilitator with Groundswell Community Project, integrating somatic, trauma informed, and nature-based healing into surf therapy work in Peru and the Bay Area.
Rites of Passage facilitation for adolescent girls with the Stepping Stones Project
Certified Reiki Master