Staff

I'm a licensed clinical social worker in California. I specialize in working with insightful, motivated, and committed adults, parents of teens, and teens of any age who struggle with feelings of being overwhelmed with achieving their goals or dreams. I help my clients to no longer struggle with these thoughts. You can transform yourself into precisely who you had hoped to be or accept precisely that you are being yourself and that it is okay to live with peace in mind, body, and spirit. 

I can help you with your feelings of depression, which can be super gloomy, discouraging, and dispiriting.  I can also help you with your feelings of anxiety, which can cause excessive worrying and self-badgering, nervousness, sadness, or being really scared that something bad might happen to you and your plans.  If you’re struggling with sleep, this could be why, or maybe you’ve experienced trauma that you’ve not yet resolved.  I enjoy talking about trauma and how being trauma-informed provides you with a much better understanding of the impact trauma may have had on your mind, body, and spirit. 

I help people accept themselves, improve their self-esteem, and move forward with confidence after recognizing their own internal strengths.  I can help you achieve awareness and inner peace, which results in your healing and positive transformation.  I think you deserve to become more content with yourself in ways you may never have thought possible.  Even after we end therapy together, your transformation will become a life-long journey, and I am very honored to be a part of it with you.

Other things about me: 

I am a Hispanic man with many years of experience working in the juvenile dependency system. I am respectful of marginalized members of our communities, including Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.

I am an experienced therapist who is aware of systemic historical trauma—the practices and procedures created by some institutions or their leaders that directly or indirectly cause them psychological, emotional, economic, spiritual, physical, or sexual harm.

I support clients to talk about their own systemic trauma in an environment where they feel heard and understood by someone using language that truly “keeps it real.”

I’m a therapist who will value you and accept you fully as you are and where you are.

Several of my clients work in the entertainment and music industries and love the fact that I too am a musician and that we could explore communication of difficult emotions through music and expressed arts.

I'm also a volunteer therapist with A Home Within, where I donate an hour of psychotherapy to current and former clients of the Juvenile Dependency System through the Building Practice in Community program.  See more here (yes, that's me playing guitar and singing in the picture):   A Home Within Volunteer  

My values/philosophies:

I respect you as the captain of your own ship. As a client, you may see me just as you would a lighthouse, shedding light wherever you may be sailing, exploring possible dangerous rocks in the ocean, and then together charting a different course to navigate around them. I am genuine and authentic with you. I will always be focused on you, with compassion and empathy. No one-size-fits-all therapy fits all people, your journey is unique. As a psychotherapist, I may not be all things to all people, but I may be just right for you!

I value cultural humility.

For example, you may be Christian, non-Christian, religious, non-religious, spiritual, or non-spiritual, but you may always feel free to express yourself accordingly.  Feel free to also express your gender identity and sexual orientation openly and safely with me, and you will receive my full respect for who you are. Diversity matters to all of us!