Sharada Thompson has devoted her professional life to the practice of psychotherapy and Existential Psychoanalysis. After more than thirty years, the work remains an abiding passion. Psychotherapy is always new. In the midst of therapeutic conversation, curiosity replaces judgment, openness overcomes certainty, and even the most painful experiences reveal surprising gifts and treasures of the heart.

Sharada completed her M.S. in Clinical Child Psychology at California State University, East Bay (formerly Hayward State), and her doctorate at The Center for Psychological Studies in Berkeley, where her dissertation explored the later work of Martin Heidegger and its relevance to psychoanalysis. She was a member of the inaugural cohort of the New School for Psychoanalysis where she currently supervises trainees. Her clinical sensibility is informed by decades of immersion in both Eastern and Western contemplative and spiritual traditions.

Working as a Licenced Marriage and Family Therapist and Registered Drama Therapist, I strive to infuse treatment with play and humor in a consent-based environment aimed at healing and growth. I used to think my use of humor to deflect was an ‘all-bad thing.’ However, in the course of my lived experience, I have thus far found that humor – when well-balanced -can lend itself to a levity which can often be vital to the therapeutic process.

The role of theatre in my own life has been powerful and transformational. It offers creativity, play, spontaneity, joy, and community. I strongly believe in the power of expression and action-oriented work in self-exploration, healing, and growth and its potential for aiding integration of mind/body healing. I am trained in creative arts therapy to support such work, as well as the neuro-experiential model of Brainspotting.

Having left undergraduate with degrees in Theatre Performance and Psychology, it felt a natural progression to complete the MA program for Drama Therapy at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where I completed traineeships working with adult clients at an acute inpatient behavioral health center and those in early recovery at a residential treatment center. My approach strives to be trauma-responsive, culturally humble, and seeks to acknowledge and welcome the inherent messy humanity in us all while working to decolonize the therapeutic space and reduce institutional and systemic harm wherever possible.

In the therapeutic space, I work collaboratively with the expert in your life experience: you.
Using expressive arts, behavioral therapies, psychoeducation, and experiential (on-our-feet) methods to integrate mind/body processing and healing, we will collaborate to support you in working toward whatever goals you have in mind. And, hey, maybe we’ll get to have a little fun along the way.

I am a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor practicing out of Oakland, CA. I offer in-person and virtual individual therapy sessions using an existential lens and values-oriented approach. I enjoy working with individuals who are open to exploring conditions of our being that evoke emotion and choice, in all aspects of life – individually, within friendships and partnerships, in families, at work, in communities and in existence. A major component of existential exploration involves investigating the external world as support, relationships as supportive or harmful, yourself as a unique individual and what gives you agency and purpose. I work with individuals to process triggering, activating, difficult, or simply new life circumstances, as a means of improving self-awareness, self-compassion and growth.

I love working with individuals on how to make room for their authentic self to connect and live more fully. I work with individuals dealing with generalized and social anxieties, depressive disorders, OCD, trauma, substance use, gender identity, relationship exploration, existential dread, self-loss and other concerns.

Dr. Scott Menasco specializes in a holistic-relational approach to therapy including somatic therapy and dreamwork. He works with anxiety, depression, trauma incl. religious trauma. Dr. Scott combines practical and depth perspectives to support clients in developing new skills and insights.

Dr. Menasco’s clinical experience began with intensive training in the role of shame in developmental trauma, inner-child recovery, and working with compulsive patterns. Additionally, he studied the practice of nondual-oriented therapy for 10 years while writing his doctoral dissertation on Buddhist nondual philosophy and the concept of mental health. He has in-depth training in Gestalt, Sandplay, Family Systems, Dreamwork, Expressive Arts therapy, and Somatic oriented therapies.

“Whatever challenges are bringing you to therapy, I have confidence that they can help you towards a richer and more fulfilling life. Therapy is a process of understanding and experiencing larger ways of knowing ourselves. In that process we discover the ways we have had to shut down to protect ourselves. As we tend to these areas inside of us kindly, we recover something fundamental. Our capacity to love deepens. We know how to take care of ourselves better and we learn to relate to challenges with curiosity and openness. Many possibilities open up for us if we can engage this process earnestly and with humility. It is truly a privilege for me to participate in my client’s process, to see them learn about themselves deeply, to grow and transform.”

As a psychotherapist, I use a contemporary, relational, psychodynamic approach in therapy. I am also integrating somatic body experiencing, spirituality and always account for the social justice frameworks where we both as client and therapist, are embedded.

Somatic approaches help to locate, feel, explore your felt-sense and your metaphors which begin to locate your living questions: issues of identity, personal growth queries, such as “how do I thrive among others, how do I psychically injury myself, how do I exist, and how do I enliven myself?” All become temporal foci for our work toward cultivating your personal balance and healing.

“Clear and sweet is my soul, and clear and sweet is all that is not my soul.” (a line from poem by Walt Whitman, Song of my Soul)

I have been practicing psychotherapy for over 25 yrs. My physical office is in town of Sonoma, CA. 95476.

I am a trained clinician (licensed clinical social worker/LCSW) I graduated from McGill University, Montreal, Canada with a MSW in 1991. Since that time to the current – I participate in ongoing psychological, group dynamics and philosophical trainings to continue to develop both professionally and personally. (NCSPP psychoanalytic intensive study group 2024-2025, ongoing psychodrama training at the Moreno Psychodrama Institute, modern analytic group therapy at AGPA, somatic approaches such as CRM (Comprehensive Resource Method) guided visualization, yin and restorative yoga and meditation.

I specialize in working with clients that initially may be looking for solutions to stressful circumstances or distressing affective states- where we concurrently work on self understanding via experiential learning toward change, sometimes mastery and always acceptance of our human conditions.

I work remotely and in-person, preferring in person. For remote clients I request in-person meeting 1x/4-6 wks.

I have an eclectic approach to therapy that integrates the client-centered philosophies of the humanistic tradition, the concrete skill based approaches of Mindfulness-based modalities, and the depth perspective of psychoanalysis. I believe that every client is unique and I make every effort to tailor individual sessions in a way that is most helpful to the person. Theories, techniques, and tools are only useful insofar as they increase the sense of wellbeing or insight for the individual. Because I don’t believe in “one-size- fits-all” therapy, I strive to maintain a flexible and receptive attitude toward each person I work with.

I have had the privilege of serving a diversity of individuals from various ethnic, cultural, and sexual orientation/identity backgrounds. Prior to beginning my studies in clinical psychology, I was employed at various civil rights and nonprofit organizations on the east coast including the Human Rights Campaign and the College Success Foundation.

I have a regular meditation practice and consider it to be an important part of maintaining my own personal peace of mind and helping me better connect with clients. I have a particular interest in the intersection of spirituality and psychology.

I truly love my job.  I feel so grateful to get to know all my clients and explore together how they can have a happier, more satisfying life.

I work with individuals, adults and children, who are struggling with relationships, hoping to make peace with overwhelming trauma histories, or seeking support to cope with difficult life transitions. Many of my clients come to therapy with feelings of lostness in regard to work, social life, love, and connection to passionate pursuits, looking to find clearer direction and purpose in their life.

My clients often come to understand that big questions are best held open for collaborative exploration, and that the most helpful information lies within. I guide clients slowly back to themselves through gentle and curious inquiry, and with playful observation bring attention to unfolding relational patterns.

Please email me to set up a free initial consultation. This will give us a chance to chat about your needs and hopes for therapy as well as for me to answer any questions you might have, and see if we would like to work together.

Stephen Mosblech, LMFT works in the Lacanian and Existential psychoanalytic traditions with creatives and innovators throughout California.

He holds an MA in Integral Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco. He is a Candidate Psychoanalyst at Lacan School of Psychoanalysis and serves as a Mentor for Division 39, the Psychoanalytic Wing, of the American Psychological Association (APA) and the Massachusetts Association for Psychoanalytic Psychology.

His approach to therapy integrates two decades of meditation practice, including teaching at Esalen Institute in Big Sur and at retreat and recovery centers in India and Thailand. He maintains an active art practice that spans painting, photography and installation.

In 2022 he received a Scholar Award from the APA for his research on unconscious processes. He has published extensively in journals including European Journal of Psychoanalysis, DIVSION/Review, Vestigia, and Critica, the journal of the Psychoanalytic Institute of Northern California (PINC).

People who come to see me are suffering in some way, whether it be with work, relationships, or other issues, and they want to know why and what they can do about it. Some people have identified the problem as having to do with a mental health diagnosis, stress, intimacy issues, or some other term that has helped them describe the outward appearance of the problem. However, they have come to therapy because these descriptions do not get to the heart of the problem. With time and a good therapist, therapy is the perfect place to confide your thoughts with another and find a better way through the challenges of life.