Hello! So glad you are here.
education & training
Master’s in Counseling Psychology, Santa Clara University, CA
Trauma Specific Trainings:
Trainings by Dr. Bessel Van der Kolk, Author of The Body Keeps the Score
Somatic Experiencing, training and consultation: Noelle Morris
Polyvagal Theory, personal therapy and training: Dr. Ling Lam
Trainings by Dr. Janina Fisher & Dr. Pat Ogden, Authors of Sensorimotor Psychotherapy
Dialectical Behavior Therapy: Dr. Marsha Linehan, Creator of DBT
Trainings by National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine
Internal Family Systems:
Internal Family Systems Trainings: Dr. Richard Schwartz, Creator of IFS
Internal Family Systems, training and consultation: Dr. Nancy Morgan
Parenting Trainings:
Hand in Hand Parenting: Blake Adams
Adoption-related and other attachment based parenting trainings
Transracial Adoption Trainings
Other:
Psychodynamic/Object Relations, consultation and supervision: Alice Sklar, 6 years
Group Therapy Consultation: Alice Sklar, 5 years
Working with Difficult Men: Dr. Terry Real
South Asian Mental Health Symposium, Fremont, CA
I am…
...an Asian Indian immigrant in my mid-40s with a well-managed mental health diagnosis and chronic autoimmune disease. I grew up in Chandigarh, Punjab, India, and moved to the United States, when I was 18.
I am a marriage and family therapist licensed in California and a relationship coach. My California therapist license allows me to work with clients within CA. As a coach, I can guide and support women anywhere. I help women attune to the wisdom of their bodies, practice regulating their nervous systems, befriend their emotions, and improve their relationship with themselves and others. I provide therapy and coaching services to help my clients embody their authentic selves.
I am passionate about destigmatizing “mental health” and breaking taboos around people accessing the support they need, inside and outside my office. I do not like to teach what I don’t practice. My daily practice and efforts are towards living authentically, with self-compassion, and compassion toward those around me.
I’ve been married to my wonderful partner for 17 years. We live in East Palo Alto CA with our baby girl and our puppy. For fun, I like to dance, watch movies, garden, practice yoga, chat with friends over chai, DIY interior design projects, and play with my babies!
this is how I work…
I think systemically and holistically when I work with my clients. I find the phrase "mental health" problematic because our brain is part of our body! Using the phrase "mental health" can be stigmatizing and polarizing, and increases the taboo around getting care. As "mental health" professionals, we treat the whole person, within our scope of practice. Instead of using the term “mental health,” I use the term “well-being.”
Because of stigma and taboos, very often clients come to therapy with the belief that something is wrong with them. Part of my job is to help clients identify and understand the root cause/s of their symptoms. Together, we look at the context under which their symptoms developed as a way to cope. I help clients connect and empathize with parts of them that cope in ways that are self-limiting or self-sabotaging. My clients choose the pace of their work . I support them in their choices on when and how to change behaviors that no longer support them.
I also am a student of my clients. The client is the expert on their life situations, challenges, and their body. I bring my expertise as a professional to our work. In our time together, we collaborate and are attuning to the wisdom of the client’s body/nervous system. Together, we work with these 3 outcomes in mind: increasing client resiliency to stress, equipping clients with internal and external resources, and helping clients build a more kind/compassionate relationship with themselves. If a client wants, I support them in improving their relationships with their loved ones and/or the people they lead.
experience…
In the last 12 years, I have provided trauma-informed clinical services to children, teens, individual adults, couples, families, and groups, in the non-profit and private practice settings.
In my private practice, my clientele has consisted of parents, leaders in the non-profit and for profit sector, engineers, parents, therapist interns, therapists, teachers, social workers, entrepreneurs, the homeless, immigrants, the marginalized , institutionalized, and those struggling with severe disabilities. I’ve helped clients struggling with and overcoming the effects of trauma and complex generational trauma. I provide ongoing consultations to therapists working with South East Asian families and couples. It has also been an honor to help empower and advocate for those facing disability or disparate treatment discrimination in the workplace.
Trauma addressed and treated include the following: Abuse (sexual, physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual), childhood physical and emotional neglect, self-neglect, post-traumatic stress, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, impulse control issues, generalized anxiety, depression, challenges with expressing aggression, suicide/suicidal ideation, low self-esteem, insecure attachment issues, intimacy issues, codependency and enmeshment, low executive functioning, low productivity, low motivation, burnout, perfectionism, gaslighting, narcissistic behaviors, spiritual counseling, grief and loss, domestic violence, adoption issues, immigration issues, biculturalism, acculturism issues, infertility, divorce, blended family issues, families with addictions, internalized patriarchy, decolonization, misogyny, marginalization, racial trauma, micro-aggressions, and harmful implicit biases.
I’ve worked with clients diagnosed with: depression, anxiety, attention deficit disorders, bipolar disorder, psychosis, and schizoaffective disorder, and neurodivergent clients with and without sensory issues.