Trauma-Informed Therapy in the San Francisco Bay Area and Throughout California via Telehealth

You May Recognize Yourself in This...

Perhaps you are often hard on yourself in ways other people do not fully see. Maybe you feel that you are never quite good enough, or live with an inner critic that rarely lets you rest. You may long for closeness and connection, yet find it difficult to trust others, soften, or let yourself be deeply seen. Perhaps you take on too much responsibility for other people’s feelings, lose touch with your own needs, or struggle to set boundaries without guilt.

Maybe you overthink, suppress what you feel, or keep going long past the point where your body is asking for rest. At times you may feel emotionally overwhelmed, and at other times strangely disconnected. You may sense that you have spent much of your life adapting to others or holding everything together, while feeling less and less certain of what you yourself feel, want, or need.

You might also notice familiar patterns repeating in relationships, or live with a level of tension, loneliness, shame, or self-criticism that has gradually come to feel almost normal.

Therapy With Me

Therapy with me is not about being judged, fixed, or rushed. It is a space for slowing down, paying closer attention, and making sense of what has been painful, confusing, or hard to carry alone.

I aim to offer a space where you can bring the parts of yourself that feel messy, conflicted, defended, overwhelmed, ashamed, or uncertain, and where those parts can be met with care, curiosity, and depth. My role is not to impose a formula onto your life, but to help you listen more closely to your own experience, understand the patterns that have shaped you, and support movement toward greater freedom, self-understanding, and a life that feels more fully your own.

For some people, this work unfolds meaningfully within psychotherapy on its own. For others, there may come a point where a more expanded therapeutic process feels relevant. If that speaks to something you are exploring, you can read more about Ketamine Therapy and Psychedelic Integration.

My Approach

My approach to therapy is warm, collaborative, and depth-oriented. I work best with people who are ready for deeper understanding and lasting change.

Together, we pay attention to both what is happening in the present and the deeper patterns underneath it. This may include your emotional life, your relationships, the stories you carry about yourself, the ways you protect yourself, and how your mind and body learned to adapt in order to cope with difficult circumstances. At times, therapy may involve practical support and tools for daily life. Other times, it means slowing down enough to listen carefully to what has long been pushed aside, endured alone, or protected against.

My work is informed by trauma psychology, neurobiology, psychodynamic and relational therapy, emotion-focused therapy, mindfulness-based approaches, somatic awareness, and cognitive behavioral therapy. That means I pay attention not only to what you think, but also to what you feel, how you relate, how you protect yourself, and what may be happening in your nervous system and body. I am deeply interested in the meaning and logic of your patterns, and in helping you meet yourself with greater honesty, understanding, and compassion.

Who I Work With

Many of the people who find their way to my practice are thoughtful, reflective, and used to carrying a great deal on their own. From the outside, they may appear highly functioning, responsible, and capable. On the inside, they may be living with old pain, chronic stress, relational wounds, or patterns that no longer serve them, yet still feel difficult to change.

Some have lived through abuse, neglect, or other forms of chronic stress in childhood or adulthood. Others come because they struggle with self-worth, perfectionism, trust, people-pleasing, shame, burnout, or a persistent sense of feeling disconnected from themselves. Many are ready to understand themselves more deeply and create meaningful change.

I also bring an understanding of some of the challenges faced by expats, including distance from long-standing support networks, questions of belonging and identity, and the experience of building a life between cultures. Having spent several years working in the tech sector, I also bring particular insight into the pressures many people in tech navigate, including blurred boundaries between work and personal life, always-on expectations, uncertainty, and the cumulative strain that can gradually build into burnout, anxiety, and depression in environments where rest and recovery can be difficult to protect.

What therapy can help with

Therapy can help you understand why certain emotional and relational patterns have taken hold, and why they may have been so hard to shift on your own. It can help you make sense of reactions that once felt confusing, process experiences that continue to carry emotional weight, and develop a more grounded and compassionate relationship with yourself.

Over time, this work may help you feel more connected to your emotions, needs, and inner life. It may help you build clearer boundaries, strengthen self-trust, and relate to others in ways that feel more secure, honest, and free. It can also help you move out of patterns of survival and adaptation that were once necessary, but may now be limiting your capacity for rest, closeness, authenticity, and aliveness.

Some people also find themselves wondering whether deeper healing may be supported through other modalities alongside psychotherapy. If that is something you are exploring, you are welcome to learn more about Ketamine Therapy and Psychedelic Integration as part of the broader work I offer.

My Clinical Background

In my home country of Norway, I am a fully licensed clinical psychologist with more than five years of clinical experience across both public and private healthcare. During those years, I worked with people facing a wide range of mental health challenges and life situations, including anxiety, depression, trauma-related difficulties, relationship struggles, and periods of significant life stress or transition. This work gave me the opportunity to support individuals from many different backgrounds and life circumstances, and it continues to shape how I approach therapy today.

I also spent my PhD and postdoctoral years researching the long-term impact of adverse childhood experiences, chronic stress and trauma. This deepened my understanding of how early environments can shape a person’s nervous system, emotional patterns, sense of self, and relationships later in life. It continues to inform how I think about psychological suffering and healing, particularly when early experiences have left lasting emotional or relational imprints.

Get in Touch

If something in this resonates, you are warmly welcome to reach out. I know it can take courage to begin therapy, especially if you have spent a long time holding things together on your own. I would be honored to support you.