Life transitions therapy
Finding Your Way Through Sacred Thresholds
Life transitions therapy honors the truth that our journeys rarely unfold in straight lines. Instead, we find ourselves standing at crossroads, feeling the earth shift beneath our feet as familiar landscapes transform into uncharted territory. These transitions, whether chosen or unexpected, invite us into profound conversations with the many parts of ourselves that emerge during times of change.
Life transitions therapy offers a sacred container for these conversations, creating space to listen to the voices within that surface during moments of uncertainty. Through Internal Family Systems and depth-oriented approaches, I help you befriend the parts that resist change, honor the parts that grieve what's ending, and welcome the parts that sense new possibilities emerging. This work isn't about forcing transformation or rushing through discomfort, it's about cultivating curiosity toward your inner landscape as it reorganizes itself, allowing integration to unfold at its own pace while you discover deeper truths about who you're becoming.
When the Known World Dissolves
You might be here because something in your life has shifted, leaving you feeling untethered from who you once were. Perhaps you're navigating the tender space between endings and beginnings, where the old self no longer fits but the new self hasn't fully emerged. This liminal space, though uncomfortable, holds extraordinary potential for integration and growth.
In my online therapy practice, I work with emotionally curious individuals throughout Sonoma County, the North Bay Area, Seattle, Washington State, and New York State who are ready to explore life transitions not as obstacles to overcome, but as invitations to deeper self-knowing. Through Internal Family Systems (IFS), depth-oriented psychotherapy, and creative exploration, we'll discover how each part of you responds to change and learn to honor their unique wisdom.
Understanding the Language of Transition
Life transitions speak to us through our bodies, emotions, and the various parts of our internal system. You might notice anxiety arising as your protective parts work overtime to maintain stability. Depression might emerge as certain parts grieve what's being left behind. These responses aren't problems to fix—they're messengers carrying important information about your inner landscape.
The transitions calling you might include:
The dissolution or transformation of significant relationships, where parts of you that were defined through connection must reimagine themselves in new configurations. Career shifts that challenge not just your daily routine but your sense of identity and purpose. Geographic moves that uproot you from familiar soil, asking you to replant yourself in foreign ground. Health changes that require renegotiating your relationship with your body and mortality. Creative awakenings that demand you honor previously silenced parts of yourself.
Each transition awakens different parts of your internal system. The achiever part might panic at a career change. The caretaker part might feel lost when children leave home. The dreamer part might finally feel permission to emerge during a creative renaissance. My role is to help you listen to each voice with curiosity and compassion, understanding that every part has something valuable to contribute to your journey.
The Sacred Art of Becoming
In our work together, I approach life transitions as sacred thresholds—moments when the veil between who you've been and who you're becoming grows thin. This perspective, rooted in depth psychology, honors the spiritual dimensions of change while remaining grounded in practical, embodied healing.
Through Internal Family Systems therapy, we'll map your internal landscape during transition. You'll learn to identify the parts of you that resist change, those that embrace it, and those caught somewhere in between. We'll explore how these parts developed their roles and what they need to feel safe as you navigate uncertainty. This isn't about forcing parts to change or silencing their concerns—it's about creating internal dialogue where all parts feel heard and valued.
My approach weaves together several therapeutic modalities to support your unique journey. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps you stay present with difficult emotions while moving toward your values. Emotional Freedom Technique offers somatic tools for releasing stuck energy and old patterns. Depth-oriented psychotherapy invites you to explore the mythic and symbolic dimensions of your transition, finding meaning in the midst of change.
Creating Space for All of You
When you begin therapy with me, you're not just addressing the surface challenges of your transition. You're entering a creative, expansive space where every part of you is welcome. The part that's terrified of change sits alongside the part that's desperate for it. The practical planner coexists with the mystical seeker. The wounded child finds safety next to the wise elder within.
Our initial consultation allows us to feel whether we're the right fit for this journey together. I'll ask about what kind of support you're seeking, what you've already done to tend to yourself during this transition, and what has or hasn't worked in previous therapeutic experiences. This isn't just information gathering—it's the beginning of creating a container spacious enough to hold all of who you are.
Over our first three sessions, we'll conduct a gentle, thorough intake process. We'll explore your family, cultural, and social contexts, understanding how these systems have shaped your relationship to change. We'll look at your medical and mental health history through a lens of curiosity rather than pathology. Together, we'll identify three to five guiding intentions for our work—not rigid goals, but touchstones that can evolve as you do.
The Rhythm of Transformation
Once we've established our therapeutic relationship, we typically meet weekly at a consistent time, creating a reliable anchor point in the midst of change. These sessions become laboratories for exploration, where you can experiment with new ways of being while held in compassion.
Between sessions, I'll offer parts therapy prompts and creative exercises tailored to your unique process. You might dialogue with the part of you that fears abandonment as you leave a relationship. You might create art expressing the grief of letting go of an old identity. You might write letters between your current self and your emerging self, building bridges across the transition.
This isn't homework in the traditional sense—it's an invitation to stay in relationship with your inner world between our meetings. Some weeks you'll engage deeply with these offerings; other weeks, simply holding them in awareness is enough. The key is maintaining gentle curiosity about your internal experience as you move through change.
Integration as a Living Practice
Life transitions often reveal the places where we've become fragmented, where different parts of ourselves have been operating in isolation or conflict. The anxiety you feel about a career change might be connected to a younger part still carrying beliefs about worth and survival. The resistance to entering a new relationship might come from a protector part still guarding old wounds.
Through our work, you'll develop tools for ongoing integration—ways to help these various parts communicate, collaborate, and ultimately create more internal harmony. This isn't about achieving a static state of balance, but about developing dynamic flexibility that allows you to meet life's inevitable changes with greater ease and authenticity.
The expressive arts become powerful allies in this integration process. Creative expression bypasses the analytical mind, allowing parts to communicate through image, movement, and metaphor. You might discover that the part of you resisting change softens when given colors to paint with. The part holding grief might find release through writing poetry. These creative practices aren't about producing art—they're about giving voice to the ineffable experiences of transition.
Your Invitation to Sacred Accompaniment
If you're reading this, some part of you recognizes the need for support during this threshold time. Perhaps you've already done significant therapeutic work and are seeking a deeper, more integrative approach. Maybe you're drawn to the intersection of psychological healing and creative expression. You might sense that your transition holds spiritual significance that you want to explore in a held, professional space.
I work exclusively online, creating a container where you can explore transition from the comfort of your own space. This allows clients throughout Sonoma County, the North Bay Area, Seattle, Washington State, and New York State to access specialized support for navigating life's sacred thresholds.
My practice is designed for individuals who crave depth and meaning in their healing journey. If you're someone who thinks in metaphors, feels deeply, and seeks to understand the "why" beneath your experiences, we're likely to work well together. If you're ready to approach your transition not as a problem to solve but as an initiation into greater wholeness, I'm here to accompany you.
Beginning Your Journey
Every transition begins with a single step—often the courageous act of reaching out for support. When you contact me, we'll schedule a consultation to explore whether my approach aligns with what you're seeking. There's no pressure to commit; this is simply an opportunity to feel into the possibility of working together.
Life transitions, by their nature, don't follow predictable timelines. Some unfold over months, others over years. What matters is that you have consistent, compassionate support as you navigate the unknown. Together, we'll create a therapeutic container strong enough to hold uncertainty, flexible enough to adapt as you grow, and sacred enough to honor the profound work of becoming.
Your transition is uniquely yours, but you don't have to walk through it alone. Reach out today to explore how parts work, creative expression, and depth-oriented therapy can support your journey through life's thresholds. Let's discover together how this time of change might become a gateway to the integrated, authentic life you're meant to live.
Located in:
Sonoma County, CA
Seattle, WA
New York
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
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I work with adults navigating a wide range of transitions, including career changes, relationship shifts, relocations, identity exploration, creative reorientations, and the often unnamed experience of languishing in adulthood. Whether your transition feels chosen or thrust upon you, whether it's celebrated or grieved, I create space for all the complexity that arises when life asks you to become someone new while honoring who you've been.
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Life transitions therapy recognizes that these liminal moments awaken particular parts of ourselves that may remain quiet during stable times. Through Internal Family Systems and depth-oriented work, I help you explore not just the practical aspects of change, but the profound internal reorganization happening beneath the surface. This approach honors transition as a sacred threshold rather than simply a problem to solve, allowing for deeper integration and lasting transformation.
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During our initial consultation and intake process, I'll listen deeply to understand your unique transition and what parts of you are speaking most loudly right now. Over the first three sessions, we'll explore your history with change, identify the parts that feel activated, and establish three to five goals that honor both where you've been and where you sense yourself heading. This foundation allows us to create a personalized roadmap for your inner work.
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Life transitions therapy can be both, depending on your needs and what your system requires. Some clients find clarity and integration within a focused period of weeks or months, while others discover that their transition opens doorways to deeper work they want to continue exploring. I collaborate with you to determine what feels right, always honoring your pace and the wisdom of your parts about what kind of support serves you best.
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Internal Family Systems offers a powerful lens for understanding why transitions can feel so overwhelming. Different parts of you may have conflicting feelings about the change: one part excited, another terrified, another grieving, another protective. IFS helps you create internal dialogue among these parts, allowing them to be heard and understood rather than battling for control. This integration creates space for you to move forward with more clarity, compassion, and alignment.
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Absolutely. Feeling stuck often means you're standing at a threshold with parts that aren't yet ready to cross. Through our work together, we explore what's holding you in place with curiosity rather than judgment. Often, what looks like stuckness is actually a protective part trying to keep you safe, or a part that needs to grieve before moving forward. By honoring these parts and understanding their concerns, we create conditions for organic movement when your system is ready.
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I often provide parts therapy prompts that invite you to engage with your transition through journaling, creative expression, or gentle internal dialogue. These aren't homework assignments but invitations to deepen your relationship with the parts we've met in session. You might explore through writing, art, movement, or simply quiet reflection. The goal is to extend our work beyond our time together, allowing insights to unfold in your daily life.
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Unwanted transitions carry their own particular grief and complexity. I create space for all the parts that emerge when change feels thrust upon you: the parts that resist, the parts that rage, the parts that feel betrayed by life itself. Through compassionate inquiry and depth work, we honor what's ending while slowly discovering what might be emerging, even in transitions you never would have chosen. This work respects your timeline and never rushes toward silver linings.
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Yes. Many transitions crack us open to deeper questions about meaning, purpose, and who we truly are beneath our roles and identities. I welcome these spiritual and existential dimensions, understanding that life transitions often serve as initiations into new ways of being. My approach honors the mystical alongside the practical, creating space for the sacred questions that arise when the ground beneath you shifts.
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I do, and this complexity is actually quite common. Life rarely compartmentalizes its changes, and multiple transitions can create a profound sense of disorientation. Through our work together, we explore how different parts respond to different changes, identifying which transitions need immediate attention and which can be held more gently. This integrative approach helps you navigate overlapping changes without becoming overwhelmed by the multiplicity of what you're facing.