Tyana Tavakol (she/her)

You've reached the point in your life where you know you want things to be different, but you don't know how to get there. My goal is to work with you to start stepping into the most authentic, fulfilled version of yourself. You deserve a safe space to explore all parts of yourself that have worked until now but are starting to make life difficult. Through new insights and skills to add to your life toolbox, we will start getting you into the next chapter of your life.

The relationship is harder than you expected. You're arguing about what feel like unimportant things and you feel more exhausted and stressed with your partner than by yourself. You feel sad, alone, and miss what used to be. Whether the relationship is new or has been going on for years, relationship issues are painful. In couples therapy, we create a custom approach based on your unique dynamic and goals. We work together to help you learn about yourselves and grow as individuals and a couple.

You grew up seeing patterns in your family that didn't bother you back then, but you're learning that this isn't how it needs to be. For yourself, your future, and maybe your kids, you want to create change, but everything feels so stuck and deeply entrenched. As a child born to immigrant Iranian parents, I understand this deeply. In our time together we will explore the patterns in your life you want to change and hold space for you to create a new legacy.

I have been fortunate to gain amazing experiences in a variety of couples counseling approaches. I have 6 months of training in utilizing Integrative Behavioral Couples Therapy (IBCT) to help couples build their communication skills and insights into how their individual differences contribute to their difficulties. I am also trained in the first level of Gottman Therapy which is my main approach as it goes in-depth on increasing couple intimacy, friendship, and insight.

A vital way to grow into a higher level of self-awareness is starting to connect how your childhood has contributed to your current behaviors, emotions, strengths, and difficulties. Psychodynamic therapy focuses on fostering this insight. I have trained in this modality for the past two years and have worked in clinics that specifically specialize in and provide training in this approach throughout that time.

Talk therapy is amazingly helpful for building the logical connections between what is happening that is life disrupting and what led to that pattern being built in the first place. However, our bodies are not logical, and throughout our life it holds our emotions, burdens, and fears. I integrate somatic work throughout my sessions as a way to start processing these unconscious pains. I am trained in the first level of the Trauma Resiliency Model and utilize this approach in my holistic work.

Sometimes, we have big reactions and feelings to things that don't even have a clear explanation. We know it feels like trauma but we can't pinpoint the origin. As a child of immigrants that escaped the 1979 Iranian revolution and came from a mental-health rejecting culture, I've seen the trauma passed down from generations back. With increased insight and self-compassion, we become the first breaker of our family's trauma patterns.

Childhood trauma starts young and lasts throughout our life. We notice ourselves reacting to partners and friends as if we were still in danger, and it's beyond frustrating. Healing starts with connecting the mind and body: understanding how our current behaviors served as our childhood life savers, and learning how to start feeling safe and emotionally at peace by combining increased self-insight and mindfulness techniques.

Childhood trauma starts young and lasts throughout our life. We notice ourselves reacting to partners and friends as if we were still in danger, and it's beyond frustrating. Healing starts with connecting the mind and body: understanding how our current behaviors served as our childhood life savers, and learning how to start feeling safe and emotionally at peace by combining increased self-insight and mindfulness, grounding skills.

Anxiety can show up in so many ways. Needing to fix when other people are sad, self-criticism if we don't get things done perfectly, or your mind going down the rabbit hole at the thought that you messed up a social interaction. We work with anxiety with a mind-body approach: creating room for grey where our minds only see black and white, building our capacity to give ourselves grace and settle our bodies, and becoming aware of our spiral patterns so we can stop them early.

Our brains are puzzle solving machines, and sometimes, they're a little buggy. Thought spirals, anxiety, trouble sleeping from getting stuck in our heads, all signs that our puzzle solving machines are a bit in overdrive. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps give the tools to stop the anxious thoughts from taking over and gets us back to being able to tell what's really happening vs. the dangerous world our brains convince us we live in.