San Francisco, California
Online Therapy for San Francisco
San Francisco clients reach me entirely by video, and the six hundred miles between us turns out to matter far less than people expect. What matters is that you are somewhere with a door and forty-five minutes that belong to you, which in this city is a harder requirement than the distance.
There is a particular San Francisco arrival I see often: someone fluent in the language of self-improvement, who has read the books, tracked the sleep, and can describe their own attachment style more precisely than I can. None of it has changed the thing that happens at month four of every relationship, and they find that infuriating.
How Sessions Run
Working by video into San Francisco
Sessions run on secure video, same fifty minutes, same weekly rhythm as anything I do in the room. Most San Francisco clients take a slot before the workday opens or in the gap that a hybrid schedule leaves on a Wednesday, and they log in from an apartment in the Mission, a house in the Sunset, or a booked room at the office that they have labeled something vague on the shared calendar.
Being in the same time zone is not a small thing. No arithmetic, no 6am compromise, no session drifting when daylight saving lands. Your Tuesday at 11 is my Tuesday at 11 all year.
Who I See
Who I see from San Francisco
Engineers, product managers, designers, and founders — a lot of founders — plus attorneys, physicians at UCSF and Sutter, nonprofit staff, and academics. Many are people whose competence at work is exceptional and whose private life has been running on fumes for years.
I also see a lot of transplants. People who came for a job at twenty-six, built no family scaffolding here, and are now realizing that the city gave them a career and not much else. That is not a complaint about San Francisco. It is a fairly specific kind of loneliness that responds to being taken seriously rather than to another hobby.
In the Room
What San Francisco brings into a session
Optimizing instead of feeling
Every problem gets framed as a system to debug. It is an impressive skill and a very effective way to avoid an emotion for a decade. We slow that down on purpose.
Performance review as verdict
When identity is fused to a rating, a mediocre cycle reads as a statement about your worth. Separating the two is slow, repetitive work and it is most of what changes things.
The eighteen-month cycle
Funding, reorg, layoff, repeat. Living inside repeating instability produces a vigilance that keeps running long after the job is stable, and it is treatable.
California Only
What I can and cannot do from here
I am licensed as a psychologist in California only, license PSY35842. That means I can see you when you are physically in California — San Francisco, a weekend in Tahoe on the California side, a work trip to San Diego. If you relocate out of state, I cannot continue as your therapist, and I would rather say that on the first call than the fortieth.
My office is in Santa Monica. Some San Francisco clients come in once when they are already in Los Angeles for work, and it is a nice thing to do once, but nobody should plan on it. The real container for this work is video.
Where to Next
What San Francisco clients most often come in for
Free Consultation
Start with a conversation, not a commitment.
The first step is a free consultation call. We talk about what brings you here, what you have already tried, and whether working together makes sense. If I am not the right fit, I will say so and point you somewhere better.
- · You request a time on the form, and I confirm by email
- · Telehealth anywhere in California, or in person in Santa Monica
- · Private pay, with superbills for out-of-network reimbursement
- · 48 hours' notice for changes or cancellations
Or call the office at (213) 761-8555.