Andy Pearson

Individual, Group Therapy:   I enjoy working with individuals and groups with all kinds of needs.

Working with Those Who Experience Difficulties in the Workplace:

Many intelligent, resourceful and dedicated individuals find themselves stuck - feeling like they are trapped in careers or jobs that are not meaningful and that do not align with their personal values.  If you are one of these people, there is hope:

Working with me, you will learn to:

Make full contact with your dissatisfaction and suffering.

    Become skilled at self-observation, so that you can fully know when things are going well and when they aren't.

    Become aware of what you value and what is important to you.

    Begin to take steps to move toward what you value.

What this therapy is not:  This is NOT career counseling - I will not help you to learn to be a better corporate citizen or human resource.  This therapy is for YOUR benefit - not your employer's!

Moving toward what you value can be an extremely healing and rewarding experience!

Working with Older Adults: 

While the individualism of American culture has many advantages (such as freedom, opportunity, creativity, etc.), one of the side effects is that many of us have become isolated - from our friends, our neighbors, or local communities, even from our families.  Nowhere is this more true than with the elderly.  During an internship with the Institute on Aging in San Francisco, I had the opportunity and privilege to meet with and provide psychotherapy for elderly clients in their homes (yes, sometimes psychologists DO make house calls).  I found that many of the people I met were very isolated - for some I was their ONLY significant contact with the outside world!  And yet, despite their isolation, financial stress, medical issues, and often end of life issues, I found that these clients were intent devoting themselves to doing the work necessary to alleviate their own suffering.  I found the work to be immensely enjoyable and rewarding and have developed a passion for working with older adults.  

Acknowledging and gaining acceptance of a lifetime of experiences can be very healing!

Working with Men:

Men and women offer unique perspectives regarding what it means to be alive, to thrive, to suffer, to feel pain, and to dream.  While there are many similarities between the sexes regarding these qualities, each gender has unique experiences that make their needs, aspirations, dreams, and nightmares truly their own.  No man can ever fully understand what it is like to be a woman.  No woman can fully understand what it like to be a man.

I have found in my professional practice that it can be helpful for a client to have a therapist of the same sex, because both the therapist and client can relate to the unique experiences of that gender.  In my opinion one of the key ingredients to successful therapy is the ability of the therapist to feel empathy for the client, as this allows the therapist to more fully connect with the client's experiences, thoughts, feelings, beliefs and attitudes.  The more the therapist and client have in common (such as gender) the deeper the experience of empathy.

Note:  The advantages of gender match between therapist and client is by no means universal: Sometimes it can be extremely beneficial to have a therapist of the opposite gender so that one can use the therapist to work out issues/trauma/neglect that occurred because of someone of the opposite gender).

Stephanie Seibel:

Individual Therapy for Teens, Young Adults, and Adults

Technicals:

·    Registered Psychological Associate providing psychotherapy in private practice under the supervision of Andrew Pearson, Psy.D., since 2021

·      MA in Psychology, Ph.D. Candidate in Psychology with a Trauma-Informed Somatic Concentration from Meridian University

·      3 years as a mental health counselor to foster youth and their families

·      Completed a one-year private practice internship at Lomi Psychotherapy Community Clinic training in somatic-based psychotherapy

·      Worked as a crisis hotline counselor and provided in-person mental health emergency support in Sonoma County

·      Assisted art therapy groups for homeless mothers and children at The Center for Creative Arts Therapy

·      Assisted Restorative Justice programs in Sonoma County schools at the Center for Restorative Process

·      Certified Life Coach (CPC) with specialized career counseling training from the National Career Development Association; provided career coaching to young adults and presented on career topics at the Redwood Empire Career College

·      Currently conducting an original doctoral research project at Meridian University on the ADHD nervous system, exploring the use of play and attachment-based interventions on ADHD symptomology

·      Continuing education in: polyvagal theory, psychobiological therapy (Stan Tatkin’s PACT), affective neuroscience (Jaak Panksepp), Continuum Movement Therapy (CMT), ADHD Coaching (PESI), depth psychology (Jungian, Imaginal), and Internal Family Systems (IFS “parts work”)

Personal History:

While I’ve been obsessed with psychology since I was a teenager, my love for this work was born directly from my own personal journey. Right when I graduated undergrad in my early twenties and was about to “launch,” some unexpected health challenges took me on a deep healing journey. I spent the next decade focused on healing my body, mind, and soul - first working with a beloved mentor and somatic teacher, Shayna Jordan, who taught me how to feel safe in my nervous system. I also dove deep into over 9 years of weekly personal psychotherapy from an attachment-based, “inner child reparenting” approach with an AEDP-trained therapist. While I was doing deep inner work, it was also a challenging time to be coming of age culturally. As a young adult, I found it difficult to get by financially and discovered that the models previous generations had used to build adult lives seemed less applicable in our ever-changing world. I was lucky to have mentors and guides through those coming of age years who taught me that I get to build an adult life that is authentic and true for me. I truly believe it takes a village to heal and grow up into ourselves, and have been privileged that I was not alone on my journey of growing and building a life.

I share my own journey authentically because I truly believe that therapists can only take clients as deep as they have gone themselves. While I continued my traditional training through doctorate-level education and building many practical skills, my own healing journey gave me an invaluable foundation of embodied self-love which informs who I am and all I do. At this point, being a therapist is not something I do, but who I am: a lifestyle I live everyday, and my greatest joy which I love sharing with others. I am most passionate about helping others heal so that they can become who they really are, and live lives that are joyful and authentic.

Specialties:

Personal trauma, intergenerational or cultural trauma, anxiety, depression, ADHD, attachment, radical self-love, individuation from family and cultural narratives, nervous system regulation, inner child work and re-parenting, health and body issues, self-esteem, adolescent and young adult issues, conscious relationship, authentic identity formation, life purpose, soul-work, creativity, work-life balance, play, school-and work-related stress management

Merci Hoskins:

Over the past 30 years, I have coached healthy living in a wide variety of settings with an array of clients ranging from adolescents to adults through many stages of life. As a health coach, I became aware of the importance of the connection between the body, mind, and spirit. This practice is what brought me to the field of psychology in 2016. I believe that one is not independent of the other and that finding the place of balance is an essential step in an individual’s path to healing.

Specialties:

Adults

Adolescents

Anxiety

Depression

Relationships

Stress Management