Therapy works best when you feel genuinely heard, respected, and understood by the person sitting with you
What we build together starts with curiosity, not conclusions
An Oakland-based therapist for teens, adults, & couples
Before insight or change, there has to be trust
That trust gives our deeper work a place to take root.
Sara Nevius, LMFT
I didn’t come into this work in a straight line.
Before becoming a therapist, I experienced personal loss and later spent two years in the Peace Corps. That time was a crash course in listening across differences, questioning my own assumptions, and staying curious about lives unlike my own.
When I returned home, I had to figure out who I was in a life that no longer fit.
My own therapy gave me language for what had shifted, and a way back to myself I hadn't known I needed.
That experience is never far from how I sit with clients today.
My approach looks beneath the surface of symptoms to understand what they’ve been trying to tell you. Not from a place of judgment or quick fixes, but with curiosity, care, and respect for the pace real change requires.
The work can be deep. It can be tender. Sometimes it can be clarifying in ways you didn’t expect. But it always starts with a relationship where you feel safe enough to show up honestly, and supported enough to rise into what’s next.
Every person is different, so the approach should be too
Rather than working from a single framework, I draw on a range of depth-oriented and evidence-based approaches. These approaches don't rush toward fixing, but instead, they make room for a kind of understanding that actually changes something. Which ones I draw on depends on what you bring into the room and what I sense the work is asking for.
Jungian-Oriented Psychotherapy → explores unconscious patterns, identity, and the deeper layers of self.
Buddhist Psychology → builds awareness, compassion, and a different relationship with difficult emotions.
Imago Relationship Theory → helps uncover what’s beneath recurring conflicts in your closest relationships.
Gottman Method → supports healthier communication and emotional connection between partners.
Motivational Interviewing → strengthens motivation and readiness for meaningful, lasting change.
Mindfulness & Somatic Practices → increases awareness of how stress and emotions live in the mind and body.
Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy → supports deeper emotional access and insight when talk therapy plateaus, within an integrated therapeutic process.
