About Clarisse-background — San Francisco Counseling

San Francisco Counseling

Clarisse Lula, Marriage and Family Psychotherapist

My approach is curious, compassionate and mindful. My background is in Depth psychology and evidence-based practices.

You know what the #1 predictor of successful therapy is? It's not a specific orientation or intervention...it's the relationship between therapist and client.

I want to know your subjective experience and what your narrative about yourself is. I feel the closer we come to knowing and accepting ourselves, the closer we are to being a fully integrated and healthy person.

Specifically, I have found that I work well with depressive men and women, substance abuse and personality disruptions such as narcissism and borderline traits.

“Awesome quote from somebody great”

— mrs. aweome

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Therapeutic Orientation

Psychodynamic- We have unconscious impulses that motivate our thinking and behavior. We are pattern recognizing and information storing machines, placing experience in the unconscious to help navigate living. We have mental algorithms that organize our response to everything, which is efficient, but blinds us from novelty and everyday wonder. Without making the unconscious, conscious…we are bound to repeat the same patterns.

Jungian- Each of us has a deep lineage and history, both genetically and culturally, which conform to archetypes that influence our story about who we are.

Somatic- The body is wise, and often is more telling then the everyday thinking, linear, goal oriented pre-frontal cortex. Listen to what is stored in the body.

Area of Focus

Depression - Grief - Substance use- Anxiety

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EDUCATION & TRAINING

Masters of Arts in Counseling from Sonoma State University

Post graduate school at the Community Institute of Psychotherapy

Some Training over the years that inform my work:

Post traumatic stress disorder and the body Neurobiology of attachment Reichian character analysis Sand play therapy Working with borderline personality disorder Crisis intervention/Harm reduction Breathing and mindfulness in therapy