Psychotherapy offers a way of healing in relationship.  

I am honored to assist my clients in finding greater peace, fulfillment, and vitality.

Making space to navigate change and confront challenges with professional assistance is a gift to yourself and the world around you.  Therapy offers both tools for greater reflection, as well as ways talking to your body, soul, and unconscious.  Together we will uncover not only the why of your emotions and behaviors, but the how -- giving you greater self-compassion, control, and ability to make new choices. 

My Approach

Body-oriented, or somatic, psychotherapy offers a way of engaging with a greater knowledge beyond what is stored in our brain.  As we integrate what we learn about ourselves and the world around us, we make lasting change by translating this knowing into an embodied practice.

My services as a Marriage and Family Therapist (#106908) are offered in a private practice setting in downtown Oakland, California.  I hold a Masters of Arts in Counseling Psychology with a Somatic emphasis from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS).  I have engaged in clinical practice for over ten years, since 2012. Additionally, I have completed training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Level I, Relational Somatic Healing, Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Leadership Embodiment, and Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR) as a way of working with people who have experienced single incident or complex traumas and continue to meet in regular trauma-informed consultation. I am drawn to discussing incorporating holistic approaches such as movement practices and nutrition as clients are so interested.

It was through social justice organizing that I came to learn about somatic psychotherapy and try it as a client.  My own experiences of healing influence how I practice.  

My style of therapy is personal, engaged, warm, and curious.  I offer a blend of approaches, primarily focusing on somatic, creative, narrative, and relational models.

I bring to my practice a commitment to inquiry and a dedication to holding a multi-faceted context which includes the systems that shape us. This includes a life-long pursuit of justice through confronting systems of power and oppression.

I look forward to connecting with you.

Dana Aleshire

510-214-3865 or danaaleshiretherapy@gmail.com