At the Center for Mindful Psychotherapy, we frequently encounter a profound, often hidden struggle among our most accomplished clients. They arrive successful, driven, and outwardly capable, yet internally they are battling a persistent, debilitating sense of anxiety, exhaustion, or a feeling that they must constantly strive to justify their own existence. This state is not a moral failing or a...[ read more ]
Reviewed by Kathryn Vercillo, MA Psychology | Last Updated: November 2025 You understand your patterns. You can articulate exactly how your dismissive father or anxious mother shaped your approach to relationships. Maybe you have even read Attached, taken the quizzes, listened to the podcasts on your BART commute, and identified your attachment style with precision. Yet somehow, you keep finding...[ read more ]
Reviewed by Kathryn Vercillo, MA Psychology | Last Updated: November 2025 You have probably heard that mindfulness is good for you. Perhaps you have tried meditation apps, attended a yoga class, or experimented with breathing exercises during stressful moments. These practices can genuinely help. But if you have ever wondered whether mindfulness in therapy techniques might offer something different...[ read more ]
Change is the only constant. Whether it’s a chosen pivot in your career, an unexpected loss, a major life transition, or a subtle yet profound shift in your identity, navigating these moments can feel isolating and overwhelming. Too often, we rely solely on our minds to process these seismic events, leaving the body and spirit behind. This disconnect can lead...[ read more ]
Reviewed by Kathryn Vercillo, MA Psychology | Last Updated: November 2025 You know the feeling. Your stomach drops when you receive bad news. Your shoulders creep toward your ears during a stressful meeting. Your chest tightens before a difficult conversation, even when you tell yourself there is nothing to worry about. These experiences reveal something profound: your body is not...[ read more ]
This guest post is offered by our associate therapist, Rachel Lefkowitz Parnes, MA, Associate MFT. Rachel’s journey to becoming a therapist is deeply relatable to many of our Bay Area clients, having spent nearly a decade successfully navigating the high stakes environment of the tech world at LinkedIn. Her lived experience of performance culture, combined with her deep clinical training in...[ read more ]
The question, "What is it to be alive today?" is perhaps the most profound human inquiry. As we navigate the end of the year, this question often feels obscured by external demands. There is also a constant, low level hum of anxiety. Society frequently suggests that our meaning lies in our capacity to produce, achieve, and solve. If we...[ read more ]
Center for Mindful Psychotherapy is a non profit collective of approximately 100 Associate Marriage and Family Therapists in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can learn more about each of them from perusing our Therapist Directory. In our Conversations with Clinicians series, we interview therapists in more depth. They share more about the work that they do, the clients that...[ read more ]
You know you need help processing your trauma. Maybe it's PTSD from a difficult experience, anxiety that traces back to childhood wounds, or depression rooted in unresolved grief. You've started researching trauma therapy in the Bay Area, and you've discovered something both exciting and overwhelming: there are dozens of specialized approaches, from Brainspotting to EMDR to Somatic Experiencing to Internal...[ read more ]
In our Conversations with Clinicians series, we interview therapists in more depth. They share more about the work that they do, the clients that they work with, their inspirations, passions, personal interests and more. Today, we're talking with Rachel Lefkowitz Parnes. Rachel's journey to becoming a therapist is one of profound personal transformation. She first became aware of her own...[ read more ]