About Me
I'm an Iranian-American licensed marriage and family therapist (license #84487) with experience treating adults, young children, adolescents, children with special needs, and Farsi-speaking clients. My private practice is located in Woodland Hills area, California, where I provide services to those experiencing depression, anxiety, low-self esteem, behavioral problems, and a variety of other mental-health issues. I graduated from Phillips Graduate Institute with a Masters Degree in Psychology, focusing on Marriage and Family Therapy. My clinical work began at Sunrise Assisted Living facility providing both individual and group therapy for adults with dementia, Alzheimer's Disease, depression, and anxiety.
My experience providing therapy continued as I treated children at LAUSD elementary schools as a counselor. As a school counselor, I provided therapy in both individual and group settings, working with issues such divorce and separation, self-esteem, behavioral problems, social-skills, and other school related problems. I further developed my skills at Behavioral Learning Center, where I provided services to children with special needs. I worked at Phillips Counseling Center providing therapy to adults and adolescents with depression, anxiety, loss/grief, and co-dependent features. In addition, I was a co-facilitator of an Iranian women’s support group which focused on cultural and social issues that Iranian women deal with. In addition, I was a Case Manager/Therapist at Children Are Our Future providing psychotherapy and Case Manager services to adolescents with a history of trauma, loss/grief, and dual diagnoses. In 2015, I became an outpatient therapist at The Help Group providing individual therapy and group therapy to children and to adults with the diagnoses of autism, anxiety, depression, history of DV, people who struggled with suicidal ideations, cognitive disability and other mental health related issues. In 2017, I became a clinical supervisor at a Hathaway Sycamore (outpatient department) providing supervision to therapists who were gaining hours toward their licensures.
Thank you for your trust in me.
Training and Certification:
- Seeking Safety: Evidenced based model to address trauma and addiction.
- Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy: TF-CBT is a psychotherapy approach and short term treatment to provide psycho-education to children and their parents/caregiver about the impact of trauma and their reaction to the event.
- Prepare & Enrichment Facilitator: helping couples to build, explore and reconnect their relationship.
- Supported Employment (Calworks/Gain): Helping and preparing individual with mental illness for employment.
- Motivational Interviewing : Evidence based model focusing on client's strengths, values, and ambivalent feelings focusing on change. MI focuses on communication style.
- Domestic Violence Certification: I am holding 40 hours domestic violence training certification for survivors of domestic violence and their children.
- TRM ( Trauma Resiliency Model) Level 1 Certified : The model focuses on self care, to re-process traumatic memories, to increase resilient after difficult life experiences.
- Grief Specialist: I have completed 21 hours of training where I can provide grief counseling to children and adults.
- BrainSpotting : Therapy approach for the treatment of PTSD. According to the creator of brain spotting, David Grand, “where you look affects how you feel.” Brainspotting is based on the profound attunement of the therapist with the patient, finding a somatic cue and extinguishing it by down-regulating the amygdala. It isn’t just PNS (Parasympathetic Nervous System) activation that is facilitated, it is homeostasis. -- Robert Scaer, MD, “The Trauma Spectrum". " Brainspotting is a powerful, focused treatment method that works by identifying, processing and releasing core neurophysiological sources of emotional/body pain, trauma, dissociation and a variety of other challenging symptoms. Brainspotting is a simultaneous form of diagnosis and treatment, enhanced with Bilateral sound, which is deep, direct, and powerful yet focused and containing."
- Internal Family System ( IFS) Informed: working on parts (shame, anger, guilt,..) and releasing the burden these parts carry due to childhood trauma.