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Hi, I'm Art 👋 — an AMFT working with developmental trauma, attachment repair, and inner child reparenting.
Poke around the room to learn how I work: the diploma, the plants, the bookshelf, and the calendar all open. Please enjoy yourself. Pet the cat. Open the windows. Clean the room. Discover magic.
Hi, I'm Art.
I was in my late twenties when it dawned on me that I needed help with my mental health. As the saying goes, you can't get away from yourself. And I sure tried, mostly by keeping myself busy with work and distractions. When I was tired of running, I started looking inwards, first through meditation, and then therapy. It was scary and painful, but it was better than being numb. Gradually, I felt the visceral reactive patterns behind how I perceive myself and how I relate to others.
I relate to the descriptions of kids that had to grew up fast in response to distressing circumstances: a home that feels scary, earning care instead of receiving it, their needs rejected or ignored, losing themselves to becoming what their family needed. That kind of childhood leaves deeply wired reactive patterns. They live in the body and show up in the ways we approach relationships. They can compell us to act in ways that hurt us or those close to us.
The patterns were good enough, adaptive enough, to get us to where we are now, but they also meant shutting off other aspects of ourselves that nevertheless yearns to be known... given the right time and place.
I also experienced profund shifts as the wounds protected by these reactive patterns are honored, soothed, and loved-a naturally emerging aliveness and greater sense of agency. For me, therapy is about restoring our relationship with ourselves and our connection to life.
Our therapy can be that: a place safe enough to remember and to experiment. We give our attention and support to whatever needs to be expressed, whether through words, or sounds, or movement.
The room reflects how I think about this work: unhurried, warm, playful. It isn't forceful. It's about making room, letting your nervous system unfold, and trusting it knows what it needs to grow.
Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist
License Number: 154708
Licensee Name: XU, AO
Supervised by a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Services & Fees
Attachment Repair
Working with visceral reactions and distorted perspectives that come up when our needs for attachment are triggered. Primarily formed during the first two years of life, they are mostly unconscious and yet fundamentally influence the way we experience ourselves in relation to other people.
Inner Child Reparenting
Gently meeting the younger parts that are still waiting for someone to show up, and giving them what they didn't get the first time: attunement, soothing, protection, delight.
Psychodrama
Experiential work that brings old scenes into the present moment, so they can get unstuck and have room to move and transform. Receive what was needed back there back then.
Somatic Practices
Body-based awareness and exploration (breath, grounding, movement, vocalization, sensation) that helps you notice fight, flight, fawn, or freeze in real time, and teach your nervous system to let the charge flow through.
Telehealth sessions are available for clients anywhere in California.
Fees
| Individual session (50 min) | $150 |
| Initial consultation (20 min, phone) | Free |
I reserve a portion of my practice for sliding-scale clients who cannot afford my standard rate. If money is an issue, please still reach out to see if we can make it work.
I am an out-of-network provider. I can provide a monthly superbill for insurance reimbursement, and I'm happy to walk you through how that works.
Client Resources
Tools and assessments we may use in our work together.
These are instruments I sometimes share with clients — for reflection and conversation, not self-diagnosis. If you take one on your own, we can always talk through what it brought up together.
ACEs Questionnaire
The Adverse Childhood Experiences scale — ten questions about early life. A starting point for putting your experiences in perspective.
Attachment Style Test
A starting point for understanding your attachment style.
This shelf is still being stocked — more resources coming soon.
Writing
Notes from the bookshelf — short essays on therapy, rest, and being a person.
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Contact
"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom." - Anaïs Nin
Sessions
Telehealth only, via Zoom
Available to clients anywhere in California
A secure video link is sent before each session.
Hours
Mon, Wed, Thu, 10am – 6pm
If you are in crisis, please call or text 988 (Suicide & Crisis Lifeline) — support is available 24/7.
Boston
Resident therapy cat and zen master. Unlicensed, but very experienced.
Boston is a black-and-white shorthair who sometimes join our sessions. Specialties include: sitting on the laptop, purring at clinically significant moments, and modeling excellent boundaries. He is also living proof that you can wear a tuxedo every day and still be extremely relaxed.
He likes receiving pets