Alexandra Park, AMFT #144687

Welcome! I’m Alex and I’m passionate about helping people have healthier relationships within themselves and with others. Growing up, I was very drawn to stories of growth and goodness in people. I often found myself wondering about why we are the way we are and our capacity for change. This curiosity led me to pursue my undergraduate degree in Psychology at UC Berkeley where I began to learn about human development and behavior. Over time, I became more curious about the way that people relate to each other. There seemed to be so much to our formative years and relationships with early caregivers, so I pursued a graduate degree in Marriage and Family Therapy at Alliant International University to learn more. Throughout my studies, I continued to be very drawn to relationships, so I completed an externship in Emotionally Focused Therapy through ICEEFT which has helped inform my approach to relational work.  

I work with couples and families who are stuck in conflict, seeking better communication, healing from past wounds, bridging cultural gaps, or adjusting to life transitions. I also provide individual therapy to support those affected by relational issues. Together, we can work on managing anxiety, processing trauma, overcoming people-pleasing habits, improving emotional regulation, working through codependency, and embarking on a journey of healing and wellbeing.

Anxiety:

Anxiety can manifest itself in many ways. It might look like ruminating thoughts, persistent feelings of worry, rapid heartbeat, and shaking, and can even show up as poor digestion. Anxiety is what you experience when your nervous system is activated and in fight or flight mode. In therapy, we’ll work to better understand the function of your anxiety. We’ll explore how it shows up in your body and what it might be trying to tell you or protect you from. We’ll also learn to assess for actual safety in the current moment and understand what is and isn’t in your control. We’ll talk about how you’ve successfully been able to move through it in the past and techniques to help you move through it in the future. We’ll work towards soothing and downregulating your nervous system through grounding and breathing to offer support and relief to your body.

Trauma:

Oftentimes people think of trauma as violent crimes, near-death experiences, or death of a close loved one—the “Big T” traumas. However, there are also “Little T” traumas that can be insidious and affect our lives in profound ways. These may include interpersonal conflict, negative events in childhood, emotional abuse, divorce, or bullying. They might be a one-time event or the culmination of many little events that built up over time. Therapy can be a place to acknowledge these experiences and the impact it had/has on your life and work together to process and move through them.

Couples/Family Therapy:

Relationships can be places where you feel safety and a deep sense of connection, yet they can also be a source of tension and dysfunction. You might be an individual in therapy wanting to make sense of, or improve, your relationships. Or you might be people in a relationship or family members coming in together to work on your relationship. Whether working towards better communication, moving through past wounds, bridging generational or cultural differences, or trying to get unstuck from conflict, it’s important to know that the only person you can change is yourself. In therapy, we’ll foster self-awareness to understand how you show up in your relationships and self-regulation to give you the tools to show up in healthier ways. If coming as a couple or family, we’ll also talk about how the two of you are interacting with each other to find the negative patterns and work towards having new, healthier ways of relating.

Self-improvement:

You don’t need to wait until there’s a big problem that happens in your life or until you’re in a debilitating amount of dysfunction to seek therapy. Therapy can also be sought out when you’re in a good place in your life. Whether you’re beginning a new relationship, shifting careers, moving, wanting to work on communication, learning how to better self-regulate, or generally wanting to learn how to better care for yourself, therapy can be a great place to process changes and work towards growth.

Approach to care:

I work from a person-centered, trauma-informed, and attachment-based perspective and will use Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and Internal Family Systems (IFS) to inform my practice. Person-centered care focuses on your inherent ability to move toward healing and growth. We’ll empower you to work towards autonomy, self-awareness, and self-compassion. Trauma-informed care works to minimize re-traumatization, blaming, and shaming while fostering safety and healing. An attachment-based perspective looks at your formative attachment figures and your relationship to them to understand how it might affect your emotional regulation and relationships today. EFT is used in couples therapy to help clients rebuild trust and safety. It also focuses on attachment styles to help clients understand their own and their partners patterns and behaviors. Once patterns have been identified, new ways of responding will be explored and practiced. These new ways of responding and relating will then be reorganized and integrated to help the couple move towards increased safety and a secure attachment. Internal Family Systems (IFS) is used to recognize different “parts” of selves that may be wounded or working in an extreme way. IFS can be especially helpful in navigating early childhood experiences. The goal is to tap into your own self-awareness and self-regulation, bring harmony to the internal system, and empower you to be more “self-led”.

Seeking help and caring for your mental health is such a huge act of self-love. Seeking therapy for your relationship also doesn’t reflect brokenness, but a willingness and hope for healing and change. I’m also hopeful that you’ll find the growth and healing you’re looking for because you’re already taking the first step by being here. If you’d like to work together,

I offer a complimentary 20-minute consultation to discuss your unique needs and explore how we can work together to achieve your therapeutic goals. This initial meeting is an opportunity for us to connect, and for you to ask any questions you may have about the therapeutic process.

Please do not hesitate to contact me for a free 20-minute consultation.

Individual therapy sessions are 50 minutes/$150 per session and couples sessions are 50 minutes/$170 per session. 

Email: alexparktherapy@gmail.com

 Phone #: (650) 489-5123