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 changes by translating this knowledge 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 Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology with a Somatic emphasis from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS). I have engaged in clinical practice for nearly fifteen years, since 2012. Additionally, I have completed training in Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Level I, Relational Somatic Healing, Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy, Leadership Embodiment, Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR), regular EMDR Consultation blending Internal Family Systems with the work of Janina Fischer for developmental trauma, regular consultation group for Multi-Heritage Couples, and Introduction to Gottman Method Couple Therapy Level I. These methods support my approach in working with people who have experienced both single-incident and complex traumas. I am drawn to discussing incorporating holistic approaches such as movement practices and nutrition as clients are so interested. I have also participated in multiple anti-racist training programs, workshops, and accountability groups, most noteably a 4-month training with Catalyst Project’s Anne Braden Anti-Racist Organizer Training Program in 2009.
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, curious, and dedicated to humility. I offer a blend of approaches, primarily focusing on somatic, attachment-informed, oppression-conscious, creative, narrative, and deeply 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 am of Ashkenazi Jewish descent and proudly anti-Zionist. I believe in the liberation of all people harmed by colonization and imperialism - this includes an ongoing personal reflection and accountability process as a white-privileged settler living in the United States. Naming systemic and state-sanctioned violence is a part of mental health. I acknowledge my choice to practice with a license in Marriage and Family Therapy within a Western Psychotherapy model is inherently complex and aligned with colonization. My choice to be and stay licensed is for the protection of clients that coaching does not provide, as well as the rigor of training requirements for licensed psychotherapists. I am also nurtured by a regular meditation practice inspired by the Mahayana tradition and a weekly sangha of politicized queer and queer-allied people.
I look forward to connecting with you.
Dana Aleshire
510-214-3865 or danaaleshiretherapy@gmail.com
Somatic Coaching
I offer Somatic Coaching to adults and teens seeking a trauma-informed approach to embodiment and body processing who might shy away from traditional forms of psychotherapy or who want a more short-term and focused approach.
In a more traditional psychotherapy context, this has also taken the form of two “Somatic Approaches for Couples” workshops, co-hosted with Dario Martinez.
Incorporated into my perspective are environmentally based spiritual traditions, recognizing the need to honor the ecosystems we are in relationship with. I draw upon the influence of mindfulness and meditation, primarily from a Mayan-leaning Buddhist tradition, John Conger, Thomas Hannah, Wendy Palmer and Leadership Embodiment, Gestalt, Richard Strozzi and Staci Hanes and their work with Generative Somatics, as well as Aikido.
My approach to Somatics begins with body awareness and sensation. It includes resourcing and practice articulating what is felt in a container that feels manageable to hold. I blend dance, drama, and Aikido-based interventions into standing work. I do not offer somatic table work apart from craniosacral therapy at this time.
This work can be done in person or virtually.
Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy
My Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy practice was inspired by the knowing that the body itself already has the wisdom to heal. In the words of my teacher, Gary Peterson (Settling Touch and Resourcing Institute, S.T.A.R.,) “the light of health becomes shrouded by trauma, much like a handkerchief over a lamp.” [paraphrased] Through subtle touch, reflection, and intention, we can restore that health back to our systems. The theories behind the breath of life and cerebrospinal fluid are a marvel to consider, and I find that this type of low-impact touch is very suited for people who do not traditionally like massage. Biodynamic Craniosacral Therapy it’s very different from what most people imagine compared to massage in that you are clothed, there is little or no forced manipulation of the body, the energetic and fluid fields of the organism are considered at all times.
I trained between 2015-2018, and have not yet become officially licensed to provide Craniosacral Therapy. For now, I offer donation-based series as I work toward my certification. Please let me know if you are interested! I have given hundreds of sessions and it is deeply enriching for me to be in that calm space with the receiver.
