REBECCA GRAYZEL, PSY.D.
In our society, specific thoughts, feelings, relationships, and bodies are deemed normal. When this is internalized, we often label our self-experience as shameful or wrong. Through compassion and connection, we can begin to heal, and pave a road toward self-acceptance.
I believe the key to change lies in cultivating a safe, strong therapeutic relationship. Through a developmental lens, I aim to understand each person’s history and how their unique story informs their current challenges. I feel passionate about working with clients from diverse backgrounds and utilize a multicultural approach when understanding life experiences and associated thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. In conjunction with this psychodynamic, relationally-driven approach, when clinically indicated, I help clients identify a clear presenting concern, develop goals, and integrate the appropriate evidence-based practice tailored to their specific needs. Integrated modalities include: cognitive behavioral therapy, feminist-based interventions, mindfulness-based strategies, and acceptance and commitment therapy.
I earned my doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium in Palo Alto, California. I have both trained and worked in a variety of settings with the aim of understanding individuals and families through the different communities and systems that they inhabit, including: university college counseling centers, hospitals, academic medical centers, community mental health centers, middle and high schools, outpatient medical clinics, and now, a private-practice setting. I have experience working with clients across the lifespan, from birth to geriatric populations, treating a range of presenting concerns, including: complex trauma, interpersonal difficulties, anxiety, panic, depression, obsessive compulsive disorder, life transitions, minority stress, and family conflict. While I consider myself to be a general practitioner who enjoys working with individuals and families across the lifespan, I hold specialty interests in working with identity development in young adults as well as gender and sexual identity-presenting concerns.
My hope is that a safe, non-judgmental therapeutic experience will allow clients to give their histories and patterns a voice, and that space is created for a corrective emotional experience. Through the understanding and tools harnessed together, insights can be generalized to other relationships and environments.