Growing
Still
Psychotherapy with Uma Kahn
"...after all this struggle and all these years...you've simply had enough of drowning, and you want to live and you want to love and you will walk across any territory and any darkness, however fluid and however dangerous, to take the one hand you know belongs in yours."
David Whyte, "The TrueLove" The House of Belonging
How I work
Are you yearning to feel differently about your life? Do you want more joy, less anxiety, more freedom to act? To speak authentically? Are you aching to stop self-hating? To feel your belonging in this world?
Do you need support with grief, loss, depression, anxiety, or managing the daunting task of a big transition?
I'm committed to offering you a safe, welcoming environment to explore your yearnings, and the vantage point through which you see and experience your world.
With equal parts gentleness and honesty, we will uncover the strategies and limitations that may be contributing to your discontent. Through clear seeing, opportunity for real change will emerge. We can then work towards stabilizing the tender, newer Self. I think of this process as cultivating "self-agency." It's one of the most important things we can do to increase our vitality and happiness.
I am active in the room with clients, drawing from an eclectic background to offer a blend of practical tools and reflections. I employ Hakomi, attachment theory, and a wide array of body/mind practices from the yogic and Buddhist, and martial arts traditions. Therapy includes education about family dynamics, character development, and the mind-body connection. I listen, reflect, facilitate, collaborate, coach, cheer-lead, and sometimes play devil's advocate. Movement and touch can be a part of the landscape of therapy as well, which is wholly collaborative when it happens.
Individuals, couples and families of all orienta-tions (towards intimacy, gender and sexuality) are welcome.
If what I offer resonates with you, come see me for a single hour or a single issue. Return for a a month or a year. Scheduling is flexible according to your needs and wishes.
Blessings.
Fees & Insurance
Session Fees
Individuals, Couples and Families:
55-minute sessions: $195
75-minute sessions: $265
90-minutes $320
Reduced Fee Scale: For those managing financial hardship, please inquire about reduced fees, or alternative scheduling options.
Frequency and Duration: I see clients either weekly or biweekly to start. For Couples, regardless of frequency, I recommend 75 or 90 minutes, especially to start. These decisions can be made together after an initial free 30 minute intake / consultation. Both are flexible as the treatment unfolds, pending calendar availability.
Payment & Insurance Info: Payment is requested upon receipt of services. I accept cash, checks, credit cards, paypal, venmo and zelle. If you have a flexible spending account, or insurance that covers psychotherapy, I am happy to provide you with quarterly or annual receipts. Please note, I am considered an "out of network" provider.
Some History
My work with clients in private practice is deeply informed by a lifelong cultivation of embodied practices, starting with martial arts when I was 14 and growing up in southeastern Michigan. By 1998, to heal some chronic back pain, I turned to Yoga and fell in love. The next decade would find me immersed in the practical and spiritual aspects of the mind and body as expressed through Hatha Yoga, Thai massage, Tantric Saivism, Tibetan Buddhism, and a variety of meditation practices.
In 2007, I was introduced to Hakomi, a method of body-integrated psychotherapy. I was mesmerized by the efficacy of this model to teach me about myself, and to help me relate more fully with others and the world around me. The skill-set I learned in subsequent years through experiential trainings would prove invaluable to me both personally and professionally.
By the Fall of 2009, my future had laid itself out clearly in front of me through the Somatic Psychology masters program at the California Institute of Integral Studies, which I completed in 2012. This was in preparation for what I now hold as my life's work.
My training continued over the next several years in the form of three psychotherapy internships: First, with grieving children and families through the East Bay Agency for Children's Circle of Care program in Oakland. This was followed by 18 satisfying months at the Center for Somatic Psychotherapy in San Francisco. Well beyond completion of my "child hours" towards licensure, I supported youth aged 7 to 17 years old as a Camp Tawonga Summer Camp therapist. My internships completed under the supervision of Scott Balderson at the Center for Mindful Psychotherapy on whose Board I currently sit. In January, 2020 I completed Levels 1-3 in Attachment Focused EMDR method, and am regularly supporting clients using this method when appropriate.
I earned a bachelors in Organizational Communications and an MBA from Eastern Michigan University. These degrees prepared me for two decades of diverse work as a conference and event planner, an office manager, a wilderness guide, a self-defense teacher, a ropes course facilitator and trainer, and a meditation and process group leader for teens and young adults, to name a few. The windy road that has brought me to this moment in time has been rich and so very interesting, for which I have immense gratitude.