Meadow Linder, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

When I sit with a client, either an individual or a couple, my primary objective is to fully see and deeply understand them and their experience. Feeling like someone “gets” and accepts you is critical to developing self-worth. Yet many of us have never felt truly appreciated for our unique selves by our families or the others closest to us. That absence and the ache it causes is often underneath the issues that bring clients to therapy. In therapy, feeling seen and accepted is how the healing begins. My goal as a therapist is to build a collaborative relationship with my clients. Together we can peel back the protective layers and gently reveal the sources of the pain beneath. Maybe you’ve done a lot of work on yourself and developed a keen self-awareness, yet you still can’t find love for yourself or build the life you want. These are often the roots driving our habits and the self-defeating patterns we use to prevent ourselves from being hurt again. The fear of vulnerability and the behaviors we employ to keep us safe, may now be preventing us from receiving love from others and creating the types of relationships we desire. Our beliefs about ourselves often keep us rooted in shame, stuck in a world where we are unworthy of the things we want, including love for ourselves. Wouldn’t it be amazing to shed your negative self beliefs and develop new ways of interacting with the world that creates new opportunities for growth and relationships built on trust and acceptance? I can help you write a new narrative focused on the present and the future, not driven by the past. A life with joy and contentment.

My office is located in El Cerrito, CA. It is easily accessible from Berkeley, Lafayette, Richmond, and San Rafael. If your schedule or location doesn't make in-person sessions feasible, I also see many clients virtually. Each way of meeting has its advantages and I have found both to be effective for therapy. I have received training in several therapeutic modalities that I draw on during sessions. In our early sessions, I am gathering information about you. I want to know you as fully as possible. That knowing includes what is keeping you from the life you want or the relationship you desire. It also includes why you are seeking therapy now and what you hope to accomplish. Through understanding you, I can better build a map of how to help you get what you came for. This includes what types of therapy may be the most effective. I will always present techniques as suggestions and will ask for your consent before trying anything new. I want you to challenge yourself but I will never push you to try something you don't want to. Our work is a collaboration. You may be wondering what weird modalities I use. They really aren't that strange, but they may be different than previous therapy you have received or what you've seen in the media. I am more active in our sessions that the stereotypical therapist. I may ask you to focus inward, or to focus on what you are experiencing in your body. I may ask you to slow way down if I feel that relaying an experience so quickly may reactivate old trauma. I may help you identify internal parts or voices that are underneath some of your struggles with old patterns or negative self-beliefs. We could talk all day about your concerns or pain, but if we don't develop a new perspective on the issues or alter our experience of ourselves and our challenges, we'd probably just be going in circles.