Kamyar Jarahzadeh (he/him)

I bring a unique expertise to understanding family conflict through a culturally sensitive lens. Migration, family histories, language, and intergenerational trauma can all play an important role in understanding familial strife. My approach seeks to acknowledge and bring awareness to these elements during treatment, in order to illuminate new ways of conceptualizing recurring patterns and issues.

I take a holistic approach to depression. Rather than focusing primarily on skills or changing habits, I offer a long-term and analytical approach to understanding depression in a client's life in order to get better acquainted with the root cause of the concern. I follow evidence-based practice and literature that suggests longer-term relief of depressive symptoms can be achieved through long-term work.

What fundamentally causes our anxiety to reach a level of concern can often be hard to discern. For certain presentations of anxiety, relief from symptoms can come from engaging with its root causes. Rather than focusing on short-term relief, my approach to anxiety focuses on a gradual and deep engagement with its symptoms in order to bring context and understanding to a client's experience of anxious thoughts, feelings, and physical symptoms.

I am a strong believer in the power of the psychodynamic approach for many mental health concerns, allowing us a framework to look deeper at the values, thoughts, and beliefs that inform our patterns of behavior. With less focus on traditional exercises, homework between sessions, or reading, I offer a more free form approach. Note that psychodynamic therapy doesn't always have to be long-term--I have training and experience in applying a more short-term psychodynamic approach.

I consider the motivational interviewing stance a useful approach when looking at issues of behavior change. While my therapeutic style works to create fundamental and lasting change, sometimes along the way we just need to see how we can modify our immediate behaviors patterns to support our mental health goals. This style of therapy can be a very effective way to problem solve and identify where the tangible and intangible roadblocks in our lives may be.

For some clients, healing is about understanding, redefining, and ultimately "taking back" your story. In these contexts, we can use the power of storytelling to do this work of repairing our relationship with our past, present, and future. Narrative therapy can even have a creative element, where we use writing or other forms of expression to tell, process, and re-write your story until we've reached your mental health goals.