I am warm and interactive, adapting to what you bring and feels appropriate in the moment. I often use metaphors and imagery to promote and convey meaning and depth when plain words do not adequately capture the nuance of your experience. |
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As a woman of color and an immigrant, I hold a social justice perspective and sensibility in listening for the ways in which marginalization and microaggressions have become oppressive internalized beliefs. I welcome and respect your unique identities and life experiences. I have comfort and experience working with a diverse range of people culturally and racially, and with gender expansive identities and relationship structures.
People sometimes ask me what type of therapy I use. I tailor your therapy to your unique context and needs. Although I may utilize a variety of perspectives, such as object relations, attachment, CBT, and mindfulness, my primary approach is relational and psychodynamic. Relational therapy recognizes the importance of relationships to our mental health and well-being. We develop our sense of self, heal, and change in relationship with someone who is empathic and attuned to us. I work to establish a foundation of trust and collaboration in our therapeutic relationship. The experience of our relationship provides a path to understanding wounding that occurred in previous relationships and provides a source for a new healing experience of relationship. |
Together we explore your past and current relationships to shed light on your current distress, sense of disconnection, and self-worth.
Psychodynamic therapy explores deep-rooted assumptions, life experiences, and relationships to uncover and understand the underlying causes of symptoms and repetitive patterns. Although people feel relief from current issues, the aim is growth, awareness, and sustained well-being. In our work together, we will address immediate concerns, and along the way, look at how past experiences may be creating barriers and contributing to present-day hardships. As I listen to your current situation as well as your 'life story,' I tune in to deeper, long-standing beliefs, assumptions, and expectations you have developed to cope ― which are often times outside your awareness. We may also examine how factors, such as class, race, gender, and culture held within power structures and systems, shaped your relationship experiences. With greater self-knowledge, you begin to feel you have more choice and agency in your own life. Together we identify areas where you can feel more self-acceptance and areas where you want to create change. |
My Origin Story
People sometimes ask me what led me to become a therapist.
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My origin story is a personal story. It’s a combination of seeking to understand my own experiences — immigration, family dynamics, romantic partnerships, gender and ethnic identity, discrimination and microaggressions, loss and grief — and wanting to help others do the same.
As a kid, I was a sponge, fascinated by, a keen observer of, and cataloger of people and their behavior, motivations, and relationships. Of course, the first were my parents, and after emigrating from India, I focused on ‘Americans’. As an immigrant, it was imperative that I learned how to fit-in and belong. I needed to decode the culture and figure out my place in my new home. I became — still am — an avid reader of character-driven novels about families and relationships, how people relate to others and themselves, legacies of and overcoming trauma, and how people come to know themselves. Despite successes in many aspects of my life, I had growing awareness of a deep unease, emptiness, and melancholia. There was unacknowledged loss and unprocessed grief. There was confusion about identity. My own therapy helped grow my attunement to my internal experiences. All the data I had collected, became valuable knowledge, and over time, integrated into a personal wisdom. |
My experiences helped me become an open, flexible, empathetic person, perpetually curious of the unspoken and unconscious that influences people’s choices and behaviors, their lived experiences. I love becoming completely immersed in people’s stories. I dreamed about using my natural gifts of intense curiosity and insight and desire to facilitate growth — in others and my self.
Over a decade ago, I exchanged my corporate office for a therapy practice. And it has been my honor to sit with my clients and accompany them on a journey towards self-discovery and healing. I feel deeply grateful for the trust people place in working with me and to be able to witness their journeys. When I am not taking deep dives into the ocean of human experience, I’m still reading novels, and playing with my dog, enjoying a jammy California Zinfandel with friends, grooving to soulful music, laughing along to the comedy of keenly-observed human behavior, and exhaling with equanimity. |
MY EXPERIENCE & TRAINING
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I am a psychotherapist (LMFT 119728) licensed with the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.
In my private practice I provide depth psychotherapy to couples and adults throughout California. Most often, I work with immigrants, adult children of immigrant parents, people who identify as Black, Brown, People of Color, South Asian / Indian or member of the Indian Diaspora, mixed race, queer and interracial couples, mid-career professionals, and young adults in graduate school or launching their careers. I am fluent in conversational Hindi/Urdu and have conducted therapy in Hindi with several South Asian clients. My previous clinical experience was in community mental health working with socioeconomically diverse families, children, teens and couples with complex trauma, medical illness, abuse and neglect, and issues related to immigration and acculturation. Also, I have experience working with children on-site in a school setting. |
After completing my graduate degree in marriage family therapy, I chose to specialize in psychodynamic psychotherapy. I received my training at the prestigious Psychotherapy Institute (TPI) in Berkeley. This intensive, post-graduate, 2-year clinical training in psychodynamic psychotherapy, included working with adults and couples in TPI’s low-fee clinic and weekly didactic seminars, process groups, sociocultural issues groups, and individual and group supervision.
I am a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists, The Psychotherapy Institute, and Northern California Society of Psychoanalytic Psychology. Prior to establishing my therapy practice, I worked with non-profits and global professional services firms in corporate marketing and managing people, operations, and IT projects for over 25 years. |
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Kavita Comoglio, MA, LMFT 119728
Online Therapy for Adults and Couples in California Phone: 510.629.0131 ©2014-2022 Kavita Comoglio All rights reserved |