Susan San Tara
MA, MFT, Certified Hakomi Trainer
About
I am a licensed Psychotherapist, in private practice since 2000. I have been practicing the Hakomi Method since 2005 and am a Certified Hakomi Therapist and Certified Hakomi Trainer. In 2007, I co-founded Anam Cara Therapy Center in Berkeley.
Anam Cara (meaning Soul Friend) helps define the essential goals of my therapeutic work, which are; to assist others to expand their consciousness, to unfold and discover themselves as authentic people, to overcome the obstacles, mindsets and habits that keep their lives stuck, and to empower them to live fully.
My personal style is warm, heartfelt and nurturing, setting a casual friendly tone for my work. I strive to create a therapeutic environment that is equally safe and dynamic, where together we explore the territories of deep relationship, intimacy, issues of identity, sexuality, spirituality, family dynamics and parenting, conflict resolution, anger, grief, and personal authenticity.
Susan San Tara
MA, MFT, Certified Hakomi Trainer
How I Work
As a relational psychotherapist and Certified Hakomi Practitioner, I help individuals and couples focus on the ways they show up in relationships with others and with themselves. Using mindfulness and actual embodied experience to explore consciousness and core beliefs, clients are empowered to transform in ways that feel right to them. They learn to meet life with more clarity, effective action, satisfaction, and peacefulness. As a result, clients find that they are able to face the obstacles in their life with increased power and the ability to choose rather than react.
My therapeutic mindset is rooted in the study of relational systems theories (from bodily systems, family systems, eco-systems, energy systems, to solar systems). In my personal life, I have studied shamanism, Earth based healing approaches, Ecopsychology, and energy work for more than 30 years. All of these inform my therapeutic perspective.
My Practice
In 2000, I received my Masters Degree in Transpersonal Counseling from John F. Kennedy University. In 2008, I became a Certified Hakomi Therapist. I joined faculty at the Hakomi Institute as a Certified Hakomi Teacher in 2010; and in 2019, I was promoted to Certified Hakomi Trainer by the International Hakomi Institute. I currently teach Hakomi throughout California and in South America. I have also taught as adjunct faculty at JFK University, as well as the California Institute of Integral Studies.
In addition to my therapeutic and teaching work, I have presided as the officiant at weddings, have assisted women in the process of giving birth, and have journeyed with many through the deep experience that death brings. I am a lover of life and the enormous territory over which its many paths travel. Come, let’s walk a while.