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Meet the Therapist

Depth work
online in California.

I became a therapist because careful attention can change the way a life is lived — not by forcing an answer, but by making room for what has gone unheard.

The people I work with are thoughtful and reflective, and may still find themselves caught in the same place. That is often where the work begins.

CIIS, San Francisco Gestalt & Depth Psychology Psychoanalytic Training Object Relations Somatic Work In-person · Palo Alto Telehealth · CA-wide
Shawn Walters
The Philosophy

How I think about this work.

The more capable someone appears, the harder it often is to ask for help — because it requires admitting that the competence that's always worked isn't working this time.

Depth work stays near what keeps returning: the familiar pattern, the relationship that meets the same impasse, the feeling that does not quite fit the story. These are not simply problems to eliminate. They can be invitations to pay attention.

I offer a place where you do not have to perform competence, explain everything, or arrive with the right insight. We make contact with what is here, at a pace that can be lived with.

My training in Integral Counseling Psychology, Relational Gestalt therapy, psychoanalytic work, mindfulness, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy gives me several ways to meet what comes into the room.

If this resonates, a 15-minute conversation costs nothing.

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What informs my work

A practice shaped
by real life.

Before becoming a therapist, I spent many years in creative and technical worlds—close to ambition, responsibility, and the private cost of keeping everything going.

That experience still informs how I listen. Therapy does not require a dramatic explanation. Sometimes it begins with the recognition that the way things have been working is no longer enough.

Training & Credentials
M.A. Integral Counseling Psychology — California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco
Relational Gestalt Therapy — Residential Training
Psychoanalytic Training — ongoing
Plum Village Monastery — 3-Month Mindfulness Residential, France
Deer Park Monastery — 3-Month Mindfulness Residential, California
Registered Associate MFT #138642 — supervised by Christina Miller-Martinez, LMFT #105663, A Good Place Therapy, Palo Alto

The first conversation
is always free.

15 minutes. No intake form. Just a conversation.

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