Registered Associate MFT #139935
Registered Associate PCC #13881
Supervised by Alexis Forrey, LMFT #113859
Supervised by Angela M. Rukule, LMFT #23029
Meredith Linden, MA (she, her, hers)
About Me
I am an Associate Therapist in Ventura County, California. I work with individuals, families, and couples looking for help with communication, trauma processing, and connecting with body processes.
I come to this work from experiences that drew me deeper into relationship with myself then back outward to the world to facilitate others’ deep dives into themselves.
I offer a safe, open presence and honor your personal life choices. I help you tap into the body to empower you in your strengths and help you make them work in the service of your challenges. I am influenced by psychodynamic/attachment and trauma-informed perspectives. Work with me is primarily about relationship: with yourself, your life, your choices, your others.
Before becoming a therapist, I worked with children and families in northern California inner-city, public schools while being a mom of young children.
I graduated from Pacifica Graduate Institute with a masters degree in depth counseling psychology to allow my soul to do its most fulfilling work. During school, I worked at Vista del Mar Hospital and the Santa Barbara Rescue Mission, acknowledging, appreciating, and accompanying those with substance addictions and acute mental health issues struggling to manage their lives. I recently worked at The New Beginnings Center in Camarillo, a somatic-based trauma treatment practice. I am approachable and open to discussing aspects of my life experiences and their impact on my chosen profession as well as my world view if you have questions. My road to being a therapist is ongoing as I continue to develop my ways of connecting to others and offering myself in the therapeutic relationship.
How I Work: An Eclectic Approach
My primary role is to witness you and what you bring to our sessions utilizing a person-centered approach. I work collaboratively with you to determine a way to achieve the goals you bring to the work. Seeing you, hearing you, and accompanying you on your journey of self-exploration and healing can take many paths; what works for one may not work for another. Some of the methods I use include depth psychology, core belief work, grief processing, somatic experiences, and mindfulness.
Depth Psychology
Depth work is profoundly personal and can be connective, expansive and magical. Depth work is about connecting to the deep, unconscious parts of ourselves that were pushed into hiding from conditioning experiences. Depth psychology recognizes the connection between all facets of life, including what we can’t see, and that we are driven by complex experiences and psychic factors. Psyche is rich and varied in the way it absorbs and copes with life experiences. It doesn’t always express itself in ways obvious to us. Dreamwork, expressive arts, and spirituality (including astrology) are cornerstones of depth work, but not required. Depth work is about being embodied.
Core Feeling Work
Depth work brings core beliefs to the surface in a way that is safe and nonthreatening. From there, thoughts and behaviors can be examined to facilitate more healing and movement. When working with shame, boundaries, and core wounds, it is critical to cultivate safety. Continued conversations about how things feel and where it feels appropriate to move next are mainstays of my approach. I initiate ongoing conversations about your way of re-sourcing yourself while doing this work with psyche.
Grief Processing
Grief is a natural part of healing and transformation. I hold space for and honor your grief, your way.
Somatic Experiences
Tuning into what is happening in the body is a more thorough way of approaching trauma. Circling around the areas where we feel unsafe gives us time and space to gather our strength (re-sourcing) to face stressors as they come. It is not always productive to attack our insecurities and coping mechanisms that have kept us safe for much of our lives. When we get to know our protection mechanisms, why they are there, and how we can work with them, they can help us move in the direction we want and we can discover new ways to protect ourselves. I use the Comprehensive Resource Model of trauma processing that engages multiple layers of resourcing to support you when fully approaching activating and traumatic material.
Mindfulness
Mindfulness allows for a quieting of the mind and a tuning into intuition and the heart’s wisdom. It can be helpful for staying on one’s path and learning how to not get caught up in agendas that don’t resonate with our core. Mindfulness does not have to follow any one prescribed path or rules. It includes very basic tenets like breathing and listening. It is integrated into an embodied practice of holding space.
