Pierre Vilanoba LMFT 116891

Being a man often comes with an unspoken rulebook — stay strong, handle it alone, don't show weakness, keep moving forward no matter what. I've lived that rulebook myself, through a demanding career and major life transitions, and I know how isolating it is when you're never taught to name what you're actually feeling. I work with men ready to put that rulebook down — to communicate more honestly in their relationships and say what's real, without performing a strength they don't feel.

Grief rarely moves in a straight line, and it rarely looks the way people expect. I've worked directly with children, adults, and families facing life-threatening illness and loss, which has shown me how differently grief can show up — in anger, numbness, guilt, or silence, not just sadness. I don't believe in rushing anyone toward closure on a schedule. My role is to help you make sense of what you're carrying, at your own pace, so loss becomes something you can live alongside, not around.

Grief rarely moves in a straight line, and it rarely looks the way people expect. I've worked directly with children, adults, and families facing life-threatening illness and loss, which has shown me how differently grief can show up — in anger, numbness, guilt, or silence, not just sadness. I don't believe in rushing anyone toward closure on a schedule. My role is to help you make sense of what you're carrying, at your own pace, so loss becomes something you can live alongside, not around.

No one exists in isolation — the people around us shape how we think, feel, and cope, often more than we realize. Even when I'm working with just one person, I pay close attention to family dynamics, patterns, and relationships, because they're almost always part of the picture. Understanding those dynamics helps make sense of why certain patterns persist, and it often points toward change that lasts beyond the individual symptom you came in with.

I believe acceptance is one of the most important parts of therapy. So much suffering comes not from difficult emotions, but from fighting or avoiding them, or believing they shouldn't be there at all. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps you make peace with what you feel, rather than battling it, so you can direct your energy toward what actually matters to you. The goal isn't to feel nothing uncomfortable — it's to stop letting discomfort run your life."

I closely link attachment and psychodynamic therapy, because our earliest experiences as toddlers and children shape so much of how we think, feel, and behave as adults. Those early years form the constructs we use to understand the world, other people, and ourselves, often long before we have the words for it. By exploring those early patterns, we can understand not just what you struggle with today, but where it came from, which often makes lasting change possible rather than surface-level.