Tyana Tavakol (She/her)

Anxiety is like an unwelcome visitor that just won't leave no matter how much you try. Whether the visitor shows up when you have to disagree with someone, take a test, stand up for yourself, or other scenarios, it stops you from doing things you want to be doing. In my years of working with clients on their stress levels, we tackle it by expanding awareness on how it's showing up, what might be causing it, and how to bring that unwelcome visitor's volume down.

Anxiety often feels like that uninvited guest who just won’t leave, no matter how much you try to make it go away. It tends to show up at the worst times, like when you need to disagree with someone, take a test, or stand up for yourself. It can stop you from doing the things you really want to do! In my work with clients, we tackle this by getting curious about how anxiety shows up for you, understanding where it might be coming from, and finding ways to turn down its volume.

Trauma therapy requires a few things: a therapist you like, becoming more aware in the moment of what comes up for you, and learning how to bring peace to your life. I've received training in the Trauma Resiliency Model, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and IFS (inner child / parts work), all involving increasing your self-insight, bringing down the volume on how your trauma shows up, and uncovering you underneath the defense mechanisms that helped you survive.

To understand your present, it can help to shine a light on the past. My base training for the first few years of my therapy journey was focused heavily on helping clients build the connection between how their past relationships have affected their current ones. These insights may be something you can explicitly remember or may just live in your body. As we build your self-awareness, we create space for you to make shifts in your present and lighten the emotional weight of the past.

Whether you are self or officially diagnosed, your struggles are valid. It can be so hard not to question yourself when the neurotypical world makes you feel like there's something wrong with you for being "different", like everyone got a handbook on how to navigate things except you. In neurodiversity affirming therapy, we work towards creating a life that works with - not against - your neurospicy brain. We lean into your strengths and uniqueness to help you slowly unmask and find confidence.

To be human is to have survival parts, and I have found such amazing results helping people process their trauma using internal family systems. Together, we explore what parts of you have been formed to help you survive, what keeps them holding on so tightly, and how to bring you more of a felt sense of safety and a stronger connection to your inner wisdom. As your survival parts feel more safe, it becomes easier to separate what's your trauma talking and what's your intuition.

Receiving an autism diagnosis later in life can feel like finally finding the missing piece of a puzzle you've been trying to solve for years. Suddenly, so much starts to make sense -but, it can also bring grief, relief, anger, and a lot of questions. Together, we'll make space for all of it while helping you better understand your brain, unlearn shame, embrace your strengths, and build a life that works with your nervous system instead of against it.