Tyana Tavakol, MA

ou know something’s wrong but you can’t figure out what to do about it. You’ve been feeling alone, stressed, and irritable, and it’s sad thinking that you don’t remember the last time those weren’t somewhat a part of your day to day. It feels like you’re making it through each day, and even though you’ve gotten pretty good at covering it up so no one else can notice, you know you’re struggling.

Life as it is now is not working; you’re ready to make a change. You deserve a safe space to explore what’s blocking you from finding the peace that keeps escaping you. You are at a powerful and important point in your life. The next step is to decide to step into becoming your authentic and self-aware self.

Complex Childhood Trauma

Easy and safe are not the words you would use to describe what it was like growing up. Maybe your home was filled with arguments. Maybe you had to grow up faster than the other kids and often got told you’re an “old soul”. There’s a part of you that knows, whatever happened back then, it’s affecting your life and behavior today and it’s time to feel some more control over it.

It can be terrifying to start to look into our past, and, our past is truly what holds the key to understanding and improving ourselves in important and empowering ways. It’s common to start noticing symptoms of childhood trauma in adulthood. Childhood trauma effects can be debilitating and dysregulating, disrupting our ability to go about our daily lives. Your body and mind hold memories of the past, some that you can’t consciously remember, some that you can.

Let’s work together to reduce your past’s power over you. We will go at the pace and direction that you choose, collaboratively gathering insight into how to heal from childhood trauma based on what in your past is showing up for you today. You will learn skills and tools to keep your body feeling safe and calm not just in times of going into hard memories but throughout various stressful times in your life. Instead of your triggers taking over you, the knowledge and confidence you will build will help you access your inner strength and calm and live in the present.

BIPOC Adult Children of Immigrants (First Generation / Second Generation)

“Where do I fit”, it’s a question you’ve been asking yourself for some time but can’t figure out. You don’t feel fully American but you don’t feel fully part of a particular BIPOC community either. You’ve gotten the question “where are you from” your whole life, and while it’s frustrating just to hear the question at all, you wish you had a clearer answer yourself.

We don’t often get a space to explore the confusing and difficult experience of being a part of multiple cultures. Whether we were raised with parents with different ethnicities and cultures, or just having parents raised outside of the U.S., it can be hard to know where to start in the search for our own identity. Being a first-generation American, and second-generation immigrant leaves us with a lot of questions about where we belong. There’s a deep desire to connect with our family members as well, but there’s a constant disconnect we just don’t know how to bridge. As a child born in Los Angeles to parents who immigrated here as teenagers after the Iranian revolution, I feel this experience deeply. We all deserve to feel like we belong and get a clearer understanding of who we are.

As a BIPOC therapist, I believe in supporting improvement in BIPOC mental health across the community and first-generation and second-generation immigrants. In our time together, we will explore what it means to be you. What are all the intersectionality of your identity that makes you, you? What’s murky and unclear that we can start to define? Which parts are the hardest to understand or accept? We will hold space for you to find what it means to be uniquely you through an intergenerationally-focused, culturally curious lens.

Therapy for First-Generation Immigrants Parents and First-Generation American Teens

Your kid makes no sense to you, and it’s gotten worse since they’ve become a teenager. It feels like they’re rude, they don’t listen, and you’re tired of fighting with them. You care so much and just want to understand them, but it’s hard. You moved to the U.S., they were raised here, and there are differences between you because of that that make it hard to connect. They are not getting raised the same as how you were and you feel like you’re doing a great job compared to your upbringing, which makes it all the more confusing why you still feel stuck.

Coming from a culture outside of the U.S. and raising an American-acculturated kid is hard. It’s common to feel frustrated and not know the right steps to take to build a close connection between you. There’s an entire life and learning that happens when someone grows up in a different country, and trying to be a parent while also adapting to U.S. culture even if you’ve been here for 20+ years can still be really challenging. You want to do better than your parents but you don’t want to give up your own culture and the parts of their parenting you resonate with.

In therapy, we hold the space for all the parties to have a chance to speak. We work on helping everyone understand each other better and define goals that can improve the family’s well-being as a whole. We break-down the conflict cycles, work on communication skills, and collaborate to create new family processes that work for everyone. Let’s work together to bring your family closer.

Therapy for Tech Industry Professionals

You’re in a tech company that people dream of working at, that you dreamed of working at. You work hard. You stay up late. You miss gatherings with friends and family. The deadlines never end, and the grind never ends. Your stress never ends. Whether it’s having a frustrating boss or leadership, feeling unfulfilled in your responsibilities, or struggling in the persistently demanding tech culture, happiness at work and in life is getting more challenging as time goes on.

You deserve to feel happy with your life. As a past employee in a large tech company, I understand what it means to define yourself as a tech professional and what it takes to not only survive but thrive day in and day out in that culture.

In therapy, we will help shift from the feeling of being constantly behind and uncertain of your self-worth to feeling confident, calm, and on top of your life priorities. We will talk about your goals, both professionally and personally, and implement the strategies to get you on the fast track toward them. Together, we will discover how to bring a feeling of purpose and passion into your life.