My Story In Brief
My lifelong abiding curiosity has been to understand what it means to be a human being. My own path of discovery began in a family marked by distinct advantages and also marred by dysfunction, abuse and neglect.
Like so many other people, I was able to raise coping mechanisms that helped me survive but ultimately proved personally debilitating and sometimes deleterious to others. Gratefully, I also inherited a sharp sense of self-awareness, and I always struggled to understand what beset me and take corrective action.
Nevertheless, the day came in my late 20s when I reached the limit of my capacity to carry on. It was from this frightening place of anguish, confusion and despair that I reached for and found the help of understanding, supportive and wise contemporaries. I gradually regained my senses, amended my errors and missteps, and learned to move through the world in a renewed way.
Still, I was unable to shake intense emotional suffering, find and sustain a soulful and intimate relationship or meaningful and fulfilling work. I ultimately realized I could not find my way through these issues on my own. Consequently, I decided to take a suggestion from a friend and consult an astute psychotherapist. Thus began a journey on a path of learning, healing and growing that continues to this day.
With many twists, turns, and seeming reversals, I have discovered an ever deeper and broader sense of self, a keener perception of reality, a healing self-compassion, and fulfilling work and relationships. From a stronger connection to self, others, and life I have regained and expanded my capacity for the whole range of human experience, from wonder and mystery to abject dissolution. I view my life as an opportunity for deepening awareness and wholeness.
My psychotherapy practice is imbued with my own transformative experience, and my sincere desire to be of service at the center of people's lives. My office is a safe haven and a refuge. Multiplicity is seen, respected and honored. Please consider me an ally. Pronouns: He.Him.His.
My lifelong abiding curiosity has been to understand what it means to be a human being. My own path of discovery began in a family marked by distinct advantages and also marred by dysfunction, abuse and neglect.
Like so many other people, I was able to raise coping mechanisms that helped me survive but ultimately proved personally debilitating and sometimes deleterious to others. Gratefully, I also inherited a sharp sense of self-awareness, and I always struggled to understand what beset me and take corrective action.
Nevertheless, the day came in my late 20s when I reached the limit of my capacity to carry on. It was from this frightening place of anguish, confusion and despair that I reached for and found the help of understanding, supportive and wise contemporaries. I gradually regained my senses, amended my errors and missteps, and learned to move through the world in a renewed way.
Still, I was unable to shake intense emotional suffering, find and sustain a soulful and intimate relationship or meaningful and fulfilling work. I ultimately realized I could not find my way through these issues on my own. Consequently, I decided to take a suggestion from a friend and consult an astute psychotherapist. Thus began a journey on a path of learning, healing and growing that continues to this day.
With many twists, turns, and seeming reversals, I have discovered an ever deeper and broader sense of self, a keener perception of reality, a healing self-compassion, and fulfilling work and relationships. From a stronger connection to self, others, and life I have regained and expanded my capacity for the whole range of human experience, from wonder and mystery to abject dissolution. I view my life as an opportunity for deepening awareness and wholeness.
My psychotherapy practice is imbued with my own transformative experience, and my sincere desire to be of service at the center of people's lives. My office is a safe haven and a refuge. Multiplicity is seen, respected and honored. Please consider me an ally. Pronouns: He.Him.His.
"Sean is a gifted therapist. He has a centering presence and deep commitment to understanding others. Working together, I was drawn to his innate wisdom and genuine curiosity and feel fortunate to count him among one of my earliest colleagues."
- Ingrid Cognato, MA, LMFT, PMH-C
Credentials
I earned a Master of Arts degree in Integral Counseling Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco in 2015. Drawing from the major spiritual traditions of the East and West, recent cultural and social sciences research, and the innovations made by contemporary psychoanalytic, humanistic, systemic and transpersonal psychologies, the CIIS Integral Counseling Psychology program views psychological healing and growth within the larger context of spiritual unfolding. The program is experiential, culturally sensitive, and centered on the inner work necessary to become effective in the co-creation of human learning, healing, growth, and wholeness.
I completed roughly 4,000 hours of clinical training in child, individual, couples, family and group therapy as an intern at the Center for Creative Growth in Berkeley and New Perspectives Center for Counseling in San Francisco. I became a fully licensed marriage and family therapist in 2020.
I am a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT), a member of the San Francisco Chapter of CAMFT, and a member of the Marin County Chapter of CAMFT.
Prior to a career in psychology, I served for more than two decades as a journalist in Boston, New York City, and San Francisco.
I have cultivated a non-dual meditation and yoga practice for more than 28 years. I am also an experienced backpacker and an amateur musician. I grew up in the Green Mountains of Vermont and have lived in Northern California since 1996.
I earned a Master of Arts degree in Integral Counseling Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco in 2015. Drawing from the major spiritual traditions of the East and West, recent cultural and social sciences research, and the innovations made by contemporary psychoanalytic, humanistic, systemic and transpersonal psychologies, the CIIS Integral Counseling Psychology program views psychological healing and growth within the larger context of spiritual unfolding. The program is experiential, culturally sensitive, and centered on the inner work necessary to become effective in the co-creation of human learning, healing, growth, and wholeness.
I completed roughly 4,000 hours of clinical training in child, individual, couples, family and group therapy as an intern at the Center for Creative Growth in Berkeley and New Perspectives Center for Counseling in San Francisco. I became a fully licensed marriage and family therapist in 2020.
I am a member of the California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT), a member of the San Francisco Chapter of CAMFT, and a member of the Marin County Chapter of CAMFT.
Prior to a career in psychology, I served for more than two decades as a journalist in Boston, New York City, and San Francisco.
I have cultivated a non-dual meditation and yoga practice for more than 28 years. I am also an experienced backpacker and an amateur musician. I grew up in the Green Mountains of Vermont and have lived in Northern California since 1996.