• Life Transitions
• Grief and Loss
• Religious or Spiritual Crisis
• Lack of Meaning and Purpose
• Relationship Issues
• Depression & Anxiety                     
• Childhood Trauma
• Chronic/Life-threatening Illness
• Personal Growth

       As we journey through life, we sometimes encounter the Unexpected: a situation or experience that challenges our ordinary ways of looking at things and habitual ways of coping. The lives we have carefully constructed for ourselves may suddenly or gradually unravel as the things that have given our life meaning and direction fall apart. It may be the end of an important relationship, a serious illness, a loss of faith, failure in an important undertaking, the death of a loved one, a crippling accident, the discovery of abuse, or discovery that one is attracted to the “wrong” sex, that thrusts one headlong into uncharted territory. At such times of change or traumatic loss we may feel emotionally cut off and unseen by others – be it one’s partner, family, community, or God. This can be an agonizingly lonely time as we struggle to re-orient ourselves and gain a foothold in a reality where all the rules have changed. We may feel as if we’re left wandering in a strange land without a map or a compass. In different spiritual traditions, this experience has been known as a “Dark Night of the Soul,” “Night Sea Journey,” “Wandering in the Desert,” or being swallowed up in the  “Belly of the Whale.” Such experiences can be seen as a kind of an Initiation – and the only way out is through. Viewed from such a spiritual perspective, these traumatic losses and upheavals in our lives can become a gateway into a fuller and more encompassing life, into our own Wholeness.

          If it feels like you have lost your way, like your life has fallen apart, and you don’t know where to go or whom to turn to, it helps to know there are others who have been this way before, and are familiar with the terrain. When everything seems black, it helps to have someone who can sit with you in the darkness and say: “You are not alone. I am here with you.”

          My name is Leena Pullinen. I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, and a Clinical Art Therapist. I also hold a Master’s degree in Philosophy of Religion.  I have a private psychotherapy practice in the San Francisco Bay Area (Menlo Park - Palo Alto area), and also do telephone counseling. I have a special interest in working with people who are going through difficult life transitions or experiencing a spiritual or psychological crisis. My approach integrates Jungian analytical psych-ology, attachment theory and other developmental perspectives, trauma theory, mindfulness practice, and the expressive arts. I believe that when we learn to still our minds and tap our innate creativity in the safety of a supportive relationship, personal healing imagery begins to arise that can point the way toward integrating the experiences of loss into a coherent life story. My professional experience includes fifteen years of work as an individual and group therapist at clinics and hospitals, dealing with trauma, grief and loss, abuse, depression and anxiety, and existential and relationship issues. In addition to my work with adults, I do art therapy and play therapy with children. To learn more about services for children, please visit:    www.HealingArtsforKids.com 

      "The therapist is not the one who heals, that is, who intervenes with his own skills; he is a therapist in the original meaning of the word: a companion on the way."  - Karlfried Graf Durckheim