EXPERIENTIAL psychotherapy:
ERICKSONIAN, mindfulness-based
Therapeutic Services Offered
Providing individuals support for anxiety, emotional disturbance and mental blocks.
Affirming diversity and overcoming psychological challenges in an ever-changing world.
Individual Talk Therapy Sessions
Personalized 1-hour in-person/telehealth therapy compassionately and effectively addressing psychological issues within a mindfulness-based cognitive behavioral framework (ACT, DBT). Attachment, parts work, somatics and creative visualization are also utilized in your collaborative care.
Experiential via Ericksonian Psychotherapy
I integrate Ericksonian psychotherapy and trance work into treatment when clinically appropriate. These experiential methods draw on imagery, metaphor, somatic awareness, attention, and clients’ own emerging associations and unconscious material.
Some clients describe the experience as feeling dreamlike, deeply absorbed, or similar to “dreaming while awake.” The work is always situated within the broader context of psychotherapy, with time devoted to understanding the presenting concern, preparing for the experience, and integrating what emerges afterward.
Ericksonian methods may support shifts in perspective, emotional regulation, insight, and greater flexibility around longstanding patterns.
Common Areas of Exploration
• Adjustment Distress, Anxious &/or Depressive
• Anxiety, Tension & Worry
• Balancing Tech Use
• Consciousness Expansion
• Coping Skills
• Creative Actualization
• Deconstructing Limiting Beliefs
• Ego-Balanced Achievement
• Emotional Stabilization
• Existential Questions
• Gender, Sexual & Relational (CNM, ENM, BDSM)
• Getting Unblocked
• Heart-Centered Healing
• Identity Exploration
• Inner Child/Reparenting
• Mind-Body/Somatics
• Metacognition/Mindfulness
• Navigating Alternative Subcultures
• Neurodiversity
• Parts Work/Shadow
• Problems of Avoidance
• Resiliency & Boundaries
• Sadness & Low Mood
• Sexual Trauma
• Spiritual Emergence
• Tech Compulsivity & AI Anxieties
• Transcending 'Either/Or' Thinking
• Values Exploration
• WOC & Multiracial Issues
Therapeutic Themes
Expert support for anxiety, identity, consciousness & creativity challenges.
Unblocking Creativity
Guidance for processing and releasing creative blocks and catalyzing generative flow. Honoring creativity as a birthright of beingness. Fostering creation impetus via authentic inspiration vs the scarcity mentality of pure ego striving.
Multicultural Identity
Navigating identity issues revolving around the immigrant experience, "third culture kids," mixed race heritage, colonial mentality, reclamation & integration of indigenous roots and more.
Neurodiversity Focus
Specialized support for neurodiverse individuals including those on the autism spectrum, ADHD or a combination (AuDHD). Affirming non-neurotypical needs and self-care within a "normie" world.
Gender, Sexual & Relational Diversity
Explore issues related to ethical consensual non-monogamy, kink, sex work, LGBTQ+ and other "alt sex" identities within a nonjudgmental, informed and compassionate space. Allyship and shared reality.
Client Feedback
Read what clients say about their experiences with Dr. Josie Valderrama.
"Dr. Valderrama provided a safe space for me to explore all the ways that I used to get stuck. I learned to have more patience and love myself, even the parts of me that I hadn't thought were worth acknowledging."
"The experiential sessions we did were so very beneficial. Not only did I see immediate results, the insights and motivation I gained over the long term was extremely impactful."
For cliENTS
Interested in the experiential and trance-based approaches I use in psychotherapy?
Learn more about Conscious Trancework, my developing third-wave Ericksonian approach to psychotherapy.
drjosie@drjosievalderrama.com
415-320-8173
© 2026. All rights reserved.
Josie Valderrama, PsyD (she or they) Clinical Psychologist, License PSY27913
Mindfulness-Based & Ericksonian Psychotherapy
"I go by 'Dr Josie, Dr V, Josie, Dr Valderrama' - whichever feels comfortable for you."
BLACK LIVES MATTER
For Clinicians
I am a Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) continuing education provider and will be offering live trainings in Conscious Trancework, my third-wave Ericksonian-based approach to experiential psychotherapy.