California Center for Change

We work with addiction using a compassionate and pragmatic approach. People who misuse substances are often trying to medicate symptoms or feelings. We help our clients understand their unmet needs and fulfill them with compelling alternatives to substance misuse. Sometimes, clients who have previously misused substances are able to develop healthier relationships with them. We've worked with clients who want to change their relationship to cannabis, cocaine, ketamine.

Alcohol misuse can be especially difficult to address due to its availability and the way we've normalized its use as coping mechanism. With the use of behavioral interventions and medication (when appropriate and desired), we can help you determine whether moderation is the right goal for you.

Our clinicians are trained in trauma-informed interventions to help people overcome the debilitating effects of acute and chronic trauma. We utilize behavioral and relational approaches such as EMDR, mindfulness-based CBT, and psychodynamic therapies to help you manage trauma symptoms better so you can shift from surviving to thriving.

We approach addiction treatment from a biopsychosocial perspective and help people understand the needs being fulfilled through their use via the self-medication hypothesis. There's a reason(s) people begin to develop unhealthy relationships with drugs or alcohol. Instead of shaming people for doing their best to cope, we help them reduce negative consequences of substance misuse while increasing values-based, compelling alternatives.

Our clinicians have received training on EMDR as an approach to working with acute and chronic trauma and are able to provide EMDR online and in-person in our San Mateo office.

We are enthusiastic practitioners of this proven effective approach to change. Motivational Interviewing is a client-centered approach that meets people where they're at to increase their intrinsic motivation to change. Using this approach over the last decade has shown us how to tap into the potential each client has for change.

We work with addiction using a compassionate and pragmatic approach. People who misuse substances are often trying to medicate symptoms or feelings. We help our clients understand and fulfill their unmet needs with compelling alternatives to substance misuse. Sometimes, clients who have previously misused substances are able to develop healthier relationships with them. We've worked with clients who want to change their relationship to cannabis, cocaine, ketamine, and other drugs.

We have focused our careers on providing harm reduction therapy for people who want to change their relationship with substances. Our Founder and Clinical Director has written a workbook on harm reduction and regularly trains other professionals on the topic. We are passionate about working with clients from a compassionate approach to reduce the impact of shame and stigma.