I work with people who are looking for the deeper meaning of the life they could be living and are tired of temporary fixes and solution focused therapies.

You may be experiencing conflicting feelings of sadness despite your successes. You may have a hard time relaxing for long as you battle an inner critic that thinks you're still not enough. You may have suffered from the complexities of being the child of immigrants, holding marginalized identities, and/or nonconventional ways of living. You could be exhausted, stuck and have lost your creative way.

If you're ready to explore how to (re)find your way that is wholly emergent from you and not how others wish you to be, we might be a good match. Inside each of us is a wise knowing self that we sometimes need help to access.

In a therapeutic relationship, the partnership of another mind can help you resolve what is troubling you that cannot be resolved on your own.

Therapy is a commitment, but when you invest the time and space to learn to listen deeply to yourself, stuckness dislodges, creativity emerges and transformation can happen.

Like all complex undertakings it can bring up the whole gamut of emotions, but in my experience it is worth endeavoring to yield a deeper trust in yourself and your voice and the freedom to imagine how things could be different.

In our work together, we will help you develop a flexible mindset and confront uncomfortable truths to promote your psychological well-being. 

My style is warm, interactive and gently challenging. I often use humor, metaphors and imagery to aid in our exchanges.

As a woman of color and adult child of immigrants, your experiences of being marginalized  matters to me and I am committed to examining the impact of interlocking systems of oppression on your life.

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I work in a contemporary psychoanalytic modality, which means I train in the art of deep listening with a socially and culturally conscious lens. I believe we are not just impacted by who were our early life caregivers but also the impact of the social world on our identities (race, politics, law, economy, culture etc.) And as a result, there is a lot we don’t know that is unconscious for better or worse. 

I think of the unconscious like a rich wilderness that we can only hope to be in contact with when we aren’t looking at it straight on. It’s like putting our ears to the earth that is you and naming what we sense and observe and finding clues and signs that can help us make sense of what has been unresolved in you.

For this reason when possible, I encourage free association rather than coming prepared to session, and we may talk about dreams, random associations that come up in session or between sessions, or even notice something that was related to an event weeks prior.

tel: 510-859-7912

Schedule an initial consultation

Call or email me to set up a free 20-minute phone consultation, in which I will ask you some questions to learn what is motivating you to seek help, and you can ask me any questions too. 

Together we will decide if it makes sense to move forward and meet in person or if you are a resident of California proceed to a secure telehealth video platform.

​My office is located on College Ave. (near Alcatraz Ave.) in Berkeley with easy street parking, free public parking at Safeway and Rockridge BART station a 12-minute walk away.

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deborah kim psychotherapist

Deborah Kim, MA, LMFT

License No. LMFT 105935

3155 College Avenue

Berkeley, CA 94705

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Phone: 510-859-7912

Email: info@deborahkimlmft.com

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