Brian Henderson
Welcome.
Hi there, I'm Brian.
I am a Marriage and Family Therapist Trainee working in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am currently working with individuals and couples.
There comes a moment for each of us where we struggle to make sense of where to go next.
Some part of us knows that life should be different. We long for something different and we don’t know how to get it. It could be more peace with our bodies. Maybe it’s resolution with our families or deeper relationship with our partners. Or we’re trying to figure out how to be less alone and reconnect with community.
We too often receive the message that what we feel is too much. We come to believe that what makes us different, makes us a burden, and that we should deal with it on our own.
But to need help is deeply human.
We are not broken for our suffering. What we feel does not need fixing. I believe that our hurts are signal flares from some deeper, more intact self, which light the way to a better relationship with the world around us. Therapy is the practice of following those signals with someone else walking beside you.
Change can be difficult.
Here are some of the tools and belief systems that I pull on to help my clients with the inevitable process of transformation and journeying into the unknown.
Ecosystems of Change
We’re individuals, but we live nested within big and impactful systems: families, communities, societies, and ecosystems. Each of those systems go through cycles of creation, evolution, and destruction — and so do we.
Relationship and Community
Healing is about bringing us back into relationship with others. The therapy room is a testing ground for you learn to set boundaries, state needs, and nourish yourself.
Trauma and the Body
We’ll work with a variety of tools — Hakomi, breathwork, and body-centered mindfulness, among others — that help us slowly expand our capacity to listen to what the body already knows.
Psychedelic Integration
With an eye to the emerging neuroscience of psychedelic therapy and keeping important cultural considerations in mind, we’ll work together to help you make sense of your experiences.
About Me
We heal in the presence of other humans. I’m a human too, it turns out, and my humanity will be in the room with us.
I am a therapist. I am also a partner, a friend, a writer, a swimmer, a trained California Naturalist, and a lover of music. I will call on my experience as a gay man and on my journeys with chronic pain and body dysmorphia to inform our work. I believe that the body and what we feel in the present moment carry some of the most important information for our work.
It’s often difficult to tap into what’s right here in our bodies and right now in our hearts, so I incorporate a number of tools in my work: Western research-based neuroscientific theory, Buddhist-influenced mindfulness practices, Gestalt theory, and open dialogue about the relationship we develop together, among others.
I’m looking forward to meeting you and starting down a shared road.
Who I See
I welcome you to reach out if you think we might be a good fit.
Folks looking for support in the emergence of their LGBTQ+ identity
Folks struggling with chronic pain and autoimmune disorders
Folks looking to make sense of psychedelic experiences
Couples and individuals navigating everyday anxiety in work and relationships
Contact Me
Contact: Brian Henderson
Phone: (415) 498-0069
Email: brianholtonhenderson@gmail.com
Employed by The Marina Counseling Center
Supervised by Molly Merson, LMFT #52483