Brian Henderson
Welcome.
Hi there, I'm Brian.
I am an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist working in the San Francisco Bay Area. I am currently seeing 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 else and we don’t know how to get it. It could be more peace with or within 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 with our grief and pain.
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 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 learning how to follow those signals with someone else walking beside you.
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, and a lover of queer dancefloors and music. I am a gardener, a UC-trained California Naturalist, and a passionate ecologist. To inform our work, I will call on my experience as a gay man who has grappled with unlocking his own life force and on my decade-long relationship with chronic pain.
I believe that the body and what we feel in the present moment carry some of the most important information for our work. I also know that the history and health of the land we live on has so much to teach us about how to heal. I am a white cis man living on unceded Ohlone land. Part of my own journey toward wholeness involves consciousness of the ways that I embody forces that routinely rob people of their lives, loved ones, and land. Our work together will reckon with the struggle to unleash ourselves while also seeking to liberate others.
I look forward to meeting you and starting down a shared road.
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, and we also 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 to learn to set boundaries, state needs, and nourish yourself.
Trauma and the Body
We'll work on a tangible level with the nervous system, using somatic mindfulness practices. But pain that shows up in the here and now has roots in the deep past. To expand your capacity to listen to what your body already knows, we'll also look backward, to your family and your ancestry.
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.
I credit much of my approach to the wisdom generously offered to me by my collaborators, my community and my mentors. I owe particular thanks to Frank Ehrenfriend, Carla Detchon, Ron Carmel, Garen Karnikian, Mel McCrea, Jason Butler, Molly Merson, and Jonathan Moss.
Who I See
I welcome you to reach out if you think we might be a good fit.
Folx looking for support in the emergence of their LGBTQ+ identity
Folx struggling with chronic pain and autoimmune disorders
Folx 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 Jonathan Moss, LMFT
Supervised by Jonathan Moss, LMFT #89997