Dana Pham LCSW
Psychotherapist
Dana has always been a good listener. It’s fundamental to who she is. She found that people would naturally share with her, even as a young person. She is committed to the well being of others and an earnest therapist who offers her clients meaningful experience by way of her clinical prowess and sincere investment in the people she works with.
Dana is a patient and thoughtful listener. Dana has a way of allowing people to feel at ease while still engaging them in meaningful therapeutic experiences. Dana’s clients commonly remark on how comfortable they feel with her. We know from research in the field that the level of comfort that you feel with your therapist will determine the success of therapy, even above what type of therapy is being used.
Dana’s Experience
Dana currently works with children, teens and adults.
Dana has devoted her adult work experience and education to clinical social work and becoming an LCSW. Dana studied sociology and applied-psychology at UC Santa Barbara, then went on to get a Master’s in Social Work (MSW) from New York University’s Silver School of Social Work.
Dana has done powerful therapeutic work with kids, teenagers, and adults struggling with a wide variety of experiences including anxiety, depression, and navigating non-neurotypical experiences like ADHD and Autism Spectrum experiences. Dana had the fortunate experience of working with a community mental health agency in Colorado that allowed her to get a significant breadth and depth of clinical experience. She has supported people and families through change, crisis and complicated times of life.
Dana also has also helped people working with people navigating addiction and those struggling with anger management or rage to affect lasting change in their lives by giving them skills to reduce harm and increase their regulation skills so that they could increase thor capacity for ease and peace.
Dana’s Style
As your therapist, Dana will first focus on making sure that you are comfortable and find it easy to share what is happening for you and what you are hoping for. Dana has a remarkable ability to track your story and remember even the small details so that you can be assured she is fully attending to your process. Dana is good at asking clarifying questions that not only clarify for her but even more importantly, they will help you clarify what the essence of your experience is and from there to get much clearer about what to focus on first and what the most powerful parts of your experience and goals are.
From a therapeutic tools perspective Dana uses DBT & CBT (behavior therapies that use present centered awareness and grounded skills to better understand both what is happening and what you could move toward to get the best outcomes. Dana is experienced and trained as a generalist, which means that she will also employ a plethora of other interventions and supports that she has picked up along the way. In this way your therapy will be very specific to you, your struggles and your strengths.
Dana always works with you in ways that focus on your own needs and strengths. We call this a strength’s based and person-centered approach to emphasize support, acceptance, and compassion. In other words, while Dana will take care to find the struggles and give you skills and support to move through and integrate trauma, the real focus in your therapy with Dana will be around increasing awareness of skills you could use now, habits in thinking, actions and life style that are already working but may need to get turned up. Dana can support you in clarifying what you know already and embolden the strengths you already have to get a more satisfying life.
Dana’s work with kids is gentle and playful. She is thoughtful about making sure parents are also getting all the suppor they can from the sessions progressions. Dana is able to use play, toys and art in sessions in addition to any talk based conencitons and education that will support the child. Dana does well at titrating the session to the temperament and personality of a child, appreciating that every child is different, she is able to quickly establish the child’s ideal starting point and meet them there. This may mean a direct session that clearly addresses the chidls concern or it may mean slowing things down and using things like games. Toys or art to both dilute the intensity of the contact for the child and use those tools as part of the process. Dana’s sincerity and skills a win with everyone, especially kids.