ABOUT ME & MY APPROACH
Hello! My name is Tawny Holt and my pronouns are she/her. I'm a white, cis gendered, male-partnered woman and mother living in the California Bay Area on unceded Lisjan Ohlone territory. I believe healing is possible and have been transformed by my own experiences in therapy as a survivor of complex trauma. My approach is warm, relational, curious, trauma-informed, and authentic. I believe therapy should be a real encounter between real people and I arrive as such to our experience together.
​I’m a licensed marriage and family therapist and I've worked in mental health for five years. I have particular experience with and enthusiasm about serving parents, couples, adolescents and families. I hold a BA in cultural anthropology and a BA in feminist studies from the University of California Santa Cruz and I received a master’s in counseling psychology with an emphasis in community mental health from California Institute of Integral Studies in 2017.
​I am committed to an ongoing process of internal investigation and external action that reckons with my privilege and position within a white supremacist, racist, queerphobic, sexist and capitalist culture. I believe emancipation from legacies of harm and inequity (as perpetrator and victim) to be a lifelong pursuit and I invite conversation about how my positionality can impact the therapeutic relationship and how difference can be a catalyst for curiosity and expansiveness.
Experience & Orientation
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I’m guided and inspired by liberation psychology, Multidimensional Family Therapy, the wisdom of the body, mindfulness, narrative therapy, lived experience, humanist and existential therapy, and the resilience and wonder of human beings. I have experience treating folks struggling with depression, anxiety, PTSD, substance misuse, ADHD, and relationship challenges. No matter the labels given to the suffering people endure, I have found that the human spirit has a deep longing for and inclination toward healing and wholeness. I see my role as witness, hope-holder, and collaborator in your unfolding, sovereign story.
I'm particularly passionate about working with parents, caregivers, couples and families and have spent the most time working with parents and their adolescent children. Whether working with individuals or families, I use an intergenerational lens focused on how long-held family stories and systems can be sources of wisdom and strength as well as sources of pain and suffering. I find this particularly helpful in working with parents to uncover, confront and re-imagine complex patterns and behaviors from their families of origin as they take on the sacred work of raising children. Whether you are parenting children or learning to re-parent yourself, my approach is to understand and support you in the context of family, community, systems, and your own development to bring another heart and mind into your story, your hopes, and your healing.
I have extensive training in Multidimensional Family Therapy and additional training in the areas of restorative justice, motivational interviewing, cultural humility, non-violent communication, and trauma-informed care. I’m a maker and artist, formerly by trade, and currently spend my free time knitting, weaving, sewing, and creating children’s toys.
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Recent Trainings
Advanced Perinatal Mental Health Psychotherapy, Postpartum Support International, 2022
Perinatal Mood Disorders: Components of Care, Postpartum Support International, 2022
Cultural Sensitivity in Clinical Practice -- Dr. Kenneth Hardy, 2019
Oppression, Privilege & Motivational Interviewing--Seeds of Change, 2019