Maria del Pilar Castaneda, PhD

Name

Pilar Castaneda, Ph.D, LMFT., Clinical FellowApproved Supervisor

Website

Practice Description

I am a bilingual (English and Spanish) Family Therapist with over twenty years of experience working with individuals, couples, children and families from different ethnicities, cultures, genders, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds. I have extensive experience working with a wide range of issues, one area being specifically with trauma survivors. I believe in change and I believe that we all can find our internal resources to grow. I am a respectful and warm person, who believes in connecting and healing in relationships. I show this through my care for my clients and my enjoyment in our work. I think systemically about my clients' challenges and help them heal and move forward in their lives. In addition to talk therapy, I am also experienced in using relaxation and hypnosis with my clients, in order to help them move forward in the healing process. I understand the importance of relationships and attachments and the impact that difficult separations can have in my clients' lives, thus I work in a way that supports safe emotional experiences and change.My process of therapy is one where I start with my clients first by creating an environment where my clients feel safe, heard and understood. To learn about my clients and to understand them in their context, I explore the history of their lives that includes not only information regarding their families backgrounds, dynamics, values and patterns but also their connections and relationships, their strengths and difficulties, in their context. I base my interventions on my client's strengths and resources and I encourage empowerment in their lives.My personal experience in particular with diversity, my professional and personal qualities, strengths and abilities, makes me a therapist that feels comfortable working with differences in a respectful and skillful manner. My greater strength is working with diversity and with couples, families and young children. I believe in the process of therapy where individuals and families work on the issues they are experiencing at the present moment, learn ways to resolve them and heal, and then leave therapy to continue growing on their own. Once we meet we will find a way to work successfully.”

Office Description

Emphasis

Adoption & Foster Care, Aging, Alcohol & Substance Abuse, Assessment & Diagnosis, Children & Adolescents, Consulting, Couples, Intimacy, Death & Grief, Depression, Divorce, Eating Disorders, Extramarital Affairs, Infertility, Mental Illness, Parenting, Physical Illness, Disability, Pre-marital Counseling, Remarriage & Stepfamilies, Sexual Abuse, Spirituality, Religion, Trauma & Violence

Healthplan

Language

English and Spanish

National Provider Identfier

1902065907

Licenses

License	License Number	State
Certified Marriage and Family Therapist	121944	California
Certified Marriage and Family Therapist	204466	Texas
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist	000505-1	New York

Degrees

Date Earned	Degree	Institution	Major
8/10/2010	PhD	Syracuse University	Marriage and Family Therapy

Locations

Licenses

Degrees