Mohammad Shahisaman

There's a point where you've already tried to think your way through it. You've read things, talked to people, maybe even tried therapy before. And what you're carrying is still there, just underneath everything.

I work with adults navigating trauma, anxiety, depression, and the stretches where life stops making sense for a while. I also work with couples, specifically the moments where things break down and the longer work of finding your way back to each other. My background is unusual for a therapist: before this field I spent years as an English professor and academic dean, and I came into this work through music and filmmaking. That path still shapes how I practice. I especially enjoy working with artists, musicians, and anyone whose creative life and mental health are tangled up together.

What I do is experiential and grounded in the body rather than built around worksheets. We pay attention to what happens in the room, not only to the story you bring into it. Most of what we track together is what your body does when a hard topic enters: the tightening, the going blank, the sudden urge to change the subject. Those responses got built for good reasons, usually a long time ago, and they don't respond well to being argued with. They do respond to being noticed without pressure.

With couples, I work the same way. Instead of refereeing the content of an argument, I watch for the moment one of you drops out of contact with the other, and we slow down and stay there.

I also bring in creative work when it fits: music, images, film, writing. My doctoral research was on filmmaking as a clinical tool. Some people find that a song or an image gets closer to the truth than describing it directly ever does. The research is consistent that the relationship between client and therapist predicts outcome better than any particular method. The early sessions are largely about whether this feels right to you. If it doesn't, I would rather help you find someone it does.

In the first session, mostly you'll talk and I'll listen. What I'm trying to get is a picture of why now, as opposed to a year ago or a year from now. That question is more useful than it sounds. I'll ask about what's happening currently, some history, what you've already tried, and what you'd want to be different. If you're coming in with something painful, you don't have to tell me the whole story in the first hour. I'd rather move slower and have you finish the session able to go back into your day.

Near the end I'll tell you what I'm thinking, including whether I seem like the right fit and what I'd suggest if I'm not. If you're coming as a couple, I'll make sure I hear from both of you, not only from whichever one of you talks first.

If any of this sounds like what you've been looking for, reach out. We'll take it from there.