Irina Weitzen, MA

I was born in Belarus and grew up in Israel before moving to San Diego and starting a family here. The transitions I experienced throughout my life have taught me the importance of a secure base. I believe that humans need connection and that feeling safely connected, seen, and accepted drives us to explore and move in the world in our chosen ways. I would support you in moving through previously unattended feelings in a supportive and attuned environment, creating a corrective experience where your feelings matter and are valid, where you are attuned and responded to, and where you are not sitting with difficult feelings alone. I will also explore with you what is important to you and what are your preferred ways of living.

My approach is grounded in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), which means your emotional experience and felt sense would be prioritized and attuned to in our work together and that creating a space where you feel heard, understood, seen, accepted, and safe is incredibly important to me. It also means that I come to my work as a therapist with an attachment lens that acknowledges the impact of our relationships and our context on us, and that one’s experience and behavior makes sense within its context. Also important and central to our work together is a trauma-informed, non-pathologizing, collaborative, present, and empathic stance. I value you and look forward to getting to know you. Experience working with various concerns and especially with trauma experiences as well as couples work