Helping people who struggled during childhood recover choicepossibility, and fulfillment in adulthood.

IFS Therapy, EMDR, and Brainspotting Therapy for complex trauma (complex PTSD) and its manifestations of anxiety, & depression.

Certified IFS Therapist & Certified Brainspotting Therapist

Trained in EMDR Therapy and Sensorimotor Therapy

Anny Papatheodorou, Licensed Psychotherapist | San Francisco Bay Area

Culturally affirming and trauma-informed IFS & Brainspotting Therapy for adults in Walnut Creek, Oakland, & online throughout California

Image of Anny Papatheodorou, Licensed Therapist certified in IFS and Brainspotting in the San Francisco Bay Area

Welcome! I’m Anny.

I'm a licensed psychotherapist certified in Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy and Brainspotting therapy. Not to mention a fantasy novel nerd, human and dog mother, and feta cheese aficionado.

I know in my bones what it is like to come from a challenging and painful background. As a relational trauma therapist, I have the honor of helping people heal their childhood wounds so that they create lives full of possibility and choice.

In our work together, I bring my full Self, meaning I'm right there with you every step of the way. I'm not a "blank slate" and will offer reflections and personal examples that may shed some light on your experiences, moments of "stuckness," and isolation.

I can hold intensity. There's no such thing as "being too much or too needy." I will laugh with you. I will curse with you. And welcome all parts of you wholeheartedly.

I work best with…

People who gravitate towards my practice are self-reflective and invested in their psycho-emotional well-being and personal development.

I offer a non-judgmental space to explore your inner experience, deepen your understanding, and feel more connected to yourself, those you cherish, and your community.

We might be a good fit if you desire to:

  • Shift behavioral patterns that stem from a difficult childhood, repeated violations of boundaries, rejection, betrayal, abandonment, and confusion,

  • Transform your relationship to internalized shame, rejection, and criticism, mainly when driven by your inner critic (or choir of critics!) For instance, feelings of "not being good enough," having been characterized as being "too much,” and having heard the phrase, “what is wrong with you?” one time too many.

  • Better understand the different parts of yourself, feel more self-assured and confident in yourself, and increase your self-compassion (please view Internal Family Systems Therapy/parts work therapy).

  • Create a gratifying and meaningful professional and creative life.

  • Seek ways to find your authentic voice and speak your truth in a self-affirming way.

  • Reflect on identity, positionality, purpose, and meaning and reconnect to ancestry and heritage

  • Set healthy boundaries around your time, space, and emotional energy, i.e., not pouring from an empty cup.

One of the greatest gifts we can offer ourselves is compassion for the parts of us that are wounded.

It takes inward compassion for us to see clearly what is going on around us.

Having that perspective is part of what is so freeing.

Offerings

Specialties

Watching the moon
at dawn
solitary, mid-sky,
I knew myself completely,
no part left out.

- Izumi Shikibu

“Trauma is not what happens to us, but what we hold inside in the absence of an empathetic witness.”

— Peter Levine, Ph. D., Somatic Experiencing Institute

All Of You Is Welcome Here

We all deserve to have our stories heard.

We all deserve to know we are not alone.

We all deserve to be seen and have our experience acknowledged.