Renee X Chen Psychotherapy

I am a registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist with the California Board of Behavioral Sciences.

Growing up as a child immigrant in the US and living in divergent cultures developed within me a sensitivity towards and passion for working with those who feel themselves at the margins of society and in their own life. My style is warm, engaged, thoughtful and practical. I tailor a unique blend of talk therapy, parts work, mindfulness-based and somatic practices according to your needs, and use a signature cocktail of humor and honesty to both support and challenge you. I see symptoms — anxiety, addictions, depression, dissociation, etc. — as normal responses to abnormal circumstances, and believe our wounds can lead us towards greater wisdom, creativity and aliveness.

I hold a Masters in Counseling Psychology with an emphasis in Integral Counseling Psychology — a holistic, mind-body-spirit approach to psychology and wellbeing — from California Institute of Integral Studies, and a Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies from the University of California in Berkeley. My clinical training at the Marina Counseling Center centered humanistic, existential and depth psychologies, and my training at Richmond Area Multi-Services (RAMS) was grounded in contemporary psychoanalytic theory. It is at RAMS that I developed an expertise working with individuals navigating intense emotional states, deep relational wounds, and experiences that feel disorienting or overwhelming, such as altered perceptions of reality. I also had the privilege of working with diverse immigrant populations.

In my practice, I integrate the teachings of different teachers and modalities from my education and training, with indigenous and Eastern wisdom traditions — such as Buddhism and Taoism — that honor dreams, images, words and sounds, synchronicities, and the body as intelligent and important ways of knowing. My experiences as a yoga teacher and engagement with contemplative practices influence the way I sit with and listen to my patients. I engage in ongoing supervision, consultation, trainings and my own personal therapy to best support the people I work with.

Prior to becoming a therapist, I was involved in the fashion, photography, wellness, travel and start-up industries in Asia and the US where I worked closely with creatives, corporate professionals and globally-minded entrepreneurs.

Location

I work primarily in person from my office in Berkeley (on Telegraph Ave & Woolsey St). I am on the 2nd floor in a building without elevator access. There is free and paid street parking nearby and I am a ~15 minute walk from Ashby BART station.

I continue to offer virtual therapy through a secure, HIPAA-compliant video and telephone platform to existing patients and to California residents who are unable to meet in person.

Contact

Email: renee@rxctherapy.com
Phone: (415) 335-6678
Or send a message here