Jen McGuire, AMFT, APCC

PRONOUNS

She/her

LANGUAGES

English

EDUCATION

Master’s Degree in Counseling Psychology, concentration in Somatic Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies

Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #142299

Registered Associate Professional Clinical Counselor #14874

Supervised by Patricia E. Craven, LMFT #24859

Offers Therapy via Telehealth in California

Offers Sliding Scale Therapy

APPROACH TO COUPLES COUNSELING

When we partner, we are seeking to meet our deepest human needs—for connection, for intimacy, for safety, joy, and pleasure. We also bring to these adult relationships our earliest injuries from our time in childhood. It’s natural that when our innermost desires and oldest fears merge with those of another person, we encounter challenges that are often deeply painful, frustrating, and confusing. So many couples find themselves playing out the same disagreements, the same small miseries, inflicting on each other the same emotional wounds over and over and over again. In relationship therapy, I will help you begin to observe the role that each of you is playing in the negative cycle you have found yourselves in. Together, we will work to support you to slow down, to deescalate, to listen and to speak from a place of openness rather than defensiveness, and to have compassion for each other. In our sessions, you will begin to see how your attachment wounding is showing up in your relationship. Underneath the pain, the disappointment, and the anger, there is love and there is longing. The work isn’t always easy, but coming to couples counseling is a very brave step towards rediscovering why you chose each other as your home base from which to explore the world.

ABOUT ME

In 2020, I made a career change when I went back to school to become a therapist in my early forties. Before that, I lived in New York City, studying acting and working as a performing artist. I find that my background as an actor serves me very well as a therapist. Actors have a sense of curiosity, authenticity, and discovery as well as an ability to remain dynamic when the unexpected inevitably happens. I'm trained in somatic psychotherapy and take an integrated, relational approach to the work, incorporating psychodynamic, mindfulness-based, and social justice lenses along with embodied awareness. I am trauma-informed and fiercely LGBTQIA-affirming. My style with clients is warm, funny, compassionate, authentic, and deeply engaged. In our sessions, I will be direct but kind, and I will remain grounded even during those moments when conflict arises between you in the room. I’ve been with my own partner for sixteen years through times that have felt profoundly difficult and other times that have felt richly nourishing.