You don't have to keep living the same story.
EMDR, ACT, and integrative therapy for adults and couples working through trauma, anxiety, addiction, grief, and the patterns that keep repeating. Virtual sessions throughout California.
A lot of people come in feeling like they've already tried everything.
They've read the books. Maybe they've been to therapy before. They understand, on some level, where their patterns come from. And they're still stuck in them.
That's not a character flaw. It's usually a sign that something hasn't been fully worked through yet. Not just understood. Worked through.
The people I see most often come in carrying something they've been carrying for a long time. Shame. A quiet sense of defeat. The feeling that things probably won't get better, or that they don't deserve for them to. By the time we're done, most of them describe feeling lighter. More at peace with themselves. Like they can finally see their own life with some clarity.
That's what this work is for. Not to hand you tools to manage how you feel. To actually help you change it.
What people come in for
Life doesn't sort itself into clean categories, and neither does this work. But here's what most of it touches.
Trauma and Adverse Childhood Experiences
Past experiences that can still echo in unexpected ways, sometimes showing up in how we react or what feels safe in the present moment.
Anxiety
When worry takes up more space than it should, and the nervous system feels like it's always braced for something difficult to happen.
Mood Disorders and Depression
That heavy, persistent sense that everything requires more energy than you have, and simple things can feel impossibly hard.
Addiction and Substance Use
Often there's something underneath the substance use—pain, trauma, or patterns that started as solutions but became problems themselves.
Grief and Loss
The aftermath of losing someone important, a relationship ending, or dreams that didn't unfold as expected—especially when healing doesn't follow anyone else's timeline.
Relationship Challenges
Those recurring patterns that keep showing up—the distance, the misunderstandings, the longing to connect differently than you have before.
Shame and Feeling Stuck
That persistent whisper that something about you is fundamentally flawed, making it hard to move forward or believe you deserve good things.
Change and Life Transitions
Standing in the space between what was and what's coming next, when the familiar has shifted and the path forward isn't clear yet.
Day-to-Day Stress
The accumulating weight of ordinary pressures—because struggling with everyday demands is valid and worth addressing, even when it's not a crisis.
"Craig restored my faith in therapists."
What to expect
Consultation
A short conversation about what you're dealing with and whether this is a good fit. No pressure, no commitment.
Getting oriented
The first sessions are about understanding your history and getting clear on what we're actually working on. We move at a pace that makes sense for you.
The work
Depending on what fits, we use EMDR to work through experiences that are still affecting you, ACT to help you get clear on what matters and act on it, and insight-oriented conversation to help you see your own patterns with more clarity. Most people start noticing shifts sooner than they expected.
When it's done
Therapy isn't meant to go on forever. When the work has done what it came to do, we wrap up thoughtfully. The door stays open.
Someone who will actually level with you.
I'm Craig Bissell, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker. I spent years working in intensive behavioral health and substance use settings before moving into private practice. That background shapes how I work. I'm not interested in keeping you comfortable while things stay the same. I'm interested in helping you actually move.
People have told me I have a way of helping them see things they couldn't see before. I think that comes from paying close attention, being willing to say what I notice, and using approaches that get underneath the surface rather than just managing it.
More About CraigBefore you reach out
What is EMDR and how does it work?
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EMDR stands for Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing. It's an evidence-based therapy designed to help the brain process experiences that didn't fully resolve when they happened. In a session, you focus briefly on a difficult memory or feeling while following a back-and-forth movement, usually eye movements or alternating taps. That combination helps the original experience lose its emotional charge, so it stops driving the same reactions in the present. It isn't hypnosis. It doesn't erase memories. For many people, it moves things that years of talking about the problem didn't move.
Do I need a trauma diagnosis to benefit from EMDR?
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No. EMDR is well known for treating PTSD, but it works just as well for anxiety, shame, grief, and difficult experiences that don't carry a formal diagnosis but still affect how you live. You don't need to prove your pain is serious enough to deserve help.
Do you work with people in active addiction?
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Yes. Sobriety is not a requirement for starting therapy. The substance is rarely the whole story, and the work here is about understanding what's underneath it. I do ask for honesty, because that gives us something real to work with.
Ready to talk?
The first step is a brief consultation. You tell me what's going on, I tell you how I work, and we figure out together if it's a good fit. No obligation.
Currently accepting new clients. I respond within 1 business day.
Schedule a Consultation