Mindfulness & Self-Compassion

Virtual Therapy in California​

The hardest person to be gentle with is yourself

You may spend a lot of time thinking about what you should have done, replaying conversations, worrying about the future, or criticizing yourself for not doing enough. When you're used to being hard on yourself, slowing down and offering yourself compassion can feel uncomfortable—even impossible. Mindfulness and self-compassion can help you develop a different relationship with your thoughts, emotions, and yourself. Rather than trying to get rid of difficult feelings, we can learn to notice them with greater curiosity, patience, and care.

Mindfulness, Self-Compassion & Trauma

For people healing from trauma, simply being told to “stay present” or “think positively” can feel dismissive. Mindfulness in trauma therapy needs to be approached with care. Sometimes being present in your body can feel uncomfortable or even unsafe, particularly when you've experienced trauma or have learned to disconnect from your emotions as a way of coping. We can move at a pace that feels manageable and find ways of practicing awareness that support a greater sense of safety rather than forcing you to be present before you're ready.

“Your connectedness to other people is so key to buffering any current stressor—and to healing from past trauma. Being with people who are present, supportive, and nurturing. Belonging.”
Dr. Bruce D. Perry
Psychiatrist, Writer

What Is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is the practice of becoming more aware of what is happening in the present moment without immediately judging or trying to change it.
This can mean noticing your thoughts, emotions, body sensations, and reactions with curiosity rather than automatically getting pulled into them.
Mindfulness isn’t about emptying your mind or being calm all the time. It’s about developing the ability to pause, notice what is happening, and choose how you want to respond.

What Is Self-Compassion?

Self-compassion means learning to treat yourself with the same understanding and care you might naturally offer someone you love.
When you’re struggling, you may automatically respond with criticism:
“I should be doing better.”
“Why am I like this?”
“I should have known.”
Self-compassion invites a different question:
“What do I need right now?”
This doesn’t mean ignoring responsibility or avoiding difficult emotions. It means learning to respond to yourself without adding shame to what you’re already experiencing.

A Compassionate & Liberation-Focused Approach

I don’t believe self-compassion means asking you to simply accept yourself while ignoring the experiences that shaped you.
Our relationships, families, cultures, identities, and the systems around us can all influence how we learn to see ourselves.
If you’ve internalized messages that you need to be perfect, productive, agreeable, or easy to love, we can explore where those messages came from and whether they still serve you.
My approach is liberation-focused and anti-oppressive, which means we’re not only looking at how you can change yourself. We’re also considering the context you’ve been living within and creating space for you to decide what feels authentic and meaningful to you.

You Don't Have to Be Hard on Yourself to Grow

You may have learned that criticism is how you improve, perfection is how you stay safe, or taking care of everyone else is how you earn connection.
But you don’t have to keep hurting yourself in order to grow.
Therapy can help you practice a different way of relating to yourself—one that makes room for curiosity, compassion, boundaries, self-trust, and authenticity.
You deserve the same patience and understanding that you so readily offer to others.

What Mindfulness & Self-Compassion Can Help With

Mindfulness and self-compassion may support you in:
  • Reducing harsh self-criticism
  • Developing greater self-acceptance
  • Managing overwhelming emotions
  • Becoming more aware of your needs
  • Breaking cycles of overthinking
  • Setting healthier boundaries
  • Responding to yourself with more patience
  • Building self-trust
  • Working through shame
  • Feeling more grounded and present
These practices can also complement trauma therapy, EMDR, and Brainspotting when appropriate.

Online Mindfulness & Self-Compassion Therapy Throughout California

I provide online therapy to adults throughout California. Therapy can be a space to slow down, understand yourself with more compassion, and develop a relationship with yourself that feels less critical and more supportive.
You don’t have to become a completely different person. Sometimes healing begins with learning to meet yourself where you are.
You Don’t Have to Be Hard on Yourself to Grow
You may have learned that criticism is how you improve, perfection is how you stay safe, or taking care of everyone else is how you earn connection.
But you don’t have to keep hurting yourself in order to grow.
Therapy can help you practice a different way of relating to yourself—one that makes room for curiosity, compassion, boundaries, self-trust, and authenticity.
You deserve the same patience and understanding that you so readily offer to others.

How I can help you...

My approach integrates Brainspotting and Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), along with Liberation Psychology, Critical Race Theory, identity and belonging work, and exploration of the intersections of culture, race, gender, and sexuality. I incorporate somatic awareness, mindfulness, and self-compassion to help you notice how stress and trauma can be held in the body, while creating space to process traumatic experiences and develop greater awareness of the patterns you learned or inherited.
You and I will explore how trauma, racism, oppression, family patterns, cultural experiences, and identities may shape the way you see yourself, relate to others, and experience your body and emotions. 
Our sessions together help to put language to your experiences, understand intergenerational and learned patterns, challenge internalized oppressive beliefs, and reconnect with your identity and sense of belonging. I support you in developing greater self-compassion, resilience, agency, and liberating yourself to live more authentically—while reclaiming the parts of yourself, your culture, and your story that may have been silenced
Healing isn’t about becoming someone else. It’s about creating more space to be fully yourself.
Connect with Angel
Brainspotting Trauma Therapy
Schedule a free 15 minutes phone consultation
619-719-5567
angel@crescentshorespsychotherapy.com
Connect with Angel
I live and work on unceded land of Kumeyaay Nation.
To learn more and join me in supporting Indigenous communities,
visit Native Governance Center, Museum of Us, and Native Lands.
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