ABOUT
mindful therapy
with Tannaz
EMDR and Trauma Therapy in • LOS ANGELES • IRVINE • CALIFORNIA
Meet Tannaz
I believe that healing happens when we have a space to be seen, held, and supported—allowing us to tend to our emotional wounds and reconnect with our joy, freedom, and aliveness.
I am here as a guide and supporter, giving you a safe space to reflect, feel, and grow. Together, we’ll honor the ways you have protected yourself to survive, cultivate self-compassion, and help you reconnect with yourself and relationships from a place of healing.
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My style of therapy is warm, curious, gentle, and collaborative. I view the trust, connection, and safety formed between as the most important aspects of your therapeutic process and healing. My approach to therapy honors the mind-body connection, while being trauma-informed, attachment-focused, and culturally centered.
With an attachment-focused and culturally-centered lens, we’ll examine how your earlier relationships and unique lived experiences inform the way you view yourself, show up in your relationships, and begin to shift the patterns that once helped you but no longer serve you.
With integrating mindfulness of the body into talk therapy, I may ask you to notice what’s happening in your body as you tell me about your challenges, thoughts, and feelings. This pausing and noticing can allow you to become more present and grounded, to examine how you hold stress, tension, and trauma in your body, and ultimately release emotions that remain in your body from past difficult experiences.
With EMDR therapy, we’ll help you reduce your distress re: past painful events and restore a sense of safety through tapping into your brain and body’s natural ability to move towards healing.
Depending on your goals/needs, we may do EMDR, somatic-based talk therapy, or a combination of the two to help you on your healing journey.
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B.A. in Psychology and Social Behavior, University of California, Irvine (UCI), 2009
M.A. in Social Welfare, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 2012
EMDR Therapy Level I and II trained, Institute for Creative Mindfulness
Advanced EMDR trainings: EMDR and Ego States; EMDR and Somatic-Therapy
Postpartum International Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Components of care
Postpartum International: Advanced Perinatal Mental Health Therapy
Hakomi Level I Mindfulness-Based Somatic Psychotherapy, Hakomi Institute
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Yoga and mindfulness practices for Trauma UCLA
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English
Farsi/Persian
My Journey of Becoming a Therapist:
My areas of speciality are areas that I have had my own experiences and healing around. Having a bicultural identity and being caught between two worlds without feeling like I fully belonged to either sparked my interest in psychology. When I immigrated at age 17 and felt like I had to form a new sense of self, I became interested in how our upbringing, environment, and cultural background influence our identity development. This led me to obtain my master's degree in social work, where I could focus on supporting others through immigration, displacement, and the mental health challenges related to being in a new environment.
I started in community mental health agencies providing long-term therapy to culturally diverse adults dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma, life transitions, chronic medical conditions, sexual abuse, relationship issues, and family conflict.
After completing my licensure requirements, I worked for over a decade in private practices and university counseling centers, where I worked with medical students/health professionals, creatives, artists, first and second-generation graduate students, and new mothers.
As I did more of this work and would peel back the layers with my clients, I noticed a common theme which was at the core of everyone’s story; there were wounds/traumas that were left unseen and unhealed. Recognizing this thread, I trained extensively in trauma-focused therapies, including EMDR and somatic-based approaches like the Hakomi Method.
My personal journey fuels my passion for supporting first and second-generation immigrants, anxious high achievers experiencing self-doubt, those navigating infertility and postpartum challenges, and mothers balancing their personal and professional lives.
When I’m not working, I like to spend time with my family and friends, I love a good dinner table gathering.
What nourishes my soul is eating good food with the people that I love, dancing freely to music, and spending time in nature.
What energizes me is moving my body, making or looking at art, traveling to new places, and learning new things.
What grounds me is connecting with my breath, taking time to reflect through journaling and my own therapy, and getting a good night of sleep.