Psychotherapy in San Francisco or Oakland
Jim Walker, MFT
Counseling and Psychotherapy Cell: 510-684-4508
Psychotherapy-Oakland or San Francisco
445 Bellevue Avenue
Suite 104
Oakland, CA 94610
United States
ph: 510-684-4508 cell
jimwalke
San Francisco or East Bay

My Approach to Psychotherapy
My approach to therapy is supportive and interactive. I have over 15 years of experience helping people with a wide range of problems.
As I get to know and understand you, I attune the pace and intensity or our work so it's tailored to you and your goals.
I have offices in San Francisco and Oakland.
Please call me to discuss this more: 510-684-4508 mobile. Let me explain to you how we might work together. There's more to read below and on the other pages in this site.
My specializations:
Two Office Locations
Oakland office: San Francisco office:
445 Bellevue Avenue, Suite 104 414 Gough Street, 2nd Floor
Oakland CA 94610 San Francisco CA 94102
My office in Oakland is located close to downtown Oakland, Emeryville and Lake Merritt. The cross street is Grand Ave.
My San Francisco office is in Hayes Valley near the Civic Center. The cross street is Hayes Street.
Transformation and the Brain's Neuroplasticity
Our brain's amazing ability to change is called neuroplasticity. Our work together will create new neural pathways in your brain that will contribute to lasting improvements in how you cope with life. As we find new ways for you to handle your problems, you will "re-wire" your brain. These changes will help lift your mood and change your core attitudes about life.
Your Better Self
Better living comes from having a wise, observing, skillful sense of self that's guiding your daily actions, thoughts and feelings. People call this skillful self-knowledge different things: the better self, the wise mind or higher power. Whatever it's called, we can help you develop it. We'll help you refine how you use your inner wisdom on a daily basis.
We’ll carefully experiment with changes in your life tailored to help your life improve. As you experiment with these changes, we’ll discuss and reflect on them week by week. We'll discover what works better for you and you'll experience how your life gets better.

Journeys into Insight and Self-Knowing
As we work together, you'll see you can trust in my skills and experience to help you understand yourself more fully. From increased emotional intelligence about yourself, your insight, your best judgment and your communication skills will develop.
Expanded, concentrated self-awareness on a moment by moment basis in your daily life--coupled with your willpower and non-judgmental curiosity--are needed for meaningful change. I help you bring into play together all these skills and realizations so they reshape your life.
Compassion's Role
One of the universal truths about all of us is that we all have made mistakes. We can get stuck in blaming ourselves. Compassion for yourself helps you not get stuck in blaming yourself. Compassion for others helps you move on from being stuck in relationships--while remembering what you need to do to protect yourself from what those people may do to you in the future.
All of these elements combine through mindfully attending to yourself to move you out of your old, automatic, dead-end reactions and habits. This is utilizing the mind-body interface to direct your change process. Current therapeutic research shows us that living from mindful, present-centered noticing of our inner process--with clear intentions of what's best for us--gives us the best support in responding to life from a much more resilient and resourced state.
As our work together deepens in you knowing and trusting yourself, you will live life more spontaneously from your embodied, guiding wisdom. As your inner wisdom is more in charge of your responses and your planning, you’ll be hijacked less often by your old negative patterns. More fulfillment from life will come. You'll guide your life by using your abilities to take in information, assess it, prioritize it, and respond wisely to it with what you most need in each moment.
“Kindness in words creates confidence. Kindness in thinking creates profoundness. Kindness in giving creates love.” - Lao Tzu
Fees, Insurance and EAPs (Employee Assistance Plans)
My usual session is for 60 minutes. We can schedule a longer session if desired or needed. Please ask me for my current fees. Let's discuss what's affordable for you.
I'm a contracted provider on several insurance and EAP plans. If I'm not a network provider with your insurance company and you have a PPO plan, I can provide statements for you for reimbursement from your insurance company for an “out of network” provider.
Onions and Your Consciousness
People say that counseling is "like peeling an onion...taking you deeper and deeper inside you." Mindfulness in therapy increases your ability to go deeper more effectively, and it enhances your ability to see helpful options in your life. You become less automatically reactive to your old limiting ways.
Like meditation, mindfulness involves turning your ordinary consciousness inward. By closing your eyes and turning your attention more inward, you can notice more attentively what's happening inside you. We can study you more in-depth.
Unlike meditation where you try to free your mind, we use mindfulness to help us discover more about what's happening in you. Unlike meditation, we talk to each other as you take an inner journey. We study together what's happening in your deeper inner process. We learn more about your core emotions, thoughts, beliefs, movements, etc. through your concentrated noticing supported by my guidance.
Just as the deepest areas of the brain and heart have the greatest impact on you, going to these deeper states of consciousness in therapy will help us transform you from your core outwards.
Mindfulness improves your focusing and increases your concentration. From using mindfulness, we learn more clearly how you organize and manage yourself in your daily world, and that helps us find ways for you to improve living.
I can show you, if you want, how to direct your consciousness through mindfulness to explore and understand yourself on deeper levels. Mindfulness is only one of the powerful tools we can use.
Self-Compassion and Exploration
When people realize in therapy how deeply they're blocked by their most deeply-held beliefs and behaviors, they're very motivated to change them. They want to stop the self-sabotaging.
Through you attuning to your inner process with kindness for yourself and with caring non-judgment, we can guide you in learning so much more about yourself in ways to help you. I can help you set new intentions for yourself and we can help you reach them. So you can have more of what you want from life.
Jim Walker, MFT, provides psychotherapy or counseling in Oakland and San Francisco. He works with stress reduction, trauma, anxiety management, personal growth, relationships, couples issues, abuse, depression, shame, anxiety and more. He's experienced working with people of many different backgrounds and countries of origin.
His offices are close to San Francisco, Berkeley, Piedmont, Alameda, San Leandro, Orinda, El Cerrito, San Carlos, Walnut Creek, Brisbane and Daly City. He is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. License MFC 38741
Jim Walker, MFT, uses an integrative approach to counseling which includes: CBT--cognitive behavioral therapy--cognitive therapy, solution focused therapy, Hakomi, somatic psychotherapy, Sensorimotor psychotherapy, transpersonal therapy, narrative therapy, psychodynamic psychotherapy, mindfulness-based psychotherapy and relational therapy.
http://therapists.psychologytoday.com/rms/67130
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All Photos by Gary Morgret
except headshots by Cary Virtue
Psychotherapy-Oakland or San Francisco
445 Bellevue Avenue
Suite 104
Oakland, CA 94610
United States
ph: 510-684-4508 cell
jimwalke