TALK. EXPLORE. DISCOVER.

Jungian analysis & Psychotherapy

Hello, I'm Yvonne

I am a licensed marriage and family therapist with a doctorate in depth psychotherapy, and a certified psychoanalyst trained at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco. Past training includes work with the Community Institute for Psychotherapy in San Rafael (couples counseling and in-school counseling with youth and adolescents), teaching for the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco's candidate training and extended education programs.

Become who you are meant to be

Depth psychotherapy, and analysis in particular, brings careful attention to your thoughts, dreams, your unique history, and our shared experience in the room. Through this process, we help you locate and connect to your creative self. We will also listen to your stories, tracking the tensions and beliefs that hold you back from living a fuller and more satisfying life.

It is never too late to become who we are meant to be.

Yvonne Smith Tarnas, Jungian Analyst, PhD MFT
Jungian Analysis, Psychotherapy, and consultation.
MFC#48043

INDIVIDUAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

Therapy guides you to yourself I help people cultivate a sense
of purpose, tap into their inner resources, and reawaken hope.
I have over 20 years of experience as a depth psychotherapist and Jungian psychoanalyst, working with adults, adolescents, and couples. 

I work with a wide range of concerns, including:
Anxiety
Depression
Trauma
Life transitions
Illness
Facilitating the creative process
Individuation and self-actualization

Individual Psychotherapy & Analysis: Often, therapy involves more than one method to meet a patient’s unique needs and goals. In our work together, beginning with the presenting concern, we explore your beliefs and patterns that have both supported and inhibited you from living the life you seek. As a Jungian analyst, I pay attention to many different aspects of what you tell me, both past and present, in the form of symbols and patterns, images and dreams, to assess where your inner self is attempting to grow and be creative. Through therapy and working with me, we establish a supportive and collaborative relationship that focuses on your needs. We observe, clarify, and challenge ideas and internal structures that perpetuate passivity and a fear of change, and focus
on what compels, excites, and is most alive in you to evoke
curiosity and hope.

Couples Psychotherapy

Relationships are a rich source for discovering our deepest selves, yet we must often also confront disappointment and conflict. Often, couples arrive in therapy so tangled by disappointment and frustration. We fail to appreciate the value of our differences, and our beliefs and fantasies can hinder our ability to enjoy one another. 

In couples therapy, I will guide you both through a practice of active listening and reflective feedback, helping you and your partner learn to expand and discover new ways to build intimacy. The tools you acquire in your couples work can be relevant to every relationship in your life: family, work, and friendships.

Couples therapy

All of our hopes, fears, and conflicts are often revealed in our intimate relationships.
We frequently fail to recognize, accept, and appreciate the differences in our relationships with others. We become entangled in unconscious expectations, fantasies, frustrations, and beliefs that hinder our ability to empathize and respect others in our lives. We may even sabotage closeness and drive away the person we want to be with the most. In this way, we lose many opportunities for connection and growth that can leave one despairing.

There is a reason that you are in this relationship. How do we find the balance between our individual needs and the couple's needs? How do we manage differences without undermining ourselves? How can this relationship support your growth and individuation?  Couples therapy can provide a second chance to develop a viable, flexible emotional container for both —a mutual skin.

Through the practice of active listening and reflective feedback, you can learn to expand and newly discover your capacity for intimacy.  The tools you gain in couples therapy will be helpful in relationships throughout your life.

In addition to my therapy practice, I teach and supervise therapists and candidates at the C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco.

License, certification, professional membership:
MFC48043
Board certification: California Board of Behavioral Health
Certified psychoanalyst: C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco
Member: IAAP

Teaching:
Psychotherapy in an Archetypal Cosmos
The Symbolic Attitude
Synchronicity in the Healing Professions

Consultation:
Individual consultation and supervision for psychotherapists and graduate students.

Publications:
Y. Smith Klitsner (2007) A Bite of the Apple: Eating Disorders as a Wounded Path Towards Individuation

Y. Smith Klitsner (2013) Destined Meetings: Synchronicity, Intentionality and Archetypal Meaning

Y. Smith Klitsner (2015) Synchronicity, Intentionality, and Archetypal Meaning in Therapy, Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche Vol 9/ Fall 2015

Yvonne Smith Tarnas, Jungian Analyst, PhD MFT
Jungian Analysis, Psychotherapy, and consultation.
MFC#48043

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