relational therapy - find clarity and connection

Relational Therapy - Humanistic Approach

Backed by extensive research, relational therapy is one of the most effective therapeutic approaches in the field of mental health. By building a secure connection in therapy, a framework for safety and security can become a central force in how you interact with yourself and with the world.

We can explore your past and current relationships, your relationship with your internal system and through the therapeutic relationship we can discover how each part of your life informs what needs and wants are driving your choices.

Humanistic therapies approach care with a holistic lens. In practice it means that I am tracking you as a whole person instead of reducing you to one problem, issue or diagnosis.

Philosophically, this type of therapeutic work assumes that you hold inherent wisdom and strives to support the parts of yourself that are under-resourced, by carefully building an internal relationship with the parts of you that have the answers you seek.

Gestalt Awareness Practice

Gestalt - the whole is greater than the sum of its parts

Gestalt therapy is experiential and focuses on the "here and now." In practice this looks like moving with whatever parts of you, memories, sensations, emotions are currently in your awareness.

There is a silly joke within the Gestalt therapy world, that if you ask five Gestalt therapist what Gestalt therapy is, you will get five different answers. And, as with many jokes there is truth in this perspective.

Gestalt is a wonderfully creative style of therapy. The founding principles and interventions are built to be responsive to what the moment calls for and it is centered in non-violence, autonomy and authentic contact.

Commonly the work in sessions is done as parts work, empty chair work, dream exploration, visualizations, body scanning, creative expression and creative projection

Somatics

Soma - the lived body

In therapy, somatics is a practice of building body mind connection, retraining the nervous system and connecting memory to emotional sensations.

Somatics are incredibly effective for relieving symptoms of chronic stress/pain, PTSD & trauma, anxiety and depression.

We do this work carefully, paying attention to when and how your system begins to become overwhelmed and calling to mind how it feels when when you are calm, supported by breath, movement, orienting and a strengths based therapeutic relationship.

The goal is often to resolve emotional memories that your body and mind may be reliving and to increase your ability to notice when and how the old yucky stuff overrides your ability to have choice in how you move through the world.

About Me

Alexandra (Xana) Cook-Milligan MA AMFT #118936

My name is Xana (pronounced Shauna)

I work with the Center for Mindful Psychotherapy, offering virtual therapy for anyone in California.

I received my BA in Liberal Arts from San Francisco State University and my MA in Integral Counseling Psychology from the California Institute of Integral Studies. I completed my graduate training in San Francisco at the Integral Counseling Center at Church Street., where I trained in Gestalt Awareness Practice and Person-Centered therapies.

Before I became a therapist I was a chef for over a decade, then became a substitute teacher and a paraprofessional in the San Francisco Bay Area while I decided on my next career path. Along the journey of my own healing, I discovered that where I made the most impact was in direct support. The shift into the study and practice of therapy felt like the most natural thing I had ever done and I am grateful to have found this heart-centered work.

In 2020, at the start of my therapy career, I co-founded a non-profit educational organization, focused on racialized trauma. We engaged with uniformed bodies and provided educational community-centered support groups. During this time I also trained in Somatic Abolitionism with Resmaa Menakem MSW, deepening my lifelong study of how trauma, race and American white supremacy impact the human body.