Our Approach
Therapy isn't one-size-fits-all
At Sonder Psychotherapy, our clinicians draw from a range of evidence-based approaches — tailoring each to the individual, couple, or family in the room. Here is a brief overview of some of the methods we use and what they mean for your care.
Person-Centered Therapy
You are the expert on your own life.
Developed by psychologist Carl Rogers, person-centered therapy is built on the belief that every person has within them the capacity for growth, healing, and self-understanding — given the right conditions. Those conditions are what we work to create: a therapeutic relationship grounded in empathy, genuine care, and unconditional positive regard. No judgment. No agenda. Just a space where you are free to explore your experience at your own pace and in your own way. Person-centered therapy forms the foundation of everything we do at Sonder. It is the lens through which all of our other approaches are applied.
Family Systems Therapy
We are all, in some way, still living in the house we grew up in.
Family systems therapy recognizes that we are all shaped by the relationships and dynamics we grew up in — and that we continue to carry those patterns into our adult lives, our partnerships, and our own families. Rather than looking at a person's challenges in isolation, this approach zooms out to understand the larger relational context: the roles people play, the rules that govern how emotions are expressed, and the ways that pain moves through generations. Whether you are working through family conflict, navigating a difficult relationship dynamic, or simply trying to understand why you keep repeating the same patterns, a family systems lens can offer profound clarity and lasting change.
Somatic Therapy
Some things are felt before they are understood.
Somatic therapy is a body-based approach to healing that recognizes what talk therapy alone sometimes misses — that trauma, stress, and emotional pain don't just live in our minds. They live in our bodies. In the tension we carry in our shoulders, the tightness in our chest, the way we brace ourselves without knowing why. Somatic therapy invites you to slow down and tune into those physical sensations as a pathway to understanding and releasing what has been stored. It is gentle, collaborative, and grounded in the latest research on trauma and the nervous system. For many clients, it opens doors that words alone could not.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
The stories we tell ourselves have more power than we know.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the most widely researched and practiced approaches in mental health care — and for good reason. CBT is built on a simple but profound insight: the way we think about our experiences shapes the way we feel about them, and the way we feel shapes the way we behave. When the thoughts running in the background are critical, distorted, or rooted in old pain, they can quietly color everything — our relationships, our sense of self, our ability to move forward. CBT helps you slow down and examine those thoughts with curiosity rather than judgment. To notice the patterns, question the assumptions, and gradually replace what isn't serving you with something more grounded and more true. It is practical, collaborative, and skills-based — meaning you leave each session with tools you can actually use in your everyday life. For many clients, CBT is the first time they've realized that their mind is something they can work with, not just something that happens to them.
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Feel everything — and still move forward.
DBT was originally developed to help people who experience emotions very intensely, and has since become one of the most widely researched and effective therapeutic approaches available. At its core, DBT is about balance — between accepting yourself as you are and making meaningful changes. It offers a practical, skills-based toolkit for managing overwhelming emotions, navigating relationships more effectively, tolerating distress without making things worse, and staying grounded in the present moment. DBT is particularly helpful for clients struggling with anxiety, depression, emotional dysregulation, self-harm, or patterns in relationships that feel difficult to change.
Acceptance & Commitment
Therapy (ACT)
Pain is part of being human. Suffering doesn't have to be.
Acceptance & Commitment Therapy invites you to relate to your inner experience differently — not by fighting it, suppressing it, or waiting until it goes away, but by learning to hold it with more flexibility and less fear. ACT is built on a deceptively simple idea: the struggle against painful thoughts and feelings often causes more suffering than the thoughts and feelings themselves. When we spend our energy trying to avoid discomfort, we can end up avoiding the very things that make life meaningful — our relationships, our goals, our sense of purpose. ACT doesn't ask you to think more positively or convince yourself that everything is fine. It doesn't promise to make the pain disappear. Instead, it promises to help you stop letting it make all the decisions. You develop a different relationship with your inner world — one grounded in acceptance, present-moment awareness, and clarity about what truly matters to you. Because when you know what you value, you have something to move toward — even on the hard days.
No single modality tells the whole story
of who you areNo single approach will be the right fit for every person or every moment in treatment. At Sonder Psychotherapy, we move fluidly between these frameworks based on what you need, what resonates, and where you are in your healing. You are always at the center of that conversation.
