I work with people who are ready
to look honestly at themselves to create real change.
To change your life,
you have to be willing to change your mind.
It is essential to provide a safe environment where trust can develop, giving people the courage to be vulnerable and share very intimate parts of their lives without fear of being rejected. I think we have all had the experience of speaking an undisclosed truth, of divulging something that was buried inside—like taking off a mask and revealing ourselves. Sometimes we feel lighter afterward, or gain clarity about our reality.
Intimate conversation is one of the most important practices for developing self-awareness, because saying something out loud helps make it real. What was vague, hidden, or buried becomes something you can actually see. That can reveal patterns in your behavior, your relationships, and the way you respond to life. With that awareness, you can ask yourself: Is this how I want to keep living, or is there something I want to change?
—Adapted from remarks by Mary Cosimano, LMSW
Approach
My approach is centered on safety, honesty, and awareness. I believe that when we feel safe enough to be fully ourselves with another person, we can begin to see ourselves more clearly.
Focus
Relational Work
Many of the patterns that shape how we relate to other people were learned early and repeated over time. This work looks at those patterns, how they show up now, and whether they still make sense in your life.
Addiction & Compulsive Patterns
Alcohol, drugs, and compulsive behaviors often serve a purpose, even when they create problems. We look at what the behavior provides, what may be underneath it, and what keeps the pattern going.
Men’s Work
Men often have less practice talking openly about fear, shame, vulnerability, loneliness, or uncertainty. This work creates room to explore those experiences directly, along with relationships, frustration, sex, and the pressure to appear capable or unaffected.
Psychedelic Integration
Psychedelic experiences can bring up powerful emotions, memories, insights, and experiences that are difficult to understand. Some of these may have been suppressed for decades. Integration means taking time to look at what happened, what it means to you, and how it relates to the rest of your life.
Let’s Work Together
If you are stuck in a pattern.
If you are navigating a challenging life transition.
If you feel disconnected, or like you’re just going through the motions.
If you are integrating a powerful or challenging experience.
If you want deeper connection with others, and yourself.
If you are struggling with a substance or compulsive behavior
Format
We can begin with a free 30-minute conversation to see whether the work feels useful. If we continue, I generally recommend at least three sessions for some trust to develop.
Sessions are one hour, online, or two-hour walking sessions in the Sausalito Headlands, available after 3 sessions.
How I got Here
I was born in Germany to a German mother and Italian father. I moved to California when I was five and spent much of my childhood moving between those worlds. Different cultures, languages, expectations, and ways of relating made me curious early on about how differently people experience the same world—and about what we show, what we hide, and what happens between us.
Over time, that curiosity pulled me toward a deeper interest in relationships, patterns of behavior, honesty, awareness, and the things we have a hard time saying out loud. The juice is often in the things we aren’t saying.
Psychedelic experiences were an important part of that shift, along with years of personal work, group work, and paying closer attention to what happens in the body and between people.
What interests me most now is helping people find more courage, become less governed by fear, and explore who they want to become and what kind of life they want to live.
Training and Influences
Being True to You psychedelic integration coach training
Hakomi
Psychodrama
Relational Gestalt
Stanford GSB Interpersonal Dynamics / T-Group
Universal Awareness Fellowship retreats facilitator
Zendo Project (MAPS): Sitting and Integration Training
Susan Campbell, PhD: Interpersonal dynamics and communication
Aubrey Degnan, PhD: Spiritual mentoring and personal development
Richard Lipfield, LMFT: Addiction and experiential therapy
Fees
My standard rate is $100 per session. I keep a limited number of reduced rate spots available for people in need
Six-session package: $500
“We are born in relationship, we are wounded in relationship, and we can be healed in relationship.” — attributed to Harville Hendrix
“Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage.” —Anaïs Nin
“The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.” —Carl Rogers
“You can’t be intimate without being vulnerable.”—Susan Campbell