Gargi Patel
LMFT #101986
About Gargi.
I'm a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist practicing virtually across California. I work integratively. I don't believe one method fits every person, and the people I see usually need something more flexible than that.
How I came to this work.
I came into therapy through a long-standing interest in why people stay stuck in patterns that no longer serve them; and how the body, the nervous system, and the relationships we grew up inside shape that stuckness in ways that talk alone often can't reach.
My training is grounded in depth psychology, psychodynamic and relational traditions, and I built outward from there into the body-based and trauma-focused modalities I use most: EMDR, Brainspotting, and somatic practices. The integration is intentional. Many clients I see have done years of talk therapy and arrive wanting something that goes deeper or works differently.
I take the relational part of the work seriously. The way we show up with each other, week after week, is part of what makes therapy work, not just the techniques I bring. That means I'll be present, direct, warm, and willing to talk about what's happening between us when it's relevant.
Where I trained and what I'm licensed to do.
LICENSE
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT #101986)
Issued by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. Verify at search.dca.ca.gov.
GRADUATE DEGREE
Master's in Counseling Psychology
California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), San Francisco.
CLINICAL TRAINING
CLINICAL TRAINING
Pierce Street Integral Counseling Center
Community mental health, adult psychotherapy.
Mission High School
School-based mental health, adolescent therapy.
MODALITY TRAINING
EMDR, Brainspotting, somatic practices
Continuing post-licensure training in trauma-focused, body-based, and depth-oriented modalities.
What I believe about therapy.
A few things I'm clear on.
Pain isn't pathology.
Most of what shows up in therapy is a coherent response to something: a family system, a culture, a body, a history. The first job isn't to fix it. It's to understand it.
The body is part of the work.
Talk alone can't always reach what's holding pattern in place. Sensation, breath, and posture carry information cognition doesn't.
Identity matters.
Race, gender, immigration, family of origin, spirituality aren't side conversations. They shape what hurts and what heals.
The relationship itself is the medicine.
Techniques help. But what changes people, over time, is being deeply known by someone who's not going anywhere.