Reena Mittal, MA, MFT

My style of counseling is compassionate and non-judgmental.  The process of facilitating healing and recovery can be difficult, and I pay particular attention to fostering a safe and consistent environment tailored towards the needs of each client.   I understand that, at a very deep level, our ability to meet life’s challenges is helped or hindered by the relationships we have with our families, friends, significant others, colleagues and – most importantly – with our selves.  For this reason, I am dedicated to helping my clients strengthen and sustain their relationships, so that they become ever more flexible and resilient in the face of life’s many transitions.

I have worked in a variety of counseling environments over time.  These include working with individuals, adults, children, teenagers, and parents at Community Health Awareness Council in Mountain View CA. I also worked on site as a counselor for teens at Los Altos High in Los Altos, CA.  I am a trained crisis counselor for individuals struggling with bipolar, schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, anxiety, depression, and addiction, having worked at Suicide and Crisis Services in Santa Clara, CA.   Additionally, in my private practice, I have worked with teenagers, individuals, couples and families with issues like anxiety, depression, co-dependency, dysfunctional relationships, communication issues and lack of self-esteem.

The combination of real-life experience, dedication to my own personal growth and extensive clinical psychological training has helped me to be in tune with my clients and be the guide and coach in their journey of transformation.

In the early years of my career, my focus was on the business world. But before long, I realized that I cared not so much for the business as about the people I worked with—about their relationships, their satisfaction with their lives, and their ability to negotiate life transitions and tribulations.  I developed a life-long curiosity about the complexity of the human experience and a passion to help people navigate through the challenges in their lives with grace and confidence.

After a number of years in the trenches of corporate human resources (and two advanced degrees in business), I decided to follow my passion and transition into the psychotherapy world, working directly with clients in their internal struggles.  I pursued extensive training as a therapist, and have developed the skills necessary to help clients to get support, guidance and clarity in processing and transforming sadness, loneliness and despair into meaningful connection with the world within and around them.