https://bentime-stories.com/about-2 daily 0.75 2021-12-23 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1465947661495-ZG7QFM0I6H0G7CVE1ENK/IMG_3186.JPG Beginnings "Creativity is intelligence having fun." - Albert Einstein https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1465947976878-S1UJIKL8BBPE7XXIC1BP/image-asset.jpeg Beginnings "Growing old is mandatory. Growing up is optional." -Walt Disney https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1465794111548-PPFYTZ974XAOQDGSOOBU/LLVS5093.jpg Beginnings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1465863933038-HQ2T4KMEWUCLHQ4IAP4P/IMG_0676.JPG Beginnings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1465865539656-89C3UCSX959BMPYR2JFW/CEIK3664.jpg Beginnings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1465866861515-DASHWX8ZT2I9CQXOGW10/missbean.png Beginnings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1469514369053-78XK2FXF3PMNOYTOSXMZ/IMG_6170.JPG Beginnings https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1455690955310-IJDYGECAWIDYBQN299L3/IMG_1038.JPG Beginnings https://bentime-stories.com/homepage daily 1.0 2025-02-24 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1578986184903-IHRI3FNNQ91FNZEWGKX1/FullSizeRender+2.jpg HomePage https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1706149774876-SHAJEI10AN9JG9QCSABK/Blue_Couch_Main.jpg HomePage https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1706149775400-DKMZ8ISFH6M0DQOSCQTY/Hourglass_and_Sand.jpg HomePage https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1706149778121-NPRL4MLQ48BPVSTQ6H9C/Lounge_Chair.jpg HomePage https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1706149778553-F3R92O8AB2LREDE0G0Q5/Table_View.jpg HomePage https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1578588594323-3DJ73AZNGVXZJLNLQUFM/image-asset.jpeg HomePage - APPROACH Approach: As a whole, I take a “Unified Approach” towards psychotherapy, incorporating social, biological, humanistic/existential, psychodynamic, cognitive, and behavioral perspectives, where necessary, relevant and appropriate. Psychotherapy with Me: As a clinician, I strive to deliver eclectic and holistic clinical social work that weaves my specific training in Anthropology, Public Health, Gerontology, and Social Welfare to simultaneously and comprehensively examine life and well-being more broadly across six perspectives: (1) intrapsychic/intrapersonal, (2) interpersonal/relational, (3) socioecological/environmental, (4) cultural context, (5) developmental/life-course, (6) transpersonal/spiritual https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1578588710129-F0D3SC7K1ZU5OSFDCH8X/image-asset.jpeg HomePage - SOCIAL WORK Perspective: As a social worker, I specifically take four unique perspectives in understanding you in the psychotherapy process: (1) socioecological, (2) systems, (3) strength-based, and (4) anti-oppressive practice (AOP). First, I try my best to place everything in context within the broader sociocultural environment (milieu) to best understand you, your behavior, and any associated suffering; rather than relying heavily on diagnostics or psychopathologies. While the latter may be useful for psychotherapy, I believe they are more peripheral than central to the healing process and understanding the landscape and dimensions of you and your story. Second, I recognize that you--much like other humans--operate within and adapt to highly complex and interactive social systems. For this reason, I tend to view current “symptoms” and “presenting problems” as circumstances and outputs from the different changes, transitions, and interactions that occur across all different systems you exist within; rather than inherent problems within you. Third, I employ a strength-based perspective, meaning I view people--and you--as capable of being resourceful and resilient in the face of adversity with many assets and strengths to build upon. Fourth, I make sure to incorporate an anti-oppressive practice framework into all of the work, paying special attention to the different forms of interpersonal, structural, cultural, systemic, and institutional subordination, oppression, and power/privilege that underlie all relationships--from those in your life to our very own therapeutic relationship. I work hard to be power neutral with you, and am also highly sensitive to the added socioeconomic vulnerabilities that come with diagnoses and mental healthcare treatment in today’s society. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1578593632624-WHRY4DKZYUW8E3Y5199U/image-asset.jpeg HomePage - HEALTH & AGING : I received extensive specialized training in social gerontology and geriatric social work from UCLA: (1) participating in an immersive and innovative year-long honors course about aging, (2) completing the Gerontology Interdisciplinary Minor, (3) receiving a certificate of leadership from the Southern California Geriatric Social Work Education Consortium, and (4) becoming a William Randolph Hearst Aging Initiative Fellow. I am currently an active member of the American Society on Aging (ASA) and Los Angeles Alliance for Community Health and Aging (LAACHA). https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1578594053247-ZD0QFI5QHKQ7YCRYSSUQ/image-asset.jpeg HomePage - LGBTQ+ As a queer person of color, I am particularly interested in and sensitive to mental health around gender, sexuality, and identity. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1578593662896-JCNDVEZTGBG2CVG0XI9A/image-asset.jpeg HomePage - PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPY Relational Stance: I can practice a variety of different modalities and models, but my underlying philosophical and implicit relational stance seems to be deeply influenced, shaped, and aligned with Jungian, Psychodynamic, and Existential lenses. This means that I tend to take an in-depth approach to understand you, with an emphasis on exploring recurring themes, patterns, interpersonal relationships (including ours), fantasies, dreams, (unreconciled) past experiences as they may manifest and repattern in the present; as well as more universal aspects of the human experience such as desire, disease, death, responsibility, suffering, meaninglessness, and isolation. Additionally, I am grounded in perspectivism and existential values, acknowledging your reality as valid, important, and true to your lived human experience of which you are an expert; I only bear witness to your journey. The most central feature of my relational stance is creating an environment and dynamic which helps hold and contain feelings of “otherness” and “deviance” in a manner that promotes greater exploration and incorporation of these hidden feelings into your identity and human Self in a healthy way that is more wholesome. Often, I discover that people feel alienated from society and their own Selves, misunderstood and alone in this world and/or their minds; I only hope that I can simultaneously help ground you from feeling too lost in the “ruins” of the mind, while also encouraging you to dive more deeply to discover the beautiful mystery of your mind that exists in solitude within your unique Self. In other words, I would not say I am here to “fix” you, but rather to co-create a space with you where your most authentic Self can be awakened into reality, recognizing what it truly means to be alive and human as you—the good, the bad, the ugly—the whole of it. Lastly, I believe that the relationship is a central part of the psychotherapy process and recognize that therapists are not a one size fits all, including myself. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/135f9e75-b351-4d24-b033-f6db79b7e170/Gemini_Generated_Image_kzywm9kzywm9kzyw.jpg HomePage https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1710283568919-RU9SEK7TQA0AOLQCMJCI/speaking.jpg HomePage https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1726533731207-RS6DPT2NGNDWFBF1BRAP/Therapy+little+Prince+.JPG HomePage https://bentime-stories.com/bio daily 0.75 2025-09-25 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/2377d05c-5b91-44d2-8423-6f59c21429fb/IMG_9830.jpg About Me - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/6a7de821-cca1-4479-b4e5-115c0307d922/Copy+of+BenTime+%28400+%C3%97+200+px%29.png About Me - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1b3828f1-d984-41d2-a59d-80e49d083e4c/IMG_6052.jpg About Me https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/4d14d270-1dc3-44e1-a66c-31355940fff5/IMG_6342+Copy.JPG About Me - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/e5224bb2-046c-4ebb-9495-3591756e7c19/IMG_2945.JPG About Me - Make it stand out Whatever it is, the way you tell your story online can make all the difference. https://bentime-stories.com/home-om daily 0.75 2024-09-11 https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/56bfd2d04c2f85a60a9e8e39/1726078787036-47SK79NLFP302JGB5OSG/IMG_9724%281%29.JPG Home