Meryl Haggege, AMFT (#136379)

WELCOME!

I am my best and most authentic self when I care for others and help them build stronger relationships. It is a gift to sit with people, to witness them process and integrate trauma, including their attachment trauma. I hold space from a place of deep love, care and respect. I aspire to channel a grounding and loving energy that can guide clients through their experiences, no matter how overwhelming and challenging.

A little bit about my work

In my work as a therapist, I trust the client’s inner healer and hold a non-judgmental and accepting space where they can have their own experiences without needing to change anything. My deepest hope is that we, the clients and I, can collaborate so as to help them learn to listen to their body and feel empowered to choose the approaches that work best for them.

In sessions, I integrate approaches that I have found to be meaningful for me, including Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT), relationally focused psychodynamic therapy and somatic therapy. Using a mindfulness-based frame, I help clients slow down and develop emotional awareness via a deep connection and attunement to their body. I also hold a trauma-informed and culturally responsive framework and commit to think about how systems impact my clients’ experiences inside and outside the therapy space.

A little bit about my work with couples and polyamorous constellations

When I work with monogamous and polyamorous couples and/ or constellations to provide them relationship counseling, I hold Esther Perel’s quote as a guiding principle: “the quality of our relationships determines the quality of our lives.” Working through relationship’s issues and finding a way through those difficulties is a necessity for our own individual well-being.

For many people engaged in intimate relationships, conflicts can feel terrifying, overwhelming and impossible to overcome. As a therapist, I aspire to help people talk about and navigate those conflicts so as to show them how they are normal parts of every intimate relationship.

People in intimate relationships also come to therapy to get help figuring out what they want, how to get it and ask for it from their partner(s). I aspire to help those individuals learn how to better be together. I do so by helping them improve their communication and how they relate to people around them. I encourage them to be curious and understand how to fight and forgive. I create a collaborative environment where they can be playful and take time and effort to foster connection and excitement.

When I work with clients coming for relationship counseling, I use a variety of techniques, including Emotionally Focused Couple Therapy (EFT) and Nonviolent Communication (NVC). The work of Esther Perel, the Gottman Institute, Marshall Rosenberg and Dr Orna Gularik inspire my work with clients who want to build stronger relationships.

Together, we work on helping them repair and strengthen their relationship and enjoying a deep and meaningful connection with their partner(s).

A little bit about me

I fell in love with San Francisco in 2014 and I haven’t left California since. I identify as a queer, mixed race, cis-gender woman with Jewish-Tunisian and French heritage. My bicultural upbringing has helped me to develop empathy and understand the importance of cultural humility. My meditation and yoga practice has taught me the healing power of mindfulness.

A little bit about who I work with

I work with adults, teens and couples. I have experience working with clients of all backgrounds and identities on the below topics :

• Relationship & attachment Issues
• Relationship counseling
• Premarital and marital counseling
• Sexual intimacy
• Divorce/ end of relationship mediation
• Coparenting
• Depression and anxiety
• Grief
• Trauma (including relational trauma, systemic trauma)
• Life Transition
• Abuse (including domestic abuse, emotional abuse, systemic oppression/racism)