Dr. Emmaline (Em) Mitchell (she/they) is a clinical psychologist (CA PSY 34503) specializing in working with couples and relationships of all kinds, sexual functioning and intimacy, life transitions, and spiritual or identity concerns. As an identify-affirming, queer therapist, her heart is in helping clients to live the fullest life that they envision. Em works to ensure that your values and authentic self are honored in therapy, and that therapy is customized based on the unique needs of the person in front of them. Em has expertise in issues affecting LGBTQ+ relationships including transition, spiritual and identity-based trauma, coping with stigma and discrimination, coping with differences in being out, having family support, or desired relationship structure, and managing internalized societal messaging that is not in line with intrinsic or desired self. As a provider, Em makes sure to address societal as well as immediate invalidation and microaggressions as they come up. Her therapeutic style is empathic, direct, and (at times) humorous. It’s most important to her that clients feel safe and comfortable enough to discuss things that are hard to share – especially when those things are stigmatized or shamed by societal forces. She works from a trauma-informed, anti-racist, anti-shaming, kink-friendly approach, and enjoys working with folks of all races, ethnicities, genders, sexualities, and relationship structures. Em earned their Ph.D. in clinical psychology from John Jay College in New York City and completed her postdoctoral residency at the VA San Diego Healthcare System. She has expertise in evidence-based couple and sex therapies, mindfulness- and acceptance-based therapies (e.g., ACT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), and trauma therapy.