DARIO MARTINEZ
Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
When looking for a therapist to address addiction and other forms of compulsive behavior, it’s important to find a provider who’s able to recognize and respect each client’s unique recovery process and treatment goals. My primary focus as a therapist is to create a structure that meets each client where they’re at in terms of changing behaviors, while simultaneously challenging them to take steps to meet goals that they’ve set for themselves.
Learn More About Addiction »Trauma leaves a powerful imprint that lays dormant in the body and mind. This imprint is easily reactivated by anything that "triggers" memories of the original experience. When this happens, people often become flooded by the same overwhelming emotions and distress that they felt during the actual trauma.
Without help, reactivation of traumatic memories can last for several years or an entire lifetime. Psychotherapy offers useful perspective to help people understand their unique relationship to traumatic experiences while simultaneously providing practical tools to help them effectively manage the impact that these experiences have on their lives.
Learn More About Trauma »I’m a San Francisco based psychotherapist committed to helping people learn how to create and sustain satisfying relationships.
My work emerged out of a recognition that many of the “issues” people bring to psychotherapy often leave them feeling alone, “broken” and isolated. Conditions such as depression, anxiety, addiction and trauma all share an important commonality: they rob us of connections to other people; but more importantly they rob us of a connection to ourselves.
As a therapist, I provide people with resources and skills to help them restore lost connections. I offer a unique therapeutic process that addresses whatever issues are most present while simultaneously helping people learn how to create and sustain supportive relationships outside of therapy.
My intention with this website is to provide an introduction to specific resources, ideas and strategies that I typically share with my clients. The resources I’ve provided cover four interrelated areas:
It’s my hope that these resources will be the beginning of a dialogue because my style as a therapist tends to be highly interactive. I work with individuals, couples and people involved in a diverse range of relationship practices such as non-monogamy, polyamory, monogamous “grouples,” etc.
I’m an LGBTQQI affirming Marriage and Family Therapist Intern #78284; supervised by Karen Chadwick, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist #47999. I have over ten years of experience supporting people with diverse identities across the gender and sexual-orientation spectrums. If you have questions about my practice or any of the material on this site, please feel free to contact me. I offer a free 45 minute consultation to provide you with an opportunity to find out more about my work.
WELCOME TO MY HOME ON THE WEB!
Human beings are born with a biological instinct to connect with each other. Survival depends on it. All babies come into the world completely helpless, and “understand" that they’ll die if they're unable to connect with caregivers.
This instinct to connect carries over into adulthood, but often becomes problematic because many adults find relationships confusing and even anxiety provoking. This creates a painful bind: humans are born with a powerful instinct to connect, but adult emotions such as fear and anxiety make connection difficult or next to impossible.
Therapy offers highly effective tools to navigate this “bind” and help people learn how to deepen bonds, improve communication and ultimately create satisfying relationships.
Learn More About Relationships »Please see links on this page for additional resources and information.
PSYCHOTHERAPY RESOURCES
“Emotional Intelligence” and “Mindfulness” have become important topics in the field of psychology. Emotional Intelligence describes the capacity to effectively manage our own emotions while simultaneously perceiving and responding appropriately to the emotions of others. Mindfulness practices provide powerful tools to build Emotional Intelligence and promote better mental health by interrupting impulsive, automatic behaviors that feed conditions like trauma and addiction.
Learn More About Mindfulness »