Welcome! I'm so glad you are here.

Are you wanting to deepen your relationship to yourself? To feel closer with your partner(s) or spouse? To have more choice, agency, and sense of empowerment with how you show up interpersonally with others? If so, you've come to the right place. 

I specialize in supporting couples and individuals using a somatic and relational approach that is informed by Formative Psychology, Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy (PACT), non-violent communication, and socratic questioning. As a therapist, I am warm, engaging, relational, and directive. 

I maintain a hybrid practice in which I meet with San Francisco Bay Area-based clients at my offices in San Rafael and San Francisco, and I also meet with clients throughout the State of California virtually via telehealth. From my perspective, the screen is not a barrier - if anything, it can be a supportive boundary that deepens therapy in a unique way. At the same time, the potency of in-person therapeutic work is undeniable. I am a great believer that different bodies need different supports, and it is important to me that I am able to offer both options to my clients. 

My practice is not about changing who you are, but in supporting you with growing a relationship to who you already are. Your body (you) is our best teacher and I am excited about the possibilities we can grow together. 

Individual Therapy

A relationship with yourself is one that you will have for your entire life - why not make it a satisfying one?

We are often socialized to seek answers, knowledge or permission from the outside, whether that consists of a family member, an authority figure, or a value system. What possibilities are available to a person, when they practice referencing from their own experience first? For some, this might look like forming an ability to shape and maintain boundaries, or an increased sense of agency, confidence, and self-worth. 

Somatic therapy is a relational modality that is informed by the body's innate intelligence and plasticity (capacity to grow and change). My approach to therapy begins with growing a relational foundation of trust, meeting the client wherever they are, and gradually incorporating body-based somatic-emotional exercises. Over time, these exercises can support a person from engaging in unconscious behaviors and patterns, to consciously exploring different possibilities that they are happier with.

Couples & Relationship Therapy

Relationships are some of the most rich and rewarding containers in which we can get to know ourselves. 

Exploring couples therapy does not mean something has to be "wrong" with your relationship. It is common and natural for couples to reach a place where they want a little additional support with how they connect, how they communicate, or maybe to address an event or transition they are anticipating or feeling impacted by from before. Other times, couples do seek support with a sense of urgency. Though hurt and misunderstanding can occur within human-to-human connection, relationships can also support reparative experiences that lead to satisfying growth and change. 

As a couples therapist, your relationship is my client, and it is my job to support you and your partner with managing the system you have built together. In my experience, what you grow together in our couples therapy work can effectively ripple out and within multiple systems, including other relationships. To support this level of systems-work, I utilize aspects of both Formative Psychology and PACT in my work with couples, both of which are somatic (body-based), experiential (learning-by-doing), and relational (real-time relating) approaches.

Depending on availability, I offer 50-minute, 75-minute, and 90-minute sessions for couples. I encourage you to reach out to me so we can discuss what is showing up for you and how I can help.

Courtenay Houk, MA, AMFT (she/they)

I am a late-stage Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (AMFT) specializing in somatic and relational psychotherapy.

I earned my clinical MA degree in Somatic Psychotherapy from the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS) in San Francisco in 2020. Separate from my clinical work, I am also currently a PhD student in Somatic Psychology at CIIS, where I am exploring somatic and embodied research studies. I hold a BLA in Mandarin Chinese from Bennington College in Vermont (2013). and two Mandarin Chinese Language Certificates from Xiamen University in Fujian Province, China (2011) and Middlebury College in Vermont (2012).

I am a queer, femme, seventh-generation Pennsylvania-German ("Fancy Dutch", white), mixed class person, who grew up as a Third Culture Kid, living in North-Eastern China and the Navajo Nation in New Mexico during my formative years, among other places. Prior to starting a career in therapy, I worked in the fast-paced translation service industry where I specialized in quality assurance, project management, and localization. Due to these experiences, I am no stranger to the intersections of language, culture, identity, transition, relationships, somatic embodiment, and mental health.

I am supervised by Christina Loeffel, LMFT #29127 and Aaron Hagaman, LMFT #52152.

The best ways to reach me is by calling my confidential voicemail directly and leaving me a brief message, or by sending me an email. I will get back to you as soon as I can, Monday-Thursday: