About Katharine
Hello, I am Katharine.
I am an IAAP Certified Jungian Analyst, Buddhist Psychotherapist, and a Somatic Experiencing™ (SE®) Practitioner. My approach to psychotherapy is integrative, trauma-informed, and depth oriented.
In our sessions together, I draw on Western psychology, ancient wisdom traditions, modern neuroscience, somatic awareness, and interpersonal neurobiology. While traditional psychology helps us understand the mind, integrating Somatic Experiencing and imaginative reflection also connects us to the wisdom of the body and the soul. Through this deeper listening, we can discover more of who we truly are- and who we’re meant to become.
I work with people who are drawn toward psychological depth and the transformative healing of trauma- often those who feel that they have very few places in our culture to explore the symbolic nature of the psyche with grounded support that includes both the body and nervous system.
I believe our emotional lives are shaped by our families of origin and early experiences- what we consciously and unconsciously remember. Yet the psyche is also shaped in profound ways by ancestral inheritance, epigenetics, collective distress from current events, and echos of historical trauma. For many deep-feeling souls, this awareness can create a sense of dissonance and loneliness in a world that rarely slows down.
Working with dreams, the body, and the imaginal realm offers us insight, clarity, direction and hope.
I like questions. I am not afraid of not knowing, nor of the unknown. I will not insist that I have your answers for you. Instead, my commitment is to stay with you and that together, slowly, we’ll l see what is under it all. We will discover, together, where wisdom lives.
This is what I believe.
I believe that most of us have not learned how to appreciate ourselves for who we are. This makes us unsettled in our own skin, believing that we need to be someone else to be worthy.
I believe that, through trauma or life’s challenges, we sometimes unlearn how to trust and know ourselves. This can leave us feeling confused, disconnected, and in pain.
I believe that within each individual resides an unbroken wholeness which is inherently creative and wise. Our symptoms often arise from this wholeness as signals- calling us to tend to parts of ourselves that are in distress and longing to return home.
I believe that it is absolutely possible to feel empowered to trust and listen to our own hearts for the intelligence and wisdom we need to navigate personal and collective challenges.
I do what I do because I deeply believe that healing ourselves has a direct effect on our families, communities, and even our planet. Seeking care for ourselves is not selfish- it is a generous act of service.
Professional Biography
Katharine Bainbridge M.A. M.F.T is an IAAP Certified Jungian Analyst (2009), licensed psychotherapist (1998) and Somatic Experiencing™ (SE®) Practitioner. She is a graduate of New York University, Antioch University, and the C.G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles. She maintains a successful private practice in beautiful Southern California where she lives with her husband and their Lhasa apso, Pepe Le Pew.
With over 25 years experience as a marriage and family therapist- and over 30 years as a Tibetan Buddhist practitioner- Katharine draws upon a rich and integrative background. Katharine is a member of the C. G. Jung Institute of Los Angeles, the Inter-Regional Society of Jungian Analysts, and The International Association of Analytical Psychology.
Katharine specializes in supporting both women and men who are creative, sensitive, and seeking deeper meaning and healing. Her work addresses the growth, well-being, and transformation of those navigating early childhood trauma, life transitions, or challenges in the second half of life. She has a particular passion for helping individuals who, after decades of focusing on career, marriage, or family, find themselves facing what Jung described as, “an impoverishment of mind and soul.”
As a longtime meditator, Katharine incorporates mindfulness practices to help clients slow down and reconnect body and mind. She has taught Jungian Psychology at The New Center for Psychoanalysis and the C.G. Jung Institute in Los Angeles, and leads retreats and workshops across the country, speaking on women’s psychological health, trauma recovery, creativity, and Buddhist meditation.
Being a Tibetan Buddhist, Katharine’s lifelong curiosity has led her to study alternative approaches to healing. She has traveled to Tibet and Nepal to deepen her Buddhist practices and explore indigenous healing traditions. She holds extensive training in shamanic practices, including being welcomed into study with Aama Bombo of Nepal, one the 13 Indigenous Grandmothers.
Katharine’s style as a therapist is warm, engaged and interactive. She blends Eastern and Western psychology to offer a unique approach to her work. She thrives on looking at healing from “outside of the box”: she believes that often triggering a new perspective in how we view ourselves and our life situation holds the possibility of transforming our relationship to our suffering. With compassion, humor and understanding, she works with each client to help build on strengths and understand habitual patterns of behavior that contribute to confusion and suffering. Katharine is fully devoted to assisting in the very serious need today for all beings to heal so that we may contribute to the further healing of our communities, families, businesses, and ecology.
“You see, in the image of Aquarius, it’s a human who pours water into the fish. Now the fish is the unconscious. It is not enough to have it. We have to actively turn toward it and support it so that it then helps us.”