Diane Byster, LMFT
  • Hello
  • About
    • Publications
  • Therapy
    • Case Consultation
  • Career Counseling
  • Trainings
  • Yoga
  • Contact
    • Client Forms

Psychotherapy with Diane.

Do find yourself stuck in an unfulfilling job situation, a relationship pattern that you don’t like, or some other condition that you haven’t been able to change?

Whether you’re blocked by procrastination, crippling anxiety, disabling depression, or low self-confidence, rest assured: There is real help.

I am trained in evidenced-based (scientifically tested) psychotherapy techniques (ISTDP, Control-Mastery, and PACT) that help clients lead satisfying, productive lives, breaking through internal barriers and making changes faster than with most traditional therapy.

 
Picture

ISTDP:
For Real Change.


Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) is designed to help people change in a shorter period of time than with standard therapies.

ISTDP is not a therapy that is “done to you”; you and your therapist do it together. Rather than simply showing up and saying what comes to mind, you will be asked to actively join me in:
  1. identifying your most cherished goals;
  2. observing yourself closely and accurately;
  3. learning what you specifically do that keeps you from accomplishing your goals; and
  4. letting go of those blocks so you can achieve what you want.

The ISTDP approach accomplishes this through a unique kind of listening and interaction where the therapist pays very close attention to everything you say and do moment-by-moment in the session.
MORE ⇒

Control-Mastery:
Be Your True Self.


Have your ever found yourself feeling pressure to change what you say or do? Before you know it, you don’t recognize yourself, or you feel badly because you have caved instead of being honest with yourself and others. This very common dilemma can lead you to avoid social encounters and to have a more-limited life.

We all want to be our natural selves, no matter where we are, or with whom.

The Control-Mastery Approach assumes that people are forced to give up a certain amount of healthy functioning growing up in order to adapt to their environments and preserve their important relationships. As a result, we can develop unproductive patterns of relating to ourselves and others, losing sight of our own goals and winding up unhappy.

The Control Mastery Approach helps us regain control.
MORE ⇒

PACT: Helping Couples Form More-Secure Bonds.

We often find ourselves in relationship that don’t work — we get stuck in familiar but unproductive conversations; or we keep what’s important inside because we don’t feel safe with our partner to be genuine; or we are prone to create distance in our primary relationship and get our needs met elsewhere.

The result? A relationship that lacks vitality, feels flat, and is unsatisfying to both partners. Even if we leave that relationship, we invariably create some version of that same pattern in the next one.

What can be done about this?

PACT — a Psychobiological Approach to Couple Therapy® — is a cutting-edge model that integrates the latest neuroscience on emotion regulation, principles of forming a secure attachment, and developmental neurobiology to help each member of the couple grow and create a more fulfilling relationship.

MORE ⇒
Rainbow photo by Michael Fratkin
Home
About
Contact

Psychotherapist Diane Byster, LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist) offers psychotherapy, career and personal counseling, case consultation, trainings and workshops on psychological issues, and yoga teaching in the San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley. She provides therapy using methods (including ISTDP, Control-Mastery, and P.A.C.T.) that often work faster than traditional techniques. With offices in the Silicon Valley towns of Redwood City and Palo Alto, she serves clients from Berkeley, Oakland, Piedmont, Albany, El Cerrito, Richmond, San Mateo, San Carlos, Menlo Park, Mountain View, Stanford, Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, San Jose, Milpitas, Fremont, Newark, Union City, Hayward, and beyond.