Top-Rated Pasadena Therapists at Mixed Roots Psychotherapy
Takeaway: Embrace a journey of healing and self-discovery at Mixed Roots Psychotherapy in Pasadena. Explore your unique story, address relationship challenges, and build courage in a safe, compassionate space. Begin your path to a more fulfilling and congruent life today.
Have you felt misunderstood in previous therapy experiences, or like nothing changed? While therapy has become more widely embraced in recent years, many people, especially people with complex stories, can be disappointed by therapy experiences. Perhaps you have felt put in a box. Perhaps you have felt too busy to work on the parts of you that matter most. Perhaps you feel torn amongst various priorities in your life and need a place where you can sort through what really matters.
Mixed Roots is a private practice that specializes in providing psychotherapy for complex people with complex stories. Here in Pasadena, California, at the intersection of fast-paced Los Angeles and family/community rhythms, we at Mixed Roots provide a space for you to be seen, understood, and supported to explore the roots of your pain and discover the possibilities life can hold for you.
This article will break down who we are, who we help best, and next steps you can take toward finding the support you need.
Does this sound like you?
You feel like you are navigating a world that wasn’t built for you. You long for support, but find it difficult to find people who truly “get” you.
You are wrestling with life changes or mental health struggles that feel overwhelming. You get lost as you try to unravel all the threads of the knot on your own.
You want real community, but you don't know where to look or who to trust, leaving you feeling stuck and alone. This leads to anxiety and depression, which compounds your struggle to build meaningful relationships.
We all have periods of struggle at different times in our lives and need support. Sometimes we need more than a band-aid or quick fix. At Mixed Roots, we specialize in helping people unpack and address complex issues, some that have gone on for years. You don’t have to stay stuck or continue to struggle on your own.
Therapy in Pasadena can help.
Working with a compassionate therapist can make all the difference. Therapy is a space where you can grow in awareness, process complex experiences, and heal from deep wounds. A qualified therapist can help you address the struggles in your life in the right order and at the right pacing, not only equipping you with coping skills, but helping you step into positive change. A nuanced therapist can hold the complexity of your experience and address your struggles from a holistic perspective. An experienced therapist can help you identify the way forward when you feel lost and empower you to step into positive change.
Our team is made up of professional therapists from diverse, complex backgrounds who understand the nuances and challenges of navigating life from the in-between. Each of us has years of training, years of experience working with a diverse array of clients, and significant life experiences that have shaped us to be attuned to the complexities of others’ struggles.
Meet Our Team: Licensed and Pre-Licensed Clinical Psychologists in Pasadena
Noah Lau Branson, PsyD, the founder of Mixed Roots, is a licensed clinical psychologist who primarily engages in depth work with people who have tried therapy but have not experienced the positive change they long for. Dr. Branson identifies as mixed race, Chinese and White, and specializes in supporting people with complex identities. He works with many mixed-race people, men of color, interracial couples, and people who have experienced religious trauma.
Lindsey Ward, MA, a psychological associate, is a pre-licensed therapist who also holds a Holistic Health Practitioner degree. He identifies as mixed race (African American, Native American, Caucasian, Japanese), and he approaches mental health from a holistic perspective, influenced by elders of diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. He specializes in working with high achievers, business leaders, healers, therapists, and artists.
Shaya Aguilar, MA, a psychological associate, is a pre-licensed therapist who also has a master’s degree in ministry. She identifies as a mixed-race Latina therapist with Mexican and European roots, and she approaches clinical work from a relational, culturally responsive, and holistic lens. She specializes in working with women, BIPOC individuals navigating immigration and cross-cultural experiences, mixed couples, and communal trauma.
Who our Pasadena therapy services are for
At Mixed Roots, we work with people all over California via telehealth, and we also work with people in person in Pasadena, California. While we work with all different kinds of people, we specialize in a few particular groups:
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At Mixed Roots, we provide space for wrestling with hard questions: Who am I? What do I want? Why do I do what I do? How do I make sense of my culture/ethnicity in relation to how people interact with me and how I see myself? How can I love my religious faith but also be so wounded by it? How do I integrate my sexual orientation with my religion or culture? At Mixed Roots, we are passionate about sitting in these scary, messy, in-between spaces with you, so you can begin to discover, re-adopt, and become more comfortable in your own skin and learn to honor all parts of your story, enabling you to live a more congruent and vibrant life.
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As people of complex racial/cultural identities ourselves, the therapists at Mixed Roots specialize in supporting people who are mixed race or BIPOC. Therapy with a BIPOC clinician can take into account your experience as a person of color that may be contributing to or nuancing your psychological distress.
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Traumas come in all shapes and sizes. They can be one shattering event or can be psychologically distressing situations that unfold over years. At Mixed Roots, we offer trauma therapy that incorporates a range of tools, theories, and evidence-based practices, such as internal family systems (IFS), sensorimotor psychotherapy, and trauma-focused CBT. We help you find safety and hope by resetting your nervous system, making meaning of your experiences, and restoring relationships.
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We also specialize in working with people for whom spirituality––whether that means God, religion, nature, the Universe, or a sense of the sacred––is important. Our integrative counseling makes space to honor your spiritual beliefs, questions, and longings. This integrative approach can be especially helpful during times of transition, loss, or existential crisis.
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Interracial couples often feel like they are speaking different languages because both partners come from different worlds as well as different ways of being treated by the world. We help interracial couples grow in understanding of each other, build a shared language, and navigate their particular, complex challenges.
Benefits of working with Mixed Roots Psychotherapy
There are many varied benefits people can receive from therapy, including gaining insight into yourself and your relational patterns, learning healthier ways to cope with difficulties, building communication skills, and finding a deeper level of peace within yourself. Studies show that psychotherapy has longer-lasting effects than using solely psychopharmalogical medication. However, finding the right therapist for you is important. Modalities and styles of therapy can vary, but studies show that the most important factor in whether therapy is effective is the quality of the connection between therapist and client. This means finding a therapist who you are able to build deep trust with is crucial to your healing and empowerment.
Here are some potential benefits you can experience from working with a psychotherapist at Mixed Roots:
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The more you know yourself, the more you are aware of what drives certain behaviors or patterns in your life, the more aware you are of your unconscious beliefs about yourself, life, or other people, the more potential you have to choose how you want to live. At Mixed Roots, we provide psychodynamic therapy that can help you grow in awareness of your unconscious habits and how they impact your life. It can help you get to the root of why you are stuck. Therapy can also help you build new habits and empower you to explore new choices.
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Whether you are struggling with depression or anxiety, have experienced trauma, or life simply feels chaotic, therapy can help you build grounding and safety in your life. By providing a safe space in which all your emotions, experiences, and self can be witnessed and supported, therapy gives you the space to explore your authentic self and deepest values. Therapy can also provide practical tools for grounding yourself in your everyday life.
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We all long for meaningful connection with others, and research shows that positive relationships have a host of benefits, including boosting our physical health. Often, however, relationships can be a source of conflict, unmet longing, and confusion. In therapy, you can explore what core needs are driving your desires and behaviors in relationships, how to have healthy boundaries that allow you to connect to others without being swallowed up by them, and how to effectively communicate with others.
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For various reasons, we all can become constricted in our view of what is possible in our lives. Therapy is a place where you can unpack challenging experiences you have had and how they have impacted you. It is a place where you can uncover parts of you that have lain dormant and a place where you can gain clarity about your values and take steps to live into them more fully. As a nonjudgmental, confidential space, therapy provides an opportunity for you to process your experiences and desires in an unfiltered, honest way that can bring deep clarity and courage to live with congruence, and thrive.
FAQs about Therapy with a Pasadena Therapist
Here are answers to some frequently asked questions about therapy. If you have further questions, feel free to contact us by emailing dr.noahlaubranson@mixedrootstherapy.com or calling (818) 659-5903.
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While there is no right or wrong time or reason to see a therapist, some signs that it may be a good time to go to therapy are:
Feeling stuck
Relationship issues you can’t resolve
Overwhelm or Panic
Emotions, thoughts, or behaviors that impair functioning at work or home
Feeling trapped in the past
Feeling lost in your own skin
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Therapist is a more general term that can encompass people with various degrees and levels of licensure. Psychologists have either PhD’s in psychology or PsyD’s (clinical psychology doctorates), and they are trained in numerous therapy modalities as well as in assessment. All the therapists at Mixed Roots are psychologists who are either licensed (which requires at least 3000 clinical hours of experience) or psychology associates with at least a couple years of experience seeing clients. Some of our therapists have additional master’s degrees as well.
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While education and experience can play a factor in how knowledgeable and helpful your therapist is, the most important factor is how well you connect with your therapist. Therapists can have a range of styles and personalities, so it can be helpful to converse with a prospective therapist or even do a session or two to determine whether you want to move forward working with a particular therapist. Another factor to consider is a therapist who will understand your background. At Mixed Roots, we all come from complex racial and cultural backgrounds and understand the complexities inherent in having a complex identity and/or life experiences, whether culturally, sexually, or spiritually/religiously.
Working with a therapist in Pasadena can help you better understand yourself and your relationships.
At Mixed Roots, we provide a space for people to process their complex stories, be witnessed in the fullness of who they are, and take steps toward building a life that aligns with their deepest values. Whether you are in crisis or simply want to understand yourself better, we are here to support you, walk alongside you, and equip you with tools and insight. If you are interested in exploring therapy at Mixed Roots, you can reach out for a free 15-minute consultation by emailing dr.noahlaubranson@mixedroots.com.