Maya Sztainer, PsyD

Dr. Maya Sztainer is a licensed clinical psychologist (PSY32215) who provides individual psychotherapy to adolescents and young adults. Her work is informed by Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and other evidence-based treatments with an interest in helping clients navigate concerns around anxiety, trauma, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), depression, relationships, and life transitions.

Dr. Sztainer earned a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the PGSP-Stanford Psy.D. Consortium. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at San Jose State University Counseling and Psychological Services followed by a postdoctoral residency with the Kaiser Permanente Department of Psychiatry Child and Family Team. She enjoys working with students and young professionals and has experiences working in settings such as universities, hospitals, and community-based mental health clinics. Her own identity and multi-cultural background informs her work and passion for working with clients from a diverse set of backgrounds.

Dr. Sztainer is committed to creating a space where her clients can express themselves freely, develop greater self-awareness, and learn concrete skills to help them build and maintain emotional wellness. She hopes to help her clients foster self-compassion and acceptance around their emotional experiences while also supporting them to identify avenues to make positive change.

“As your therapist, I will strive to ensure that you feel deeply heard and understood, while also motivating and equipping you with tools to enhance your quality of life. My style in therapy is collaborative, warm, and engaging. I appreciate genuine interactions and the ability to bring humor and fun into the therapy space.

Life can be really hard. Being human means that we will inevitably experience pain, whether it is in the form of loss, comparisons, disappointment, anxiety, trauma, failure, loneliness, illness, sadness, etc. My hope is to help you move toward living a full and meaningful life while also making space for the pain that comes along with being alive. We will work on building skills to make difficult thoughts and feelings have less influence over you and work toward helping you identify what is important to you.

I tailor therapy to each unique individual, depending on your needs and goals. Sessions with me may include mindfulness, movement, exposure, self-compassion practices, setting weekly commitments, and, of course, lots of time to process and reflect. I hope to help you identify areas that are keeping you stuck and support you in discovering ways to get unstuck so that you can build the life that you want.”