Hi, I’m Stanly
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I often wonder what amazing things could happen if we all got better at managing our fear and belief systems. I am driven by this idea that when we productively examine ourselves (even when it’s uncomfortable or painful), we create the capacity to be better to ourselves, our communities, and our planet. Imagine how different society could be if early education prioritized mindfulness, critical thinking, and financial literacy. I am grateful for the opportunity to do such unique and meaningful work: it brings out the most creatively abstract, analytical, compassionate, and “humanizingly playful” parts of who I am. I hope to create small positive ripples in the lives of others with the hope they grow into larger ripples in the world around them.
How I Got Here
Like many others, I have learned all sorts of things about happiness and morality:
Certain feelings and behaviors are good while others are bad.
Your worth and happiness are based on how special, accomplished, perfect, wealthy, famous, or popular you are.
You should always feel good and happy. If you don’t, just keep avoiding bad feelings—easy! If that doesn’t work… Well, you’ll need figure it out on your own (“we don’t talk about feelings or mental health, that’s weak and it’s a waste of time”).
Like many others, my decisions were often driven by this programming. While it may have helped me achieve or accomplish things, it greatly distorted my sense of self and reality. This resulted in excessive mental habits of catastrophic worrying and self-critical over-thinking. I wasted years arguing with my mind about what was “true/good/enough/safe”. I struggled to get out of my head, open up, and pursue what I deeply cared about. The “appearance” of happiness and success ≠ true, authentic inner peace and happiness.
WHY I DO THIS
Like many therapists, my training, education, and personal psychological work have taught me a great deal about myself. Like many others, I have faced hardships in life. However, I am not unique because of them—what makes us all unique is how we choose to respond and why. The recurring painful events or existential crises I encounter, while challenging, also fuel my deep interest and passion for psychology and philosophy. When I take what I learn and apply it to my commitment to compassionately serve others, it affirms my sense of purpose and ability to keep doing this work. I would not change the cards I was given in this life… Buuut it would have been nice to have been introduced to these psychological skills/ideas sooner. So I hope to be that for you, wherever you are in your life.
—Stanly 🤷🏻
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My approach to therapy is active and collaborative. I balance an emphasis on the present/future while being informed by the past. I focus less on emotional goals (“feeling good/getting rid of bad feelings”) and focus more on “realigning awareness and behavior with personal values”. I believe that the most effective therapy is the type that is tailored to the individual’s needs and goals. The work should keep you out of your "comfort zone” while staying within your “safety zone”. You can learn more about my approach by exploring the guide I created. It lays out some core fundamental psychological ideas and skills anyone can benefit from learning.
Therapy Framework:
While I individualize therapy to clients’ unique needs and goals, the foundation of my clinical orientation is primarily aligned with Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), a cognitive-emotional-behavioral therapy model that emphasizes psychological flexibility through the clarification of personal values, cultivation of meaning, and commitment to action. This approach transformed how I understand thinking, the power of language, and the nature of the human experience. It reshaped my perspective on life, the self, and the world—profoundly impacting my personal and professional growth. ACT integrates a lot of my core influences from Cognitive-Emotional-Behavioral therapies, Existentialism, Buddhism, and Stoicism. I’ve found ACT to be universally relatable and practical, offering clients tools that foster flexibility, meaning, and intentional action. -
It’s surreal to me (“didn’t I just graduate yesterday?!”) but I have over a decade of diverse clinical experience in adult mental health settings, managing programs, and supervising student/associate-level therapists. I regularly encounter diverse populations across various ages and backgrounds, addressing a wide range of psychological challenges.
Currently, I am providing therapy in online private practice and primary care. I am also supervising and training graduate level interns in the primary care setting.
My first 6 years were in Community Mental Health, where I worked extensively with clients that were struggling with severe and persistent mental illness and other health or substance use disorders. These clients often faced extreme hardships, homelessness, lack of essential resources, and a range of co-occurring mental and physical health challenges. Once I was licensed, I had accepted supervisory and management roles which helped me discover new ways to support the mental health needs of our communities. However, the disconnection from my true passion–directly working with and empowering people–led to me taking the risk of “demoting” myself back into clinical work, starting with the Partial Hospitalization/Intensive Outpatient setting (supporting clients with acute mental health issues before they spiral into a mental health crisis)… This pivot back to doing clinical work remains one of the most important decisions I’ve made in my career—it brought me back to why I entered this field in the first place.
License: LCSW 80219
California Board of Behavioral Sciences, 2017Education:
Bachelor of Science in Human Services
California State University, Fullerton, 2012
Master of Social Work in Mental Health
University of Southern California, 2014
Doctor of Psychology in progress
California Southern University, est. graduation in 2027