Bret Hansen, AMFT
Somatic Therapist

Pasadena, California & Online

  • Somatic & Trauma Resiliency

  • Individuals, Couples & Teens

  • Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)

  • Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP)

  • Previously a creative director, studio artist & design professor

My specialities

My approach integrates emotional, cognitive, relational, and somatic dimensions. I help you make sense of your inner world, deepen your self-understanding, and live with more clarity, connection, and choice.

I work with individuals on a range of issues including:

  • Anxiety

  • Depression

  • Trauma/PTSD

  • Relationship Conflict

  • Life transitions

  • Loneliness

  • Creative blocks

  • Connecting and belonging

  • Emotional resilience

  • LGBTQIA+ Identity

Therapy with me

In any given session, I may offer a reflection or interpretation, draw attention to a physical sensation, guide a visualization, or gently examine a belief that may be keeping you stuck. We might return to a formative moment or slow down to let an emotional experience fully emerge. Over time, the relationship itself becomes an active part of the work—a space where your story can be told, reexamined, and integrated.

When working with couples, I take an active stance—helping both partners feel seen while identifying and shifting the patterns that block connection.

My background

Before becoming a therapist, I worked for nearly 20 years as a creative director in publishing and advertising, including for Conde Nast, the Wall Street Journal and Siegel+Gale. I also served as an adjunct professor in graphic design for the Pratt Institute. The part I always found most meaningful was mentoring young designers on their professional growth to help them overcome creative blocks, imposter syndrome, relationship conflicts, and burnout.

These mentoring experiences shape how I work as a therapist today. I create a space for inquiry, openness, experimentation, and embodiment. Together, we work through whatever arises, until your creativity is flowing and you are able to meet all of life’s challenges.

“As an artist, designer and therapist, I’ve come to trust in the power of embodied imagination to heal.”

Training

  • Emotionally Focused Therapy for Individuals (EFIT) Externship

  • Emotionally Focused Therapy for Couples (EFCT) Core Skills & Externship

  • Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) Advanced Skills & Immersion

  • MA, Marriage and Family Therapy, Touro University

  • MFA, Design, Virginia Commonwealth University

  • BA, Studio Art, University of Maryland

  • BA, Journalism, University of Maryland

Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #155624
Supervised by: Steven Bradshaw, LMFT #136584

Treatment approach

Psychotherapy is a great tool to help you understand yourself at a deeper level, find purpose in your life, and address obstacles that are hindering you from reaching your goals. The result is a more integrated self, enabling you to achieve more satisfying ways to live and foster healthy and fulfilling relationships with people in your life.

In addition to my relational approach, I teach practices that support your nervous system to move toward regulation, or homeostatic balance. These practices teach you how to be with challenging sensations without bracing to allow energy to shift and release, rather than accumulating in your body. Over time, your window of tolerance expands so that your nervous system naturally spends more time in parasympathetic, or “rest and digest,” even as you move through the world .

In the process, I help you to unburden the original traumas that live on as hypersensitivity to threat. To do this, we need to meet and befriend the protective parts that over or under react to present situations. With more understanding and acceptance, these parts calm down and start to work together as a team, helping you to become more responsive and vital.

I help you build a personalized tool-kit to manage your symptoms going forward. When you stop fearing your symptoms they lose power over you and they begin to fade. Clients often report forgetting about symptoms as their life comes back into the foreground.

Somatic Therapy helps to discharge Survival Energy and Reduce Chronic Symptoms such as Pain & Discomfort

Services and fees

I offer in-person and online sessions for:

  • Individuals $200 (50-minute session)

  • Couples $250 (50-minute session)

  • Adolescents & Teens $200 (50-minute session)

Feel free to ask if sliding scale ($150) is available.