Colette Virostko
Associate Marriage & Family Therapist 143902
Santa Cruz Office
Medi-Cal & Insurance provider
Welcome. I see my role as that of a guide or companion on your own unique healing journey, here to be with you on your path towards reconnecting to the innate wholeness and beauty that you are.
As a heart centered therapist I bring compassion, warmth, and non-judgement into the therapeutic process, creating the conditions that allow you to feel seen, safe, and supported to dive into the work of therapy. I work integratively, honoring that being a human is complex and that within each of us lives a unique constellation of experiences, factors, relationships, and ways of being that influence who we are and how we move through the world.
I draw from a range of tools and frameworks to support your unique needs within therapy and work in a way that is trauma informed and client centered. I am passionate about supporting clients to access their own inner wisdom and the diverse well of resources available to them and around them. I often utilize parts work/IFS, compassion and presence, NVC/exploring needs, spirituality/ transpersonal dimensions, and somatic tools. Some of the main theoretical orientations I draw from are:
Somatic:
Somatic therapy works with the living wisdom of the body. I utilize somatic tools such as breath-work, body awareness, and movement in my practice to support healing, emotional and nervous system regulation, and to help clients develop belonging and love in relationship to their bodies. Our bodies and our relationships to our bodies are complex and I work in a way that honors this within my practice.
Relational and Attachment Based:
We are relational beings, we need connection and secure attachment to others, it is part of what makes us human. Our early and primary relationships shape how we relate to ourselves, others, and the world. I support clients to explore their relational patterns, heal from attachment wounding, and define what is authentic and true for them in relating to self and others. A secure and trusting therapeutic relationship in therapy can serve as a vessel of healing, transformation, and growth in of itself.
Depth:
Depth approaches support the expansion of awareness and consciousness, helping to uncover parts of the self, patterned ways of being, and internalized beliefs that one might not be fully conscious of. What we are not conscious of within us often has a noticeable impact on our lives, in how we relate to ourselves, others, and the deeper core beliefs we have about life. Working in the dimension of soul, we might explore what aspects of your soul are wanting to come into greater expression, awareness, and emergence. I incorporate active imagination, dreamwork, and art into the therapy process to support this.
Social Justice:
We are all embedded within and shaped by the overlapping social and power structures that define our society. These social systems impact our experiences in the world given our different social locations and identities. As a cis white clinician I hold an awareness of my own identity in this role, as well as bring a social justice informed lens into how I work with clients.
Rewilding / Ecopsychology:
The interwoven relationships we have with nature are deeply supportive, generative, and grounding. Nature connection allows us to find meaning, wholeness, and belonging in our lives in ways that purely human constructs can’t. Just as we know good sleep and exercise is foundational to all areas of health, nature connection too is a vital component in our wellbeing, healing process, and overall aliveness. Rewilding therapy supports the rekindling of one’s inner wildness and one’s sacred relationship to the more than human world of nature.
Request an Appointment
To Request an Appointment at Shine a Light or NPCC, please fill out this form. We respond to inquiries Monday through Friday. All inquiries we receive on the weekends or holidays will be processed the next business day. Thank you for your patience. If you need immediate services, please call 911.
New Office in San Francisco!
Shine a Light Counseling Center is please to merge with New Perspectives Center for Counseling. NPCC has been serving the San Francisco community for thirty years. Now NPCC is transitioning to become the San Francisco site for Shine a Light. NPCC will retain its name, character and history. For information about NPCC or counseling in San Francisco:
New Perspectives Center for Counseling (link)
Emergency Contact
Shine a Light does not provide crisis services. If you have a mental health emergency, call 988 or 911. Or click here for more Crisis Resources
Telephone Contact
You can call Shine a Light at 831-996-1222, but we encourage you to use the email forms to the left. If you call, please leave the following:
- Phone number
- Preferred location
- Best times to meet
- Issue you want help with
- What insurance you have (if any)
FAX us at: 831-417-0443
Good Faith Estimate
You have the right to receive a “Good Faith Estimate” explaining how much your therapy sessions will cost. Your fee will be set according to a sliding scale, in collaboration with your therapist, prior to your first counseling session. Total costs depend upon the number of sessions you choose to utilize.
If you have private health insurance and we are not in-network with your plan, please be aware that your costs for therapy may be less by using an in-network provider. This will depend upon your plan's deductible amounts and co-payments. In some cases, counseling at Shine a Light is less costly than using private insurance.
If you hope to use "out of network" benefits through your private insurance, please be aware that many plans will not reimburse for services provided by trainees. Please request an Associate level therapists for out-of-network billing.
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