Treatment Approaches
Individual Therapy, Couples Therapy, Family Therapy, Jungian Analysis and Shamanic Healing

Session Formats

When a client enters private practice with Ms. Cerna, that person will be welcomed into a comfortable living-room setting.  Ms. Cerna will ask if the client wishes to begin speaking about the purpose of the visit, and a conversation will begin about how they might work together.  Ms. Cerna will eventually draw on a white board or a large pad of paper to illustrate a diagram having a dot in the middle of concentric circles.  This image will represent one's true nature, their true energy force or soul.  Around the central dot, each outer circle will represent stages of life with the most inner circle representing years 0-10, the next circle representing the years 10-15, followed by a circle representing the years 15-25, which will be followed by the outer circle entitled ‘persona’.  From this foundational diagram, she would then draw diagonal lines through the first circle (0-10 years) to indicate the time in one’s life when patterns are formed.  This would be where the Family Therapy would begin.  The Jungian Analysis would also begin in this place of the early years of life and would be according to the complaint(s) introduced by the client.  Later, after the client then begins again or for the first time to describe their need or complaint or desire, Mercedes would "open" the central dot, draw a line down the page from it, and from the end of that line, draw a large diamond shape which would represent the many facets of the human self or soul force of one's nature.

As she opens the "diamond" of the diagram and offers to work deep in the natural self with the client, Ms. Cerna would begin to explain the process of Shamanic Healing work and the benefits of using journeys to an alternative world and meditation to further the work. She would explain the purpose of Power Animals and the meanings of the Upper, Middle, and Lower Worlds of Shamanic Healings and Treatment.  She would use the drum to facilitate the journeying and meditation processes.

After this initial session of exploration, she would vary future sessions between working with Jungian Analysis, Dream Work, Anima/Animus concepts, The Great Mother, The Great Father, The Collective Unconscious, and then back to gleaning lessons from work with traditional Family Analysis of the Family System.  She would seek to understand the family in all of the layers and patterns it is comprised of with a view towards healing. The other family members would be invited in to the therapy process depending on the need/desire of the client and the need of the work.  The work would take into account the first 10 years of life and then travel back and forth between that period of time and the present day, dipping into all the years of one’s journey, while maintaining a basic emphasis on the NOW.  Personality Types as discussed in the Meyers-Briggs Temperament Indicator (MBTI Test) might be determined and utilized to further the work. 

If the client happens to suffer from a physical or chemical disorder, Ms. Cerna would recommend a Psychiatrist M.D. to be invited into the process.

References to working with yoga, karmic work, chakra work and/or herbal healing may occur depending on the needs and desires of the client.

For appointments and scheduling:

please call  (415) 999-7544