About Wholeness Psychotherapy
Integrative psychotherapy in Lafayette, the greater East Bay area, and online throughout California
“We find our path by walking it”
Philosophy of Care
I believe people make sense in context. Many of the patterns that create difficulty in the present began as intelligent adaptations to what we have experienced, inherited, or learned in relationship.
When an experience overwhelms our capacity to process it, its effects may continue to live within the nervous system, our relationships, and the ways we understand ourselves. Some of these burdens are personal, while others are shaped by family systems, culture, and experiences carried across generations. The parts of us that rely on vigilance, perfectionism, withdrawal, control, or other protective strategies are not problems to eliminate, but responses that deserve to be understood with curiosity and care.
Therapy offers a place to explore these patterns without judgment while developing the safety, skills, and self-trust needed for something new. I approach this work with clinical intention and respect for each person’s inherent wisdom and capacity for healing, recognizing that lasting change grows through both the therapeutic relationship and the active practice of new ways of being.
“Ultimately, healing flows from within. The word itself originates from the word ‘wholeness.’”
~ Gabor Mate
Wholeness Psychotherapy
Wholeness does not mean perfection or a life without struggle. It means meeting more of your experience with awareness, compassion, and choice, while recognizing how mind, body, nervous system, relationships, culture, and environment shape one another.
I do not believe effective therapy requires choosing between practical, evidence-based methods and deeper relational or experiential work. My approach brings these pathways together, drawing from cognitive and behavioral interventions alongside Internal Family Systems, attachment, mindfulness, nervous-system awareness, and connection with the natural world. Treatment is thoughtfully individualized so that insight can become embodied, practiced, and translated into meaningful change in daily life.
This wider understanding of wholeness is also influenced by Joanna Macy and The Work That Reconnects, which recognize wellbeing as inseparable from our relationships with community and the living world. When clinically appropriate, ecotherapy may offer another pathway into regulation, reflection, and renewed connection with Self, others, and place.
Training & Credentials
Merrielle Chevalblanc, LCSW · California license #138332
Master of Social Work, Fordham University
Bachelor of Arts in English Literature, University of California, Los Angeles
Additional training in Internal Family Systems, exposure and response prevention for OCD and anxiety, polyvagal-informed approaches, restorative justice with families, trauma-sensitive HeartMath, and Ecotherapy with Earthbody Institute.
“There is healing in the return, in learning how to begin again.”
~ Sharon Salzberg