Oak Creek Relational Counseling Center

09/06/2026

The move from summer to school compresses family time—and certain parent‑child patterns become easier to see. Common shifts include:

- Shorter, faster check‑ins
- Conversations turned into logistics
- Kids testing how parents listen
- Independence arriving on its own schedule
- Being physically together but not connecting
- Siblings noticing uneven attention
- Children learning to predict parental responses

Not a checklist or a crisis—just observations many families notice in September. For families who want a neutral space to talk, Oak Creek Relational Counseling in Pleasant Hill offers sliding‑scale family therapy and telehealth across Contra Costa County.

Read the blog post: https://www.oakcreekcounseling.org/blog/parent-child-relationship-patterns-east-bay

09/02/2026

Your childhood is still shaping you. 🌿

If you're noticing patterns in relationships, emotions, or how you see yourself—there's often something earlier in your story worth understanding.

Therapy creates space to process the past and reclaim your present.

We're here.

08/31/2026

Please join us in welcoming Bethany Premo, MFT Trainee, to Oak Creek Relational Counseling Center. 🌿

Bethany works with people who want a place to slow down — children, teens, adults, couples, and families navigating anxiety, relationship concerns, life transitions, and questions about identity. Her approach is warm, collaborative, and person-centered, drawing on CBT, mindfulness, and somatic work as they fit the client in front of her.

Her practice is neurodiversity and LGBTQIA+ affirming.

In her words: "Whatever you may be going through, you don't have to figure it out alone."

Bethany offers telehealth and in-person sessions throughout California and is accepting new clients.

Read her full introduction: https://www.oakcreekcounseling.org/blog/welcome-bethany-premo-mft-trainee-to-oak-creek

08/30/2026

One hour they're warm and close. The next, they're cold, furious, or simply gone. You never know which version will walk through the door, so you stop relaxing in your own home.

New on the blog: 7 Signs of an Emotionally Unstable Partner.

Every couple has hard days — that much is normal. What we're describing is different: a pattern of outsized feelings and fast swings between them, where a small event sets off a very large wave. Therapists call it poor emotional regulation.

The piece covers seven patterns, including:

• Mood that turns on a dime
• Small problems that become enormous fights
• Walking on eggshells
• Affection that runs hot, then cold
• A world that keeps quietly getting smaller

A few honest caveats. You can't diagnose a partner from a blog post, and these traits show up for all sorts of reasons — stress, grief, trauma, untreated health conditions. Emotional instability also isn't the same thing as abuse. If threats, coercion, or physical harm are present, that's a different situation, and we address it directly in the article.

The goal isn't a label. It's naming the pattern you've been living inside, clearly enough to decide what comes next.

Read it here: https://www.oakcreekcounseling.org/blog/signs-of-an-emotionally-unstable-partner

08/29/2026

Please join us in welcoming Anne Martin (pronounced Annie), MFT Trainee, to Oak Creek Relational Counseling Center. 🌿

Anne works with adults, couples, teens, and families navigating anxiety, relationship patterns, and life transitions — and with parents raising neurodivergent kids. Before her clinical training she spent years as a middle school teacher, and that belief in the power of a caring, collaborative relationship shows up in every session.

Her approach is client-driven and person-centered, with CBT, mindfulness, and existential work brought in as they fit.

Anne offers hybrid in-person and telehealth sessions throughout California and is accepting new clients.

Read her full introduction: https://www.oakcreekcounseling.org/blog/welcome-anne-martin-mft-trainee-to-oak-creek

08/24/2026

We started a short weekly email from Oak Creek Relational Counseling Center, and we wanted to share it here in case it's useful to anyone.

It's one practical idea per week — something small you can actually try the same day. Not a newsletter about us, not a sales pitch. Just a single, specific thing worth thinking about: how you talk to your partner when you're both tired, what to do with a feeling you can't name, how to make a repair after a hard conversation.

Short enough to read in under two minutes. Free, and easy to unsubscribe if it's not your thing.

Sign up here: https://www.oakcreekcounseling.org/oakcreekemailsignup.html

08/23/2026

"Why does this still affect me? It was so long ago."

It's a question we hear often. And the answer is that the body and mind keep track of experiences long after the memory of them gets blurry.

Our latest post walks through three signs of repressed childhood trauma in adults — and what it can look like to get support.

https://www.oakcreekcounseling.org/blog/3-signs-of-repressed-childhood-trauma-in-adults

Affordable, sliding-scale therapy in Pleasant Hill, CA and by telehealth statewide. All are welcome here.

Explore expert therapy insights, relationship advice and mental-health wellness tips from Oak Creek Relational Counseling Center in Pleasant Hill. New posts weekly

08/18/2026

Oak Creek Relational Counseling Center is pleased to welcome Jennifer Reposar to our clinical training team.

Jennifer is a graduate student at Saint Mary's College of California and a Marriage and Family Therapist Trainee, practicing under the supervision of Stephen Polin, LMFT #7861. She brings a curious, compassionate, and integrative approach to working with individuals, couples, teens, children, and families — with a particular focus on life transitions, relationship patterns, grief, parenting, and support through the perinatal and postpartum period.

Read more about Jennifer's approach and areas of focus:

Explore expert therapy insights, relationship advice and mental-health wellness tips from Oak Creek Relational Counseling Center in Pleasant Hill. New posts weekly

08/17/2026

Please join us in welcoming Megan Murphy, MFT Trainee, to the Oak Creek clinical team. 🌿

Megan is a graduate student at Saint Mary's College of California, where she also earned her B.S. in Psychology. She works with children, adolescents, and adults — in person at our Pleasant Hill office and via telehealth anywhere in California.

Her approach is grounded in person-centered therapy, built on a simple premise: you are the expert on your own life. In her words: "My hope is to create a warm and welcoming environment where you can be yourself, talk openly about what you're going through, and feel comfortable being honest without fear of judgment."

Megan sees clients navigating anxiety, life transitions, boundaries and people-pleasing, low mood, relationship challenges, and the feeling of being stuck — and she's equally glad to work with people who simply want to understand themselves better.

She's accepting new clients now. Call (925) 268-8105 or read her full introduction here:

Explore expert therapy insights, relationship advice and mental-health wellness tips from Oak Creek Relational Counseling Center in Pleasant Hill. New posts weekly