My experience with Mena Zaminsky MFT, goes back some 15 years, and let me say at the outset I was a hot mess of a homeless African-American ne'er do well, approaching 50, living in San Francisco homeless shelters ...and going no where fast.
I needed to talk to somebody if I was ever going to make a change, and I had heard that therapist were non-judgemental, that they are trained to listen and help you sort yourself out, break bad habits, and for me, figure out why I was so miserable; how to be Ok with myself again.
I met with Mena weekly for the better part of two years, once a week for an hour, longer if need be. We would sip tea in an office reminiscent of a family room. With my life-style at the time, this was as much a surprise as it was important for my therapy.
I felt 'at home'.
My therapy began with my reason for coming ito see someone in the first place: I had been walking in a crosswalk with a newfound friend who saw the car and stopped. I didn't. Hit end-over-end by an uninsured 19year-old driver, I was not insured either. $70K. It broke me financially, and I'd never recovered. The year was 1989, and from then to my first meeting with Mena Zaminsky, i underwent what we determined was a personality change. I was in pain all the time, and the thing about pain is nobody experiences that pain but you, and it is frustrating when people just don't get... you don't want to hear it, no matter what it is.
My pain was physical for years, and adjusting my attitudes and habits, destructive ones it turns out, lead me down a path of unemployment, anger, and depression.
So, when my sessions with Mena began, I was hopeful I could just get some things off my chest. This consummate professional is, to date, the best listener i have ever known. i learned, that because she asked the questions I needed to answer for myself, that I wasn't the bad person, the failure I thought myself to be.
I thought I was meant for better things in life and I had let this car accident be an excuse to give up on myself. Mena changed that. She allowed me to engineer my own Therapy and let me drive, pointing out the signs i needed to see to get where I wanted to go.
Oh, my father's abuse came out, my using drugs and alcohol to make friends came out too...
One session, when depression came up and I told her I was often, if not usually depressed, she asked," Have we been missing something here?" She thought I might be bi-polar because I did not seem depressed when I was with her in our sessions. It speaks to her presence as a therapist. You would do well to give Mena a call. I left San Francisco and returned to Davis, the little city where I attended university and now make my home.
Mena helped me find my confidence; help me relearn to be comfortable in my own skin. i left her thinking everyone should have a therapist. This Spring begins my 16th year of publishing a monthly homeless newsletter journal. Good therapy for me, kind of like talking with Mena. The homeless in our town can exchange copies of their stories for spare change.
When I joke with her now as a friend, and describe her wise counsel as "fixing" me, i am only half joking.
I recommend Mena Zaminsky, young or old, rich or poor, whether or not you think you know "what's wrong," Mena will sort you out. She did, me. read more