ABOUT ME
I’m Jennifer Stierwalt, an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist offering depth-oriented therapy for individuals and couples in Walnut Creek and across California.
Our work is shaped by what emerges between us. I pay close attention to the subtle moments — what is spoken, what is held back, and what shows itself quietly over time. Together, we listen for meaning in the patterns that surface and the stories that want to be told.
If it feels helpful, you’re welcome to listen to a brief audio introduction to get a sense of my presence.
My philosophy
I believe healing is less about becoming someone new and more about remembering who we have always been beneath the layers. My path to therapy has been shaped by lived experience — by rupture and repair, loss and reinvention, and the profound transformation of becoming a mother.
These thresholds have taught me that healing does not move in straight lines. It unfolds through cycles of descent and renewal, asking us to meet ourselves with honesty, patience, and compassion.
Before becoming a psychotherapist, I worked in fashion as a boutique owner and designer. I was drawn to helping women express identity, confidence, and story through form.
Over time, I realized what moved me most was not the clothing itself, but the transformation underneath it. Where I once dressed the body, I now work to gently undress what blocks the soul.
My clinical approach is integrative and trauma-informed, drawing from depth psychology, Internal Family Systems, somatic work, and attachment theory. In practice, this means we attend to both emotional insight and nervous system regulation — understanding patterns while also building capacity for safety, agency, and connection in daily life.
I view symptoms not as defects, but as adaptive responses shaped by history and experience. Therapy offers a structured and supportive space to understand these patterns, develop practical tools for regulation and communication, and gently shift what no longer serves. Our work is paced, collaborative, and grounded in helping you feel more stable, present, and connected — within yourself and in your relationships. While my work is depth-oriented, it is also practical and grounded, supporting real change in how you feel, relate, and move through your life.
This is the heart of New Patterns Therapy: that no matter what we face, we are continually invited into the lifelong work of becoming — again and again — who we really are beneath the layers, while gently revisiting the patterns we have worn for survival and discovering what no longer fits.
Life has a way of reshaping us, again and again. Through seasons of loss, growth, and transition, I have learned how much change asks of us, and how often we discover capacities we did not know we had.
These lived experiences inform how I show up as a therapist. They shape my respect for the pace of change, my sensitivity to overwhelm, and my belief that healing happens best when it is supported with steadiness and care. My aim is to offer a space that feels human, grounded, and attuned, where growth is welcomed rather than forced.
“The goal of a life was not to become pure as it was for St. John of the Cross or to become Whole as was advised in some Jung interpretations. Instead, the goal of a life was acceptance of all the Self truly is: its shadow, its light, and its permanent paradox.”
- James Hillman, The Soul’s Code
HEALING
HAPPENS
THROUGH
ACCEPTANCE…
Acceptance is not resignation. It is the starting place for meaningful change.
CURIOUS? LET’S CHAT.
I would be honored to support you in whatever stage of your journey you find yourself in. We can begin by holding it together.