Hi, I’m Meadow linder, LMFT.

My path to becoming a therapist was anything but direct

The idea of helping people had been floating quietly in the back of my mind since I was six years old. Discussing psychology with my father was one of my favorite things — a source of endless curiosity and genuine connection. But life took me somewhere else first.

In college, I fell in love with sociology. I became fascinated by the social construction of mental illness — how culture, systems, and power shape the way we understand suffering. I went on to earn a Master’s degree in Sociology from the University of Michigan, focusing on medical sociology and social epidemiology, and spent years in academic research. I published. I presented. And eventually I realized that research wasn’t enough. I wanted to touch people’s lives more directly.

I also came to this work through my own experience. I have lived with major depression — been treated for it twice, including hospitalization. I know what it feels like to be in the depths of it: the hopelessness, the disconnection, the question of whether anything will ever feel different. I also know, from the inside, what it takes to ask for help. And I know what it means to have a therapist who truly sees you. Two extraordinary therapists were instrumental in my own healing, and they are a large part of why I’m sitting in this chair today.

I completed my Master’s in Counseling Psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies in 2020 — and I have never looked back.

How I work — and why it matters

I am still, at heart, a sociologist. I see each person as the innermost layer of a larger whole — nested within family systems, communities, cultural forces, and societal structures that shape their experience in ways that are often invisible but deeply real. When you come to work with me, I don’t just look at what’s happening inside you. I hold the whole picture: your relationships, your history, your identity, and the world you’re living in. We are each a set of nested dolls, incomplete without the others. The answers are found at every layer.

My approach is trauma-informed, body-centered, and relational. I draw from Internal Family Systems (IFS), Somatic Psychotherapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and the Developmental Model for Couples. I also practice IFIO — IFS for couples — for partners who want to understand not just what’s happening between them, but what’s happening inside each of them.

I love metaphors. I find they’re often the fastest route to something true. I’m analytical and curious — I genuinely love the puzzle of understanding a person, a pattern, a system. I’m also patient. I don’t believe in rushing. Some things need to be approached slowly, sideways, a sliver at a time. And I’m a great listener — the kind who’s tracking not just what you’re saying, but what your body is doing while you say it.

I work with individuals navigating anxiety, depression, and trauma, and with couples at every stage — from early disconnection to acute crisis to the question of what comes next. I believe that no one is broken. I believe that the patterns keeping you stuck developed for a reason. And I believe that with the right support, genuine change is possible — not a perfect life, but a fuller, more present, more connected one.

Reach out with ANy Questions!

Outside the therapy room

I grew up on a farm in Vermont, and the earth has never really left me. Self-care, for me, has four pillars: time in nature, trail running with my dogs, gardening (there is always dirt under my nails and never enough color in the garden), and quiet time with my four four-leggeds — two dogs, two cats — who reset my nervous system better than almost anything else.

I’m a lifelong learner who gets genuinely excited about ideas. I’m silly when the moment calls for it — I believe laughter has a real place in healing. I’m driven and a little relentless when something matters to me. I’m forgiving, of myself and of others, because I’ve had to be. And I care, deeply, about the people who trust me with their hardest things.