Women's Wellness Psychiatry was founded in 2017 to fill the gap in the care of women across important life stages, and to provide an approach beyond the conventional.

Our psychotherapists utilize an array of evidence-based, trauma-informed therapies, and are highly trained and specialized in reproductive issues including premenstrual syndromes, preconception, pregnancy and postpartum, infertility, and perimenopause.

Meet Our Psychotherapist Team

Women’s Wellness Psychotherapists

Sonja Banks, Ph.D. - Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Banks has over 22 years of experience as a Licensed Clinical Psychologist. She specializes in maternal mental health issues; reproductive trauma & loss; new parent preparation; fertility challenges; special needs parenting; and pregnancy after loss.  In addition, she treats disorders such as Generalized Anxiety, Panic, OCD, complicated grief, and chronic pain.

Dr. Sonja Banks completed her M.A and Ph.D. degrees at CSPP-San Diego in Clinical Psychology with a Health Psychology/Behavioral Health Emphasis. She then finished her post-doctoral Fellowship at the Medical University of South Carolina. She also worked as the Senior Reproductive Psychologist at UC San Diego’s Department of Psychiatry -Maternal Mental Health Clinic’s Intensive Outpatient Program for Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders.

Dr. Banks believes in a warm, collaborative, and goal-oriented approach to treatment. She is a Certified Cognitive Behavioral Therapist but uses other modalities such as Interpersonal Therapy (IPT), Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). She also has developed a 9-component model of self-care that can be tailored to each client’s needs.

Specialty Areas:

  • Pregnancy/Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders

  • Reproductive Trauma and Grief/Loss

  • Fertility Challenges

  • Pregnancy after Loss

  • OCD/Generalized Anxiety/Panic Disorder/Phobias

  • Mood Disorders

  • Pain Management and Chronic Health Issues

Allison Altman, Ph.D. - Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Altman is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of California. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed her postdoctoral training in women’s health at the San Francisco VA Medical Center and the University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Altman specializes in women’s mental health and trauma, specifically in the perinatal period. She also specializes in working with women experiencing infertility, and has trained at the UCSF Center for Reproductive Health. She has expertise in posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), mood and anxiety disorders, grief following pregnancy loss, and the adjustment to pregnancy and postpartum, especially for those with a history of infertility.

Dr. Altman utilizes evidence-based approaches, and has extensive training in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), cognitive processing therapy (CPT), prolonged exposure therapy (PE), interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), and mindfulness-based interventions. She believes that balancing acceptance and change is essential for growth, and her approach is collaborative and goal-oriented, working from a place of empathy and validation

Specialty Areas:

  • Perinatal and postpartum mood disorders

  • Infertility

  • PTSD and Traumatic Stress

  • Emotion Dysregulation

  • Anxiety disorders

  • Pregnancy loss/grief

Jessica Abdalla, Ph.D. - Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Jessica Abdalla is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist who received her Bachelor’s degree in psychology from Santa Clara University and her Master’s and Doctoral degrees from Idaho State University. She completed her internship and postdoctoral fellowship at the Palo Alto VA, specializing in behavioral medicine and women’s health psychology.

Dr. Abdalla is passionate about supporting women through reproductive challenges and health concerns by drawing on clients’ strengths and resilience to empower positive self-care.

Dr. Abdalla utilizes an evidence-based approach to care, conceptualizing from a biopsychosocial lens and drawing from CBT, DBT, ACT, and mindfulness-based interventions to inform treatment. She strives to build collaborative, empathetic, and goal-oriented relationships with clients, focused on improving quality of life and wellbeing. With regard to reproductive mental health concerns,

Dr. Abdalla specializes in mood and anxiety disorders, grief following pregnancy loss, adjustment to pregnancy and postpartum, and co-occurring medical concerns throughout the reproductive period. In addition, she has expertise in sleep disorders, weight management, chronic pain management, and sexual functioning. 

Specialty Areas:

  • CBT for ADHD

  • CBTi (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Insomnia)

  • Perinatal and postpartum mood disorders

  • Anxiety disorders

  • Pregnancy loss/grief

  • Adjustment/life transitions

  • Coping with co-occurring/chronic medical conditions

  • Health behavior change

  • Sleep disorders

  • Weight management

  • Chronic pain management

  • Sexual functioning

  • Body Image

Molly Dahlman, Ph.D. - Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Dahlman is a licensed clinical psychologist in the state of California and is a Bay Area native. She received her Ph.D. from the Pacific Graduate School of Psychology at Palo Alto University and her B.A. from the University of Michigan.

Dr. Dahlman is passionate about women’s health issues and wellness and is also a survivor of infertility. Her personal experience inspired her to specialize in perinatal mental health. In addition to her professional training, Dr. Dahlman draws from her lived experience with infertility to best support clients facing reproductive challenges as well as those transitioning into parenthood.

Dr. Dahlman has eleven years of successful experience providing crisis intervention as well as both short- and long-term counseling to culturally, ethnically, and socio-economically diverse populations throughout the Bay Area. Her clinical approach is strengths-based and is informed by evidence-based treatments, the recovery-oriented care model, and the biopsychosocial approach to care.

Dr. Dahlman’s therapeutic style is client-centered, collaborative, and recovery-based and she carefully tailors treatment plans and interventions to meet the needs and strengths of each client. Along with perinatal mental health, other areas of specialty and interest include mood disorders, traumatic stress, psychosis, serious and persistent mental illness, and working with older adults.

Specialty Areas:

  • Perinatal and postpartum mood disorders

  • Depression, bipolar, and other mood disorders

  • Anxiety disorders

  • Infertility and loss

  • PTSD/traumatic stress

  • Psychosis

  • Serious and persistent mental illness 

  • Older adults

Jan Yaffe, MFT - Psychotherapist

Jan Yaffe is a licensed California Marriage and Family Therapist (MFT), who has been a Psychotherapist for over 36 years. She received her Master’s in Education with a specialty in Counseling at Boston University, and has had postgraduate training in cognitive psychology, mindfulness, and couple’s therapy. She also trained as a mediator and life coach.

Jan has worked extensively with women facing health and mental health challenges, including perinatal health, pregnancy loss, postpartum depression and infertility. In addition to working with individuals and couples, she has led numerous groups and workshops for women on topics ranging from resilience, pregnancy, challenges of midlife and grief. Jan’s approach incorporates cognitive therapy and mindfulness. Her basic philosophy is that people are whole even if they feel broken. This approach encourages an individual to visualize issues from a new perspective and begin to form new patterns of thinking and acting that support well-being and greater life satisfaction.  

Jan is looking forward to seeing couples and individuals and leading support groups and is deeply committed to helping women find happiness and live fulfilling and meaningful lives.  

Specialty Areas:

  • Resilience

  • Couples therapy

  • Life transitions

  • Challenges of midlife

  • Women’s mental health and wellbeing

  • Grief and loss

  • Chronic illness

  • Support groups

Erin Armer, Ph.D. - Clinical Psychologist

Dr. Armer is a licensed clinical psychologist in the State of California. She received her bachelor’s degree in Psychology from UCLA and both her master’s degree and a doctorate in Clinical Psychology from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, after completing her Child Psychology Internship at Stanford.

Throughout her training, she has utilized evidence-based practices such as cognitive-behavioral individual therapy, marital therapy, family therapy, and group therapy, as well as interpersonal individual therapy to support children and families in both community and hospital settings with a wide variety of mental health concerns.

After putting her career on hold to raise children, including a child with special needs, she returned to the field as a Postdoctoral Psychology Fellow at Stanford, helping children and their parents cope with mental conditions.

During her second year as a NICU Psychology Fellow, she provided trauma-informed individual therapy, couples therapy, and group therapy to support parents of hospitalized infants. In this position, using a combination of supportive, interpersonal, and cognitive-behavioral therapy she also helped prenatal and postpartum mothers manage anxiety and depression while encouraging parent-infant bonding and increased confidence in their parenting roles. As a result of her training and her own parenting experiences, she developed an interest in helping women cope with unexpected aspects of pregnancy, delivery, and parenthood.

Specialty Areas:

  • Pregnancy/Postpartum Mood and Anxiety Disorders

  • Reproductive Trauma and Grief/Loss

  • Fertility Challenges

  • Pregnancy after Loss

  • OCD/Generalized Anxiety/Panic Disorder/Phobias

  • Mood Disorders

  • Pain Management and Chronic Health Issues

Free Phone Consult with Dr. Glezer for Prospective Patients

We’ll review your current state, prior medical history, a brief overview of my services, and options moving forward. If I do not think that my practice is the best fit, I am happy to provide referral alternatives.

PLEASE NOTE: 

In order to provide an individualized & best standard of care, our practice is out-of-network. Please read this brief article by Dr. Glezer explaining why accepting insurance may oftentimes compromise mental health care.