Gina Keefer, Ph.D.
Psychologist & Couples Therapist
“Nothing ever goes away until it has taught us what we need to know.” Chödrön, 1997
I specialise in:
About me
I am a psychologist from the USA, originally from Oregon, professionally trained in San Francisco, and currently based in Paris, France. I have lived and worked in Prague (CZ), Kobe (JP), Chetumal (MX), and Hanoi (VN). These cross-cultural experiences deeply shape my clinical perspective and inform my work with individuals, couples, and families navigating international and multicultural lives.
My practice is grounded in cultural awareness and systems thinking. I support clients in reflecting more clearly and compassionately on themselves, their relationships, and the social, cultural, and historical contexts that influence them. I specialize in working with thoughtful, reflective clients who are negotiating identity, attachment, intimacy, belonging, and meaning across cultures.
I am particularly attuned to the complexities of intercultural partnerships, expatriate and repatriate transitions, bicultural identity development, and the subtle misunderstandings that can arise when different cultural norms around communication, emotion, family roles, and conflict intersect. My work aims to help partners move beyond recurring patterns toward deeper mutual understanding and repair.
My clinical style is warm, trauma-informed, and solution-focused, with strong attention to relational dynamics, power, language, and cultural context. I work carefully with issues of difference—national, linguistic, ethnic, religious, and socioeconomic—recognizing how these shape expectations, attachment patterns, and experiences of safety within relationships.
In addition to private practice, I work as a consultant in organizational psychology and teach psychology and behavioral relations at the university level. I maintain a strong commitment to ethical practice, cultural humility, and ongoing professional development in an increasingly interconnected world.
I speak:
Location:
Media Gallery
Approach
Clients navigating life across cultures often describe a loss of psychological continuity, a sense that the internal thread connecting past and present has been disrupted. Values that once felt implicit no longer fit. Social cues require interpretation. Identity feels less automatic and more negotiated. Relocation, migration, or sustained exposure to a different cultural system can quietly unsettle assumptions about belonging, success, family, autonomy, and emotional expression.
Cross-cultural psychology reminds us that identity is not fixed but relational and contextual. As cultural psychologist Hazel Markus has noted, “The self is shaped by the cultural contexts in which it develops.” When those contexts shift, the self must reorganize. This reorganization can feel disorienting, but it is also an opportunity for growth and integration.
Therapy often begins at this point of disorientation—the recognition that something familiar no longer fully holds. Cultural transition can amplify underlying attachment patterns, highlight internalized family narratives, or expose tensions between individual desires and collective expectations. Clients may find themselves asking: Who am I here? Which parts of me belong to my culture of origin, and which are emerging in response to this new environment?
In our work together, we explore these questions with curiosity and structure. Drawing from acceptance and commitment therapy, internal family systems, and mindfulness-based approaches, we examine the “parts” shaped by family, migration, language, religion, education, and social norms. We look at how these influences organize perception, emotion, and decision-making under stress. The goal is not to abandon one identity in favor of another, but to develop a more integrated and flexible sense of self.
My clinical style is warm, trauma-informed, and grounded in systems thinking. I attend closely to power, context, and cultural meaning. I work with individuals who are navigating international careers, bicultural identities, repatriation, minority stress, or the quiet complexity of living between worlds. Therapy becomes a space to restore coherence, to strengthen internal continuity while allowing for expansion.
The aim is to help you feel more grounded across contexts, more fluent in your own internal landscape, and more intentional in shaping a life that reflects both your history and your present reality.
Experience
2020-present: Assistant Professor, Sciences Po, Paris, France 2018 - present: Psychotherapist; Private Counseling Practice, Paris & London 2016-2018: Psychotherapist; Betterment Counseling Center, Paris, France 2012-2016: International Relationships Counselor; Paris, France 2000-2002: Adjuct Professor, Czech Technical University 1998- 2000: Adjuct Professor, University of Quintana Roo, Mexio 1990's: Coordinator, Haight Ashbury Free Clinics, San Francisco, California
Education
2026/Current: Doctorate of Marriage and Family Counseling, TUW, NYC, NY 2026/Current: Using Artificial Intelligence to Support Mental Health, Silver School of Social Work, NYC, New York 2025 Certificate in Virtual Care (with AI), Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, Toronto, Canada 2025 Advanced Training Doctorate Marriage and Family Therapy, Columbia University, NYC, New York 2012 M.A. International Psychology, Lehigh University, Pennsylvania 2024 Advanced Specialization in Men's Work, New York University, New York 2024 Advanced Certification, Intercultural Relationships, Harvard University 2024 Certificate in Emotionally-Focused Therapy, NICABM, National Institute for the Clinical Application of Behavioral Medicine, Storrs, Connecticut 2024 Certificate in Trauma-based Therapy, New York, New York 2024 Certificate in EMDR, Portland, Oregon 2023 Certificate in Anxiety-Reduction Therapy, San Francisco 2023 Certificate in LGBQT Family Therapy, San Francisco 2015 Mindfulness Instructor Qualification, San Francisco 2014 Parenting-Well Instructor Qualification, Portland, Oregon
Active Memberships: The Taos Institute for Social Constructivism, Taos, New Mexico Organization for Polyamory and Ethical Non-monogamy, Oakland, California Asile LGBTQ+ Soutien aux demandeurs d'asile LGBT (Organization for the Support of LGBTQ+ Refugees in France) Paris, France AAMFT, Alexandria, Virginia
Services
Couples Session
Individual Session
Insurances
