About Us

Dr. Kholodova (she/her/hers) is a licensed clinical psychologist. She has worked in different clinical settings ranging from inpatient units, PERT (responding to mental health crisis calls in the community alongside law enforcement officers), outpatient clinics (treating severe mental health conditions), school settings (working with high achieving adolescents), and private practice settings (working with adults, adolescents, and couples who are experiencing mild to moderate mental health concerns). She has extensive experience and training in the application of insight-oriented and skills-based approaches, and is particularly drawn to contemporary psychoanalytic thought, acceptance and commitment therapy, and the internal family systems model. Dr. Kholodova completed postdoctoral training in contemporary psychoanalytic psychotherapy at the Institute of Contemporary Psychoanalysis in Los Angeles, CA. She also received certification in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) by the EMDR International Association.

Dr. Kholodova provides clinical supervision to all of the pre-licensed clinicians at Canvas of Possibilities. She is passionate about helping clients and clinicians to see hope where it is scarce, and to see possibilities, talent, beauty, strength, and creativity, when it feels that there is nothing but roadblocks in the way.

Dr. Alyssa Hustwick (she/her/hers) is a licensed clinical psychologist. She completed both her Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University (AIU), San Diego. She has experience providing therapy to a wide range of individuals in both outpatient and inpatient settings. Dr. Hustwick also has experience providing psychotherapy to individuals, families, and couples. She works with clients of all ethnic backgrounds, gender identities, and sexual orientations. She specializes in helping people process past trauma, work through anxiety, depression, life events, and relationship difficulties. She has considerable training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), and psychodynamic psychotherapies. Dr. Hustwick utilizes evidenced-based treatment interventions while also deepening her understanding of each person’s unique experience through warmth and compassion. She aims to help each client gain insight into themselves and their emotions so they can confidently navigate through life’s challenges.
Dr. Hustwick has worked with Dr. Kholodova since 2019. In addition to treating clients, she provides supervision and consultation to the pre-licensed clinicians at our practice.

Alexa (she/her/hers) is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor and has been with Canvas of Possibilities since June of 2022. She graduated from the University of San Diego as the Clinical Mental Health Counseling Student of the Year. Alexa gained clinical experience at an intensive outpatient program, supporting clients experiencing psychosis, isolation, trauma, abuse, depression, anxiety, panic, substance use, and intrusive thoughts. She has extensive experience in both individual and group therapy, working with clients ranging from the ages of 18 to 65. Alexa has received specialized training and practice in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), psychodynamic methods, and supporting survivors of sexual violence. Her approach centers around an intersectional, multicultural, and decolonizing lens, and is a combination of narrative, psychodynamic, and feminist theories.

Alexa is a neurodivergent, queer, and non-monogamous therapist who is queer-affirming, kink-aware, and non-monogamy-knowledgeable. She specializes in working with the LGBTQIA+ community, non-traditional relationship styles, transitional aged youth (18-24-year-olds), identity exploration work, trauma, shame, depression, anxiety, and sexual violence. Alexa has received basic training in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) and is currently pursuing certification by the EMDR International Association.  Alexa is passionate about creating brave and vulnerable spaces that foster genuine curiosity, growth, connection, and exploration in the counseling room.

In addition to working as a therapist at Canvas of Possibilities, Alexa is also our Assistant Clinical Director. In this role, Alexa oversees our intakes and referrals, engages in community outreach, and supports overall clinic operations. Her goals in this role are to destigmatize mental illness in the community, improve client access to mental health resources, build relationships with outside programs to strengthen support during client transitions/referrals, and to foster community-based healing.

Dr. Diem Anh Nguyen (she/her/hers) is a Registered Psychological Associate, practicing under the direct supervision of Dr. VanPortfliet and Dr. Kholodova. Registered Psychological Associate is a term designated for pre and post doctoral clinicians who are advanced in their clinical training, but are not yet licensed to practice independently.

Dr. Nguyen completed her master’s and doctorate degrees in clinical psychology at Alliant International University, California School of Professional Psychology, San Diego. She has extensive experience providing treatment to adults with diverse cultural backgrounds, identities, and acuity levels.  She has worked in a wide range of treatment settings including, community mental health, intensive outpatient programs, inpatient hospitalization, and university counseling. She has had experience working with clients facing the following clinical concerns: grief and loss, identity conflicts, depression, anxiety, trauma, psychosis, and relational difficulties. Dr. Nguyen has had significant training and practice with psychodynamic and interpersonal psychotherapies, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), and Motivational Interviewing (MI). Her clinical and research interests focus on identity exploration, cultural healing, internalized oppression, and intergenerational trauma among the Asian American community, and are deeply informed by her own experiences as a queer, Vietnamese American, 1.5 generation immigrant.

Dr. Nguyen’s clinical approach is grounded in a multicultural and decolonizing lens, integrating psychodynamic theory, liberation psychology, and multicultural feminist theory. She believes in empowering individuals to understand themselves and their histories, and to make sense of their own intersecting identities and narratives. She is passionate about co-constructing safe, transformative, and authentic spaces both within and outside the counseling room.

Caitlin Moroney (she/her/hers) is a Registered Psychological Associate, practicing under the direct supervision of Dr. Kholodova and Dr. Hustwick. Registered Psychological Associate is a term designated for pre and post doctoral clinicians who are advanced in their clinical training, but are not yet licensed to practice independently.
Caitlin is working on completing her Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Alliant International University at the California School of Professional Psychology in San Diego, California. She has experience providing therapy to a wide range of individuals in community and outpatient settings and works with people from varying identifies, including ethnic backgrounds, gender identities, religious and spiritual beliefs, and sexual orientations. She specializes in working with anxiety and panic related difficulties, processing trauma, and working through attachment and relationship healing. She is trained in behavioral interventions such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), as well as psychodynamic and relational psychotherapies. Caitlin has also received basic training in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) and is currently pursuing certification by the EMDR International Association. Her clinical work is grounded in the belief that the relationship between client and therapist is a healing instrument to develop insight, safety, and positive growth. She uses culturally sensitive treatment approaches to help clients make sense of their experiences and find meaning in their lives. She is also a trained yoga instructor and is engaging in additional training in somatic psychotherapy techniques to facilitated the healing of the whole person, using the mind-body connection.

Caitlin has a passion for serving multicultural and international communities, having provided clinical services to immigrant and refugee populations, undocumented immigrants, and tribal members. For several years, she has also collaborated on community development and care in Mombasa, Kenya. Most recently, she completed an APA accredited internship at a Tribal Health Organization in Alaska, serving rural Alaskan Native communities in the Aleutian Islands. She is comfortable using an interpreter to offer therapy services to individuals who do not have access to a provider in their preferred language. She also welcomes having open conversations around what it means to work with a therapist who may be of a different cultural background than the client, and feels honored to have the opportunity to build understanding and connection with her clients and their worldviews.

Dr. Adriana Pombo (she/her/hers) is a Registered Psychological Associate, practicing under the direct supervision of Dr. Kholodova and Dr. Hustwick. Registered Psychological Associate is a term designated for pre and post doctoral clinicians who are advanced in their clinical training, but are not yet licensed to practice independently.
Dr. Pombo completed her master’s and doctorate degrees in clinical psychology from California School of Professional Psychology, Alliant International University in San Diego. She has experience providing treatment to adolescents, adults, and older adults from diverse populations across a range of identities and acuity levels in inpatient, partial hospitalization, and outpatient settings. Dr. Pombo has worked with clients facing a wide range of clinical concerns including depression, anxiety, trauma, psychosis, mood disorders, grief, and relationship difficulties. Through a psychodynamically-informed formulation, she approaches her work with each individual with an understanding that their unique threads of thoughts, emotions, motivations, and behaviors are intricately woven to form the tapestry of their experience. She believes it is imperative to understand how an individual’s early attachments and interpersonal relationships have impacted their development and how these factors might have contributed to their current difficulties. In addition to her psychodynamic training, Dr. Pombo has received basic training in Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) and is currently pursuing certification by the EMDR International Association.  In clinical practice, she also integrates cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy, (ACT), dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), and cognitive processing therapy (CPT) to meet each individual’s unique needs.

Gracie (she/her/hers) is a Registered Psychological Associate, practicing under the direct supervision of Dr. Kholodova and Dr. Hustwick. Registered Psychological Associate is a term designated for pre- and post-doctoral clinicians who are advanced in their clinical training, but not yet licensed to practice independently.

Gracie received her master’s degree in clinical psychology from Alliant International University in San Diego, where she is currently working toward completing her Psy.D.  She additionally holds a master’s degree in psychology from the New School of Social Research in New York. Gracie has experience working in both inpatient and outpatient settings with a diverse range of individuals, groups, couples, and families suffering from a variety of presenting issues, including anxiety, depression, mood disorders, psychosis, substance use, obsessive-compulsive disorders, ADHD, relational distress, and trauma. She is particularly interested in the influence of adverse early experiences upon later development and strives to understand present suffering in the context of prior relational experiences. In her approach to treatment, Gracie prioritizes the therapeutic relationship, believing in its potential to illuminate meaningful problems and patterns in the here-and-now of the therapeutic space. Although largely influenced by contemporary relational and attachment theories, Gracie’s clinical work is also informed by existential ideas which emphasize the value in adopting a meaningful stance toward the inevitable limitations of human experience. In addition to psychodynamic perspectives, she has found third-wave approaches, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), useful in helping individuals to embrace a more intentional attitude toward their own choices and sources of suffering. In her clinical work, Gracie aims to foster those experiences of intimate knowing and authentic relating that, for her, have come to carry profound personal and professional meaning.

Vanessa (she/her/hers) is an Associate Professional Clinical Counselor (PCC) under the direct supervision of Dr. Kholodova and Dr. Hustwick. Associate Professional Clinical Counselor is a term designated for clinicians who are advanced in their clinical training but are not yet licensed to practice independently.

Vanessa completed her Master’s degree in Clinical Mental Health Counseling at the University of San Diego. She has worked with adults and adolescents in outpatient community mental health, intensive outpatient programs, and in partial hospitalization settings. She treated clients clients facing a wide range of clinical concerns, such as trauma, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, mood disorders, psychosis, and identity conflicts.

Her clinical approach is grounded in the belief that each client has an innate ability to self-actualize. Through a multicultural lens, her aim is to create a safe and warm environment that fosters the beginning of the healing journey. She has received training in Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Motivational Interviewing (MI). Vanessa has also completed basic training in Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) and is currently pursuing certification through the EMDR International Association. She is committed to understanding how each person’s experiences and identities intersect to influence how they engage with their surroundings. By exploring how childhood experiences shape one’s perspective, she believes clients can cultivate stronger and healthier relationships with the world, with others—and, most importantly, with themselves.

David Kim (he/him/his) is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California. He provides additional supervision to some of our master’s level pre-licensed trainees. His clinical approach and personal values deeply align with those of our practice.

David completed his undergraduate studies at the University of California, Los Angeles, and received his Master of Arts in Marital and Family Therapy from the University of San Diego. He also completed a fellowship at the San Diego Psychoanalytic Center. David was supervised by Dr. Kholodova as a pre-licensed therapist from 2017 to 2019.

Since his practicum at UCSD Outpatient Psychiatric Services, David has focused his clinical training on treating those living with severe and persistent mental illness, addiction, and interpersonal difficulties. He has served disenfranchised and marginalized communities, including the unhoused, immigrant families, and the LGBTQ+ population, in various outpatient settings. David continues to work within San Diego County’s mental health system, and is responsible for monitoring quality of care and overseeing the education of its providers. David is also adjunct faculty at Bastyr University.

In his private practice, David utilizes trauma-informed, differential therapeutic methods to best meet the needs of his clients. He approaches treatment through the lens of psychodynamic and systemic theories, and incorporates “third wave” cognitive behavioral therapies (such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).

David is most passionate about working with adult clients and couples, helping them examine old patterns and process attachment injuries. His hope for clients is that they will learn to be more than their traumatic experiences, accept and integrate all parts of themselves, and create lasting and supportive relationships.

Dr. VanPortfliet (he/him/his) is a licensed clinical psychologist in California.  He has been practicing, researching, teaching, and supervising within the field for 20 years.  He provides supervision to some of our master’s level pre-licensed clinicians.  He also independently provides diagnostic evaluations, individual psychotherapy, and neuropsychological testing to children, adolescents, and adults.  He works with a diverse clientele of varying ethnic backgrounds, gender identities, sexual orientations, and neurotypes.   Dr. VanPortfliet approaches treatment through a lens of integral psychology weaving together a range of cultural, psychological, socioeconomic, biological, spiritual, and behavioral perspectives aiming to offer hope for healing, increased mindfulness, and social and cultural evolution.  He strives to provide uniquely tailored care for everyone that is evidence based, trauma-informed, and neuro-affirming.

Dr. VanPortfliet attended Ferris State University for undergraduate studies and earned his Master’s and Doctorate degrees in Clinical Psychology from the California School of Professional Psychology at Alliant International University, San Diego.  He is trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), and Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT). He has also completed certifications in Public Mental Health Leadership and Management as well as Justice Involved Services.