About Sepideh Saremi

Psychotherapist | Executive advisor | Founder of Run Walk Talk®
424-270-5427 | sep@runwalktalk.com

Hello and welcome. I'm Sepideh Saremi, a psychotherapist and executive advisor helping entrepreneurs, high performers, and their companies become their most powerful, connected, and effective selves. I help people in business build better, more successful companies while living meaningful, healthy, and satisfying lives.

What I do best

As a therapist, I created a highly acclaimed, innovative, trademarked running therapy approach called Run Walk Talk to help high-achieving men and women who struggle with anxiety, depression, and other mental health concerns that are getting in the way of their personal and professional success. I also adapted Run Walk Talk to support entrepreneurs and leaders I work with as an executive advisor.

who i serve

If you're looking at this site, you're probably really hard on yourself and don't like to ask for help. And that's probably worked out pretty well for you, until, for whatever reason, it stopped working.

It can feel scary, disorienting, overwhelming, and even humiliating to have been capable at a very high level for most of your life, and then to feel as vulnerable as you're feeling now, when you're looking for therapy for yourself, or coaching for your company. Or maybe the problem you're facing is that the outward success you've achieved doesn't match how you feel about yourself, and that's making you feel like an impostor.

I've worked successfully through some of the issues you are facing. I never impose what works for me on anyone else, though, and instead will help you figure out what works for you.

Working with me, you'll have a respectful, collaborative, intelligent, and sometimes even funny (so I'm told) place to press pause and reflect on yourself and your life and business, so you can re-group, get the support you need, learn some tools to help you, and move forward. You'll learn what it means to have a supportive relationship, with the goal of starting to shift relationships in the rest of your life so your needs are met.

Depending on your needs and preferences, your treatment or coaching could include running or walking together while we talk, which might appeal to you because you may not naturally be geared towards sitting still with your emotions and thoughts.

My professional background

Therapy is my second career. Previously, I was a writer, editor, and content developer in magazine publishing and technology start-ups. Besides a brief stint in New York City, where I worked at an advertising start-up, I've lived most of my professional life in Los Angeles. I earned my BA in Creative Writing at USC and my Masters degree in Social Welfare (MSW) from UCLA.

I received my early clinical training at UCLA's highly regarded Counseling and Psychological Services externship program. I also received clinical training at a grief center in Redondo Beach, providing bereavement counseling and groups to people of all ages. After graduate school, I completed my clinical hours for licensure in a mental health clinic in Los Angeles, where I worked with patients with complex, co-occuring mental health, substance abuse, and medical problems.

I started seeing patients in private practice in Beverly Hills in 2014, and moved to the Redondo Beach-based Run Walk Talk office in 2017.

In addition to my clinical background, I have also received training from the College of Executive Coaching.

How I developed Run Walk Talk 

I started walking with patients in 2012 when I was working in a community mental health setting several years ago. I noticed that being outdoors and walking together seemed to reduce the mental/emotional distress of my patients as well as increasing their comfort in sharing about their lives and needs. Walking side-by-side helped them to open up in a way that facing each other in an office didn't allow. The symbolism of moving forward together was important and helpful, too.

This experience, in combination with the positive impact of running in my own life and the overwhelming evidence supporting running as a mental health intervention, convinced me that I wanted to run and walk with my patients once I was in practice on my own, and so Run Walk Talk was born.

I started running with patients when I went into private practice in 2014 and I became certified as a running coach so I could safely guide newer runners, but the emphasis of the work is always mental and emotional wellness, not physical fitness or competition training.

My style

My therapy approach is psychodynamic, and I work primarily from what's known as a relational and attachment-oriented perspective. This means I believe the foundation of your treatment success is the relationship we form together, and that you can use me as practice for being vulnerable and getting your needs met.

Because of that, I'm paying attention to the dynamics of the therapy relationship; I ask for and give feedback often and see myself as a partner in your care. I also believe therapy should be really practical, so I teach many of my patients assertive communication and coping skills, and use other types of therapy depending on your needs, including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

I have a lot of respect for my patients, and I value people's strengths. I also really value wit and humor and direct communication, and see them all as an important part of healing and connection.

As an executive coach and advisor, I incorporate a lot of my therapy training to help people feel safe, comfortable, and heard, while using evidence-based approaches to improve individual and company work performance; the big difference between advising and therapy is that as an advisor, I’m not treating mental illness and not diagnosing people, and the focus of our work is wellness for the purpose of work performance that also supports a healthy life.

I'm looking forward to working together. Get in touch and we'll talk about what you need to move forward.