the meaning of kota
The name Kota is the intersection of two ancestral philosophies. In Japanese, it signifies "Great Peace" (Ko - Great; Ta - Happiness/Peace). In the Native American Dakota tradition, it represents an "Ally" or "Partner."
At Kota Health, we believe peace is not a passive state you "find"—it is something you actively create through clinical precision and honest, compassionate partnership.
meet stephanie
Stephanie Christensen, one of Kota’s Founders and Lead Clinician, is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in Virginia and Washington D.C. specializing in adult individuals and couples who are tired of polite validation that leads to no tangible growth. Her approach is direct, strategic, and deeply rooted in several beliefs:
You already have all the answers to life’s difficulties already inside you - formational defenses and lack of awareness keep you from accessing them.
You are divinely designed to use logic and emotion to experience life - balance between the two is where health exists.
You are a system made up of complex parts that desire integration - fear leads to contempt and contempt prevents integration. Increase your understanding and compassion for each part of you and integration becomes possible.
Shifting from aware to empowered requires correcting the nervous systems’ experience through action. Imagine the action first, then do.
A therapist should be an active navigator, not just a passive listener that works with your defenses to unlock your progress. A felt sense of love from your therapist is more helpful than a felt sense of “safety”.
Stephanie is highly trained in systemic psychology and human development, Emotion Focused Therapy, Equine Assisted Therapy, Interpersonal Neurobiology and Internal Family Systems. Stephanie realized over years of clinical practice that the most profound breakthroughs often happen when we stop trying to prevent any uncomfortable feelings and instead, get closer to what feels hard and use the compassionate therapeutic relationship to weather the discomfort together.
Her education and experience led her to develop the Kota Method—a results-driven, three-phase framework that approaches therapy with precision and presence.
The Kota method
1. Discover
Your subconcious will rule over you; activate your defenses and influence your actions until you bring it into conciouss awareness. Step 1 invites discovery of the beliefs, stories, judgements and fears that are running in the background - out of sight but not out of mind.
2. Balance
As you are enlightening your concioussness, parts of you will surface - often attached to emotions. The practice of creating balance asks us to feel the emotion long enough to learn something from it, expand your capacity to hold the tension between opposing parts and release the defenses that are creating resistance to change.
3. Empower
With increased awareness and the skill to balance the internal experience, corrective action is required for full integration. Grounded in values, actions need to be informed by the vision you have for yourself. Consider what you want to experience, imagine what you would do if you were already experiencing it and create empowerment through action.