Open the Stigma Therapy
Holistic Gestalt based Psychotherapist that is client-centered and heart-expansive
In-Person in San Francisco + Online in California
About Me
Hi! I'm Corey Vignola (she/they)
I identify as a white, queer, neurodivergent, and disabled Italian-American practitioner who lives on Ramaytush Ohlone territory (San Francisco Bay Area). I obtained my BA from Sonoma State University in Environmental Science in conservation and restoration, with a social science emphasis. While studying abroad in Ghana, I enjoyed exploring the intersectional relationship between humanity and the environment, where I fell in love with sustainable agriculture and relational beekeeping. I developed a passion for processing environmental grief and rage stemming from the climate crisis and leaned into helping others become embodied and connect with themselves and the environment for healing.
It has inspired me to redirect my mission from curing to caring for people and advocating for agency in the face of systemic harm. I earned my masters in Integral Counseling Psychology at California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, CA. As an associate therapist, I worked at a Gestalt-based clinic where I served my community at Church Street Intergral Counseling Center.
Why I call my practice Open the Stigma
The name Open the Stigma first came to me in 2017, when I was searching for a name to call the honey I harvested as a backyard beekeeper. Entering into a lovership with honeybees, I quickly discovered how the bees were like Cupid’s arrows in the garden; pollinating, connecting, and sparking life wherever they went.
Because of bees, we have regeneration and vitality. ​What struck me most was the reciprocity. There is not one selfish act of the honeybee; everything is for the collective good. Bees do not simply just take nectar and pollen; they are part of a greater exchange. As they collect nectar to bring back to the hive—later transformed into honey—the flower, in turn, receives pollen. The pollen needs to pass through the stigma, the part of the flower that must open in order for fertilization to occur and for the cycle of life to continue. The bees help to open the stigma and, in doing so, create a symbiotic exchange through the contact they make. ​To me, this became a living metaphor.
Opening the stigma is about transformation, connection, and reciprocity. It is the center point for making contact, and once open, an exchange can take place. When I transitioned from beekeeping to psychotherapy, the name stayed with me—because just like the bees, therapy invites us into relationship, openness, and renewal.
Making room for what is
What exploration in a session together might be like:​
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My work as a therapist is informed by Gestalt therapy, liberation design, feminist theory, and integral counseling—approaches that honor the holistic, embodied, and socially embedded nature of the human experience.
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Rather than positioning myself as an expert who "has the answers," I sit with my clients as a collaborator and guide as they explore and experiment with being with what emerges. Together, we work to unweave trauma, stigmas, biases, and pain, for you to find what is within and the direction in you that looks for expression.
I don't believe that my clients are broken. Rather, I believe that everything my clients need for healing is already within them. I am passionate about helping to support my clients in identifying their awareness and inviting all those parts and pieces of themselves into the room without judgment. Creating room for expansion to invite wholeness into who you are. I work in a way that follows the rate of change within my client’s nervous system, and together we invite what is within to emerge through the art of awareness.
Together, within integration, we seek to find what is authentic, what is most alive, and foster the expressive and expansive self to create a deeper sense of belonging. I follow a relational framework where together through authentic contact we will greet each moment as it comes, with openness, compassion, and curiosity.
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Like the honeybees and the flowers we will be in symbiotic exchange. I am not there to fix you, because I do not believe you to be broken. Together we will weave the parts of you with wholeness and compassion. I bring a grounded, attuned presence to our sessions, offering a space where you can explore, examine, and express yourself while reconnecting with parts of yourself you may have pushed away and find your own homecoming.
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I tend to orient to the quote: “Change occurs when one becomes what they are, not when they try to become what they are not ” — The Paradoxical Theory of Change
Theraputic Collage
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Taking all the pieces,
All the parts-
Reforming
No longer performing.
A little paste here,
A little snip there.
I befriended the lost
old photos, maps, and tales retold.
I gather them, each one apart,
Of stories whispered from my heart.
Torn pages assemble bit by bit,
To create a new image,
Made in my likeness to remind me
how these parts are my whole
With time I come home.
--- Poem by Corey Vignola.
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Examine
Explore
Express
Collages are alive: they may carry one meaning at the moment of creation and then later take on new shapes, insights, and interpretations. In this way, collage becomes both a dreamscape and a dialogue with the transpersonal—an invitation to connect with something larger than ourselves.
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Art has always been a vital part of who I am, and I welcome its presence in the therapy room. One of the ways I integrate creativity into my work is through therapeutic collage. I love how collages naturally weave together elements of Gestalt therapy, parts work, and artistic expression!
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I also love photography, cooking, gardening, and beekeeping!
Reach Out To Me
You can learn more on my contact page, or message me here!