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Somatic, Trauma informed therapy
Your Jungle Guide
I am a Licensed Professional Counselor and Clinical Rehabilitation Counselor in Portland, OR with previous careers as a professional ballet dancer in New York City, as well as teaching dance, Pilates, and Yoga. I'm also a published writer. I bring my passion for movement and living an embodied life to my current work as a trauma-informed, psychodynamic Somatic therapist.
As a first generation Italian-American, I grew up having to integrate my parents’ Mediterranean culture & languages (Italian and French) into an American culture that did not always understand or respect these differences. My experience returning to dance after a 9 year interruption because of an autoimmune illness became the impetus for my work in the healing arts.
I believe that each of us has innate wisdom longing to guide us toward greater freedom, connection, and well-being. Being able to live in your body and authentically express who you are is an essential part of living a fulfilled, creative, and expressive life.
My specialties include: chronic illness, CPTSD, depression, grief, anxiety, ADHD/ASD, life transitions, creativity & identity, career empowerment, end of life, sexuality and spirituality. I am experienced with LGBTQIA+ and poly lifestyles.
My counseling is based on an open, curiosity-driven mindset. I respect your life experiences as they intersect with your circumstances and the sociopolitical systems that impact them. I hold a non-punitive harm reduction view of addictive behaviors.
What are we integrating?
At Equipoise Integral Counseling LLC, we address your physical experience - including sensations coming from inside your body - with your thoughts, emotions, and spirit.
I define spirit as your will to be YOU, your drive to make something of your life. It takes energy, desire, and will to exist, even if you’ve often thought about or even tried to kill yourself. This is what many spiritual practices call “Soul”.
I integrate evidence-based interventions including CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), ACT (Acceptance & Commitment Therapy), DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy) through a trauma-informed lens, which means we prioritize understanding and addressing the impact of trauma on your neurobiology which affects mental health.
Psychodynamic = relational therapy
We pay attention to what's happening between you and me as we explore your life, concerns, and history.
How you relate with me reveals a lot about how you relate to others and the world. We'll use this to examine how your attachment style influences your patterns of communicating and connecting. For example, you may not have been able to stand up for yourself in your family of origin.
You may have had to please and appease, rage or flee, and you continue to do this with others even though you’re an adult. It is likely that you will do it with me. Together we'll reflect on our dynamics in the "here and now" to figure out: Is it still working for you, or would another way of responding work better?
About Equipoise Integral Counseling LLC
My Approach
Heart and Soul
Body and Mind
My approach is holistic, recognizing how culture, identities, lifestyle, sleep, nutrition, movement, and hormonal cycles affect wellbeing or exacerbate symptoms. Our sessions focus on identifying values & strengths, engaging creativity, investigating your coping style, building resilience, and reducing stress thereby improving quality of life and enhancing management of chronic illnesses/disability.
(Photo: Lavinia lMagliocco, LPC, CRC, Somatic therapist in Portland, bald with a bold head tattoo.)
Body and Mind
Heart and Soul
Body and Mind
How you feel in your body affects how you are in the world. Loss, illness, trauma - before you know it you've lost your way and the path isn't clear. Counseling can help bridge the gaps between where you are and where you'd like to be. I am here to help you find your home in your self, your body, and in the world.
The mystic Ram Dass said, "We're all just walking each other home."
Let's walk together.
(Photo: moon bridge reflection ~ metaphor for balance & healing)
Heart and Soul
Heart and Soul
Heart and Soul
C.G. Jung wrote "The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are." To do that we must face our deepest fears and embrace our powers. Your treasure lies in the place you fear the most. I invite you to discover how the ways you were not held may be where you hold yourself back. Like the lotus we too have the ability to rise from the mud, bloom out of the darkness and radiate into the world
(photo: white lotus symbolizing resilience & transformation)