Inclusive, Empowering Therapy for LGBTQ+ Adults and Adult Children of Immigrants in Oakland & Online in California
Depth-oriented therapy for high-achieving adults who learned to survive by staying in control & want to learn to let go
Who am I if I don’t hold it all together?
Who am I if I let myself be imperfect?
Who am I if I let go of control?
These are the questions that guide my practice with high-achieving, people-pleasing, and over-functioning adults who identify as LGBTQ+, trans, genderfluid & nonbinary, and children of immigrants.
You do all the emotional heavy lifting for everyone around you.
Beneath the weight of responsibilities and other people’s expectations, you do more, more, more in hopes of feeling good enough. You manage everyone’s emotions because it’s easier to go along to get along than risk saying what you want and need. You’re exhausted, burnt out, and overwhelmed by the unrelenting anxiety and relationship stress that emerges from trying to do everything and take care of everyone. After years of chronic self-abandonment, you feel far away from your purpose, intuition, and authentic connection with yourself.
Through an integrative approach, I offer a purposeful, relational, and engaging space where we respect the wisdom in how you learned to adapt. We honor what was lost in trying to cope with experiences of trauma, abuse, neglect, and oppression. We embrace the precious parts of you that had to take a backseat in order to become the strong, responsible caretaker. We return, over and over again, to the steady internal compass that has always existed inside of you.
Hi, I’m Luca (they/he). I’m a queer, trans, mixed race therapist in Oakland and online throughout the SF Bay Area and California.
Through deep personal connection to this work, I specialize in supporting LGBTQ+ adults and adult children of immigrants who feel limited by coping patterns of being hyper independent, high-achieving, and responsible.
As an integrative therapist, I use a comprehensive mind-body approach that allows you to feel safe enough to let go of fear and control. You’ll learn to liberate yourself from self-abandonment, and turn toward the authentic connection with yourself.
Whether we’re meeting in person or sharing virtual space, you’ll feel my energized, thoughtful, and engaged presence. At times, I’m playful and using humor—therapy is serious work, and we get to laugh together.
Moment by moment, I’ll help you release the patterns that no longer support your purpose, and surrender to the process of cultivating the freer, embodied and intuitive life that feels more like you.
How I Work: Style, Approach & Values of an Inclusive, Integrative Therapist in Oakland
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My style is collaborative, playful, and expressive. I am emotionally engaged and present, offering generative insights that deepen self-understanding without tiptoeing around what is and isn’t working.
In my Oakland Lake Merritt office and online across the San Francisco Bay Area and California, you will find that I do not just sit, nod, and agree with everything you say. I am increasingly direct and challenge you to step outside of perspectives that could be limiting your options for change. Some people might feel uncomfortable with such direct feedback, while others find it enlivening, in that they feel like they get to be more awake to their patterns and make different choices.
At the same time, I center trust and safety so that you know I am here with you at a pace that works for your nervous system.
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Informed by my own experiences as a racialized, disabled, queer & trans person, I have a deep capacity for complexity and view your history, personally and ancestrally, as central to the healing work. I hold your story with respect and care. I do not assume to know your life and your patterns just because we might have similar identities; you and I are both more complex than that. I’m attuning to how our sameness and differences both show up in shared space between us.
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As an integrative therapist in Oakland, I use a combination of therapy approaches that moves healing from beyond insight into lasting change.
I am relational through and through, in that I use the therapy relationship to guide the work we do together. I primarily use IFS therapy and somatic therapy to deepen the connection with your authentic self. When appropriate, I offer EMDR therapy to support with trauma processing.
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My strengths as a queer, trans, mixed race therapist come from my ability to view your suffering in context. I honor the wisdom and brilliance of learning how to survive in emotionally neglectful and oppressive environments. I am not afraid to sit with the parts of you that are on their less-than-ideal behavior, and witness your earnest and honest attempts to protect the wounds that never got to heal.
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I love this question! The TLDR version is:
I believe in the healing power of the therapy relationship and feel strongly about making sure that our connection feels like a good fit so that you can do the work you came to do.
I trust you as the expert of your own life and invite your internal wisdom to guide your healing.
As a fellow human, I am biased and imperfect. I believe that bringing my full human self to the therapy space is an asset for your healing. I’m not afraid to tell you how it is, nor am I afraid to admit when I got it wrong.
You can learn more about me and the values that guide my practice here.
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Finding the right fit is important to do the kind of healing work you want. For the first 3-4 sessions, I make a point to check in with you about how things feel between us so that we can intentionally assess whether we’re the best fit for each other. I am rooting for your personal growth, even if it’s not with me as your guide.
We may be a good fit if you are:
Curious about your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors
Open to exploring past experiences or patterns to better understand your current challenges
Interested in taking some risks to deepen your self-understanding
Ready to commit to weekly sessions
Ready to commit to long-term work
Open to a non-linear healing process where some change might happen quickly and deeper change might occur slowly
We probably aren’t a good fit if you:
Want a therapist who tells you what to do
Want a therapist who just listens and nods
Want an “objective” perspective
Want homework assignments
Want someone who doesn’t challenge you
Cannot commit to weekly sessions or long-term therapy
I love working with high-achievers, perfectionists, and people-pleasers who identify as LGBTQ+, trans, non-binary, and genderfluid, & adult children of immigrants.
My commitment to working with multiply marginalized people has offered me the gift of nearly a decade of experience supporting clients who are queer, trans, BIPOC, mixed race, neurodivergent, chronically ill, disabled, fat, and children of immigrants.
In my office in Oakland and online throughout the East Bay and California, I enjoy working with people who are self-reflective and curious about themselves. They’re done with feeling limited by coping strategies that create more chaos than calm, and feel courageous to explore what’s going on, even when the answers aren’t clear and the path to change feels scary. They’re ready to take some risks to create a freer, more authentic way of being with themselves.
My practice is for people who are no longer interested in white-knuckling it through life.
If you identify as LGBTQ+, trans and non-binary, and/or the child of immigrants, and you feel bogged down by the anxiety and relationship stress that comes over-achieving and managing other people’s emotions, then this work is for you.
I hope that, in reading through the possibilities of what working together can offer you, you can feel, even just a tiny bit, a sense of softening. Of relaxing into a more easeful, embodied kind of life.
Whether we’re connecting for online therapy across California or meeting together at my Lake Merritt office in Oakland, I’ll help you heal the wounds that keep you disconnected from yourself and guide you into the freedom to fully enjoy life from the inside out.
“And it’s inside myself that I must create someone who will understand.”
Clarice Lispector