Training
I’m a trauma-informed Somatic Psychotherapist, with a Masters in Somatic Psychology from California Institute of Integral Studies. I am a Certified Massage Practitioner licensed with CAMTC, with a decade of bodywork and energy healing experience. I hold triple Bachelor degrees in Dance, Sociology and Theater, and have over two decades of movement and dance performance experience.
When I’m not offering individual, couple and group therapy, I facilitate somatic and dance based retreats and workshops, and provide social and racial justice education and consultation to organizations and communities. I am the Inclusion and Belonging co-lead for SoulPlay festivals, collaborator with Wren La Feet of Cocrea Mindful Partner Dance, and serve on the Healer’s Collective for the Decolonizing Wealth Project.
Other Training and Certificates:
- Embodied Social Justice Certificate (2022)
- PACT – Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy – level 1 (2022)
- Relational Somatic Healing – level 1 (2020)
- ThetaHealing Practitioner and Instructor – THInK (2011, 2016)
Background
Drawing from my background in dance and bodywork, I hold a diversity of body-based knowledge. As an east coast (US) native, I may bring humor, sarcasm, and frankness into the therapy room, when appropriate. As a biracial, Caucasian-Latina, I have both indisputable white privilege as well as the more hidden intergenerational systemic oppression that are each part of my lineage. Because of this, I am actively curious about my clients’ intersecting identities and the impacts of privilege and marginalization to their mental health. With my spiritual lineage in western Sufism and a background in energy healing, I can also hold more mystical and magical frameworks, while remaining grounded in the reality of this planet and the structures and power dynamics we find ourselves in.
Odessa Avianna Perez 