My primary intention with clients is to help them to value their core strengths, and utilize them to reconnect with unexplored emotions, experience self compassion and discover deep self knowing. I do this by cultivating a supportive, empowering, and collaborative environment to establish a foundation of safety. From this space we can cultivate personal evolution through healing. I strive to be witness to my client’s process and establish client autonomy so that they may feel confident in their innate ability to work toward vibrant whole health and alignment. I believe honesty, authenticity, and respect for the client lay the groundwork for the important and transformative work that we do together.

My client focus:

I have worked with people of all ages and with individuals experiencing a range of mental health challenges or personal roadblocks. Currently I work with older teens and adults, I specialize in complex trauma and the queer community. I also focus on relationships in the ENM community. I believe everyone deserves to live their life with balance, intention, fulfillment, and experience growth, expansion, and evolution, safely. This is something we can accomplish together.

My therapeutic approach:

With a foundation in a holistic and integrative approach to wellness, I consider the complexity of each individual's context. It is important that those I work with not only feel fully heard and uplifted, but also fully seen in every part of their internal, external, and transpersonal worlds.

I use a person-centered approach, guided and informed by a feminist lens, with Internal Family Systems as a tool for integration and EMDR to release trauma that has been stuck in the body. Person-centered therapy is based in recognizing one's own worth and ability to harness boundless potential to ultimately experience transformative healing and growth. This approach emphasizes the client as the expert in their own journey and my unconditional positive regard of the client. It is an approach that ensures the client’s unique voice is always being heard and ultimately guides the therapeutic path. Feminist therapy identifies how one’s personal power may have been suppressed or taken from them by societal or familial structures, and provides the space for a regrowth of their intrinsic power. Internal Family Systems explores the various parts of ourselves, like our child self, our defensive self, and our core, authentic self. In my work with clients I strive to help those parts find their voice and begin trusting the core self to allow space to live authentically. These parts have needs and wounds that often must be expressed for healing to take place. Finally, I use EMDR to address these wounds. EMDR is a treatment that helps your brain to adaptively reprocess trauma so that it no longer holds the power in your internal system.

Rafaela currently sees clients in person.

She currently has a waitlist for new clients.