Silvana Espinoza Lau, LMFT
Anti-oppressive, decolonised, and social justice oriented healing.
SEVENTH SELF COUNSELING
Find Your True Self
ABOUT THERAPY
My therapy style is for you if you're feeling disconnected from yourself and/or others. If you're feeling like an outsider. If you are feeling like the black sheep of your family, you are in the right place.
If you are burnout or your experience has left you feeling numb, helpless, irritable, or on the brink of depression, you are in the right place. You may be stressed and overwhelmed because you are the caregiver of a loved one, because you work in the healthcare system in any capacity, because you are at the mercy of unrealistic expectations from your managers, or because of even bigger systems of oppression that leave you overwhelmed, in constant fight or flight, or traumatized.
Let's take you back to a meaningful and fulfilling life. We can identify the values that matter most to you and align them with your personal and professional needs. You will be able to set boundaries and know how to have your needs met. You will feel lighter and more at ease with others and with yourself. Then, you will keep on growing authentically at work, at school, or in your community.
ISSUES I TREAT
My practice focuses mainly on supporting individuals who have endured the impact of racial trauma, systems of oppression, acculturation, and burnout.
CLINICAL
SUPERVISION,
CONSULTATION,
&
SUPERVISION OF SUPERVISION
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I provide online supervision to Professional Counselor Associates and Marriage and Family Therapy Associates in the state of Oregon and to licensed clinicians anywhere.
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I bring an anti-oppressive and decolonial lens to supervision, using a relational, systemic, and liberatory foundation.
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I help clinicians working with BIPoC, multiracial, Latinx/e/a/o clients and clients who hold systemically marginalized identities
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I support clinicians who are seeking to incorporate anti-oppressive practices and a liberation psychology approach to their current modalities and specialties.
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I offer supervision and/or consultation to any clinician seeking to mindfully process and understand power dynamics, vicarious trauma, use of self, countertransference, immediacy, implicit bias, personal/professional boundaries, burnout, and other issues that can impact a clinician's professional and personal growth.
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I offer Supervision of Supervision to licensed clinicians (LPCs and LMFTs) in Oregon who want to become clinical supervisors.
ABOUT ME
My name is Silvana (she/her/ella), a healer and settler in unceded Kalapuya land. I hold several privileged and marginalized identities that inform the way I support people. I am a brown, queer, neurodivergent, immigrant WOC who also benefits from the privilege of a master's degree, having enough money to pay my bills despite my money trauma, and being able to advocate for myself within a system that usually does not listen to someone who looks and sounds like me. Experiencing an oppressive system, that at times told me I did not belong, has given me enough empathy to support people who have felt othered, unseen, underserved, and underrepresented.
I love to support individuals who feel they have not been seen, feel as the representatives of their culture or community, or who feel in between cultures. I specially like to support BIPoC, a population that has been largely underserved and asked to adjust to Western norms.
Even though I believe in anti-oppression, decolonization, and liberation, my hope is to move towards dismantling and reimagining therapy -through radical imagination- as centering all the people who have been forced to exist at the margins due to current oppressive systems.
The normative intro...
I’m Silvana Espinoza Lau (she/her/ella), a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Oregon. I provide online psychotherapy to residents of the state of Oregon.
My background is in translation, linguistics, and psychology. These disciplines taught me the importance of understanding other people’s cultures and world views, and encouraged me to tailor treatment according to each and every person's individual culture and their context. Before becoming a psychotherapist, I worked as case manager, rehabilitation specialist, and skills builder. I have experience in residential and outpatient treatment with individuals experiencing severe and persistent mental illness, personality disorders, and dual diagnosis. I have also worked in nonprofit agencies and community mental health centers with individuals, couples, groups, and families.
The way I do therapy...
I like to support people who need to set boundaries with others and with themselves—or those who have struggled to find a true version of themselves and find that they are always conforming to outside norms. My approach is trauma-informed, person-centered, experiential, and existential.
I like to let clients know what to expect in counseling with me. I like to support my clients in a nonjudgmental fashion throughout their journeys. I also like to set gentle but firm boundaries so that my clients can have a structured container where they feel validated and witnessed. I hope to be an ally to LGBTQ+ community, sex workers, and fat liberation.
I practice from an embodied anti-racist, decolonized, and liberation focused style.
The styles of therapy I use...
I work from a systemic perspective, which means that I take into consideration the several systems (school, work, community, etc.) that you belong to and that can influence your well-being, or lack thereof. I will focus on any oppressive systems you may have experienced growing up (or that you still experience) and that may have contributed to any possible traumas.
I base my practice mainly in attachment theory, psychoanalysis, liberation psychology, pedagogy of the oppressed, systemic therapy, and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. I also rely on CBT, CPT, Emotionally Focused Therapy, IFS, Brainspotting, and Jungian analysis when needed. Additionally, I explore dreamwork and other spiritual practices with clients ready to embark on a deeper understanding of themselves.
I have experience in Trauma-Informed (or Decolonized) Non-Violent Communication (DNVC), burnout, vicarious trauma, radical compassion, mindfulness, acculturation, 1st and 2nd generations, 3rd culture kids, intergenerational trauma, systemic oppression and racial issues. Most of the time, these challenges show up as anxiety, depression, or trauma, or as other unresolved issues with their family of origin, loss, and life transitions.
LET'S CHAT!
“Let there be spaces in your togetherness”