intersectional therapy for intersectional people

Silvana Espinoza Lau, LMFT.

she/her/ella

About me

I'm a brown, queer, neurodivergent, multiracial & multicultural human.
I live in the both/and: deep clinical roots and sacred remembering.
I live and work as a settler on unceded Kalapuya territory.

I work at the intersections—
of ancestral grief and embodied wisdom,
of burnout and resilience,
trauma and resistance,
oppressive systems and liberation.

I’m not a blank slate.
I’m a co-journeyer.
A practitioner of whole-person, justice-rooted care.

I’m an imperfect human.
If you’re looking for polished, western professionalism—that is not me.
I show my emotions. I share my thoughts.

I believe therapy isn’t just about coping.
It is also about liberation.

The formal stuff

I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Oregon. So I provide online psychotherapy to residents of the state of Oregon (or, you need to be located in Oregon at the time of our sessions).

My early training was in photography, translation, linguistics, and psychology—fields that taught me how deeply culture shapes perception, communication, and healing. I tailor care to each person’s lived experience and cultural context.

Academic & Clinical Background

  • Bachelor’s degree in Psychology from overseas

  • Master of Science in Psychology from California Polytechnic University – San Luis Obispo

  • Former case manager, rehabilitation specialist, and skills builder

  • Experience across settings: residential, outpatient, nonprofit, and community mental health

Clinical Populations & Specialties

I’ve worked with people navigating:

  • Complex systemic needs (housing, health, parenting, schooling challenges)

  • Severe and persistent mental illness (SPMI) and personality disorders

  • Mood and anxiety disorders

  • Dual diagnoses (SUD) and chronic health conditions (autoimmune)

  • Grief, loss (land and place), adjustment, life transitions

  • Neurodivergence (especially ADHD)

  • Ancestral trauma, spiritual emergence, and FOO/attachment wounds

My current focus includes:

  • Relational healing and communication

  • Burnout and boundary-setting

  • Identity development, values, and belonging

  • Acculturation and intergenerational trauma

  • Imposter syndrome and racial trauma

All explored through an anti-oppressive, decolonial, and liberatory lens.

Therapeutic Style & Training

I work from a systemic perspective—meaning I hold space for how personal struggles are shaped by relational, social, cultural, and structural systems. And an integrative perspective—drawing from both clinical wisdom and ancestral knowledge, weaving together psychoanalytic insight, somatic attunement, liberation psychology, and decolonial frameworks to support healing that is layered, rooted, and transformative.
We’ll name the oppression, not internalize it.

My foundational frameworks include:

  • Attachment theory (the decolonial one, that remembers connection to land, plants, food, and everything else)

  • Liberation psychology

  • Pedagogy of the Oppressed

  • Psychoanalysis (without the patriarchal bits)

  • Systemic therapy (think Bronfenbrenner meets collectivism)

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

I also draw from:

  • CBT, CPT, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Gottman method

  • Brainspotting, parts work, and somatic theory

  • Jungian analysis, dreamwork and spiritual inquiry when clients feel ready

Ongoing Learning & Lineage

Some of the trainings I’ve received include:

  • Restorative Justice & Intergroup Dialogue

  • Decolonized, trauma-informed Nonviolent Communication

  • Culture shock, acculturation, race-based trauma, and anti-oppression

  • Gottman & relational privilege/trauma

  • Perinatal mental health

  • Adhd , neurodivergence, Sensory processing of trauma and developmental wounds

  • Intercultural Approach to Supervision

  • Intercultural and Nervous System Approach to Diversity Work

  • Decolonial Attachment Theory