About

Hi, I’m Astraea,

I’m a relational and somatic psychotherapist, educator, and social change humanitarian with deep roots in progressive culture.

I believe our challenges can catalyze us into becoming stronger, more loving, and more whole. Our healing matters far beyond ourselves. When we do our inner work, we strengthen our lives, relationships, families, communities, and the world.

In my life, I’ve experienced great joy, deep heartbreak, near hopelessness, and fulfillment that once seemed out of reach. Most of all, I have loved—and been loved.

Love heals, empowers, and liberates. My lifelong quest to understand the art and science of love led me to therapy. There, I discovered something profound-

Psychotherapy is, at its essence, the truth and love cure.

My work draws from 30 years of intensive training and experience, grounded in:

• Relational, Somatic, and Social Justice Psychotherapy
• Attachment Theory and Interpersonal Neurobiology
• Body and Brain Trauma Resolution and Resilience
• Jungian Psychology
• Internal Family Systems (IFS)
• Psychology of Women and Femininities
• Psychology of Men and Masculinities
• Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Ecopsychology
• Functional Medicine and Nutritional Psychiatry

I share these life affirming approaches depending on your needs. Healing is not one-size-fits-all.  It’s a creative, collaborative, and alive process, with many doors to truth, love, and freedom.

I have supported people across the full spectrum of identity and experience:

• Children, Teens, and Adults
• Women, Men, and Gender-expansive
• Heterosexual, Sexually Fluid, Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Queer
• People of Diverse Cultural Heritages
• All Religious and Spiritual Paths—from devout to agnostic, mystical to secular

There is truth, wisdom, and beauty on many paths. It is my pleasure to hold space for you, and help you align with this.

I also find deep fulfillment in teaching the next generation of therapists. My specialty is life affirming body-positive therapy for people of all orientations, rooted in ethics, consent, responsibility, pleasure, and liberation.

One of my most well-loved offerings is the course I taught at CIIS: “Sexuality: Psyche, Soma, and Spirit”—a student favorite.

I have received over 30 years of my own therapy, including: Psychodynamic, Relational, Feminist, Sex-Positive, Somatic, Transpersonal, and Jungian Therapy.

This lived experience has given me a deep faith in the truths that live in our hearts and minds, bodies and souls. My greatest lessons have come through the school of life, the sanctuary and freedom of high quality therapy, and the  sacredness of life.  The sparks of the divine are within and around us, all of the time.

I grew up in an ambitious coastal suburb of New York City, spent nearly three decades in the San Francisco Bay Area, and now enjoy artsy village life on the western shore of the Hudson River.

From this creative home base, I live, learn, teach, and love.

If you resonate, I’d be delighted to meet you!

Warmly,
Astraea Bella

• Smith College School for Clinical Social Work, M.S.W.
• Sarah Lawrence College, Double Major: Cultural Studies and Visual Art, B.A.
• Stanford University, Psychotherapy Graduate Fellowship

• Licensed Clinical Social Worker, California — LCSW #26430
• Licensed Clinical Social Worker, New York — LCSW #096124

• California Institute of Integral Studies
• Integral Counseling Psychology Master’s Program
• Course: Sexuality: Psyche, Soma, Spirit

• Relational and Somatic Psychotherapy, Private Practice (2010–Present)
• Relational Psychotherapy, Internship with Elana Moser, LCSW
• Somatic Psychotherapy, Internship with Mai Le, MFT
• Walden House, Project Sister Kin, Adolescent Mental Health Care Treatment Program
• Stanford University, Counseling and Psychological Services, Student Mental Health Care
• UCSF Benioff Children’s Hospital Oakland, Center for Child Protection, Child Mental Health Care
• Swords to Plowshares, Transitional Housing Program, Veterans Mental Health Care Treatment Program

• Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP), Advanced
• Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy (PACT), Intermediate
• Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute
• Pacifica Graduate Institute, Ecopsychology Advanced Certificate
• The Earthbody Institute, Ecotherapy Certificate
• Climate Psychology North America

• Smith College School for Social Work, Anti-Racism Curriculum
• The UNtraining: Unlearning White Liberal Racism

• Somatic Experiencing International
• C.G. Jung Foundation for Analytical Psychology, New York
• The C.G. Jung Institute of San Francisco

• American Association of Sexuality Educators, Counselors, and Therapists (AASECT)
• National Association of Social Workers (NASW)