About

Astraea Bella, LCSW

Hi, I’m Astraea!

I’m a body psychotherapist, educator, and social justice 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 and success 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 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 Ecopsychologies
• Functional Medicine and Nutritional Psychiatry

I integrate and adapt these approaches depending on your needs. Healing is not one-size-fits-all. It’s a creative, collaborative, and alive process.

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 wisdom and beauty on all paths. It is my honor to hold space for you, wherever you are.

I also find deep fulfillment in teaching the next generation of therapists. My specialty is sex-positive therapy for people of all orientations, rooted in 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: Jungian, Relational, Somatic, Sex-Positive Feminist, and Transpersonal Therapy.

This lived experience has gifted me with a deep trust in the process. My greatest lessons have come through the sanctuary of therapy and the school of life.

I grew up in an ambitious suburb of New York City, spent nearly three decades in the San Francisco Bay Area, and now enjoy the simple blessings of small-town mountain living.

From this peaceful home base, I am currently venturing out into the world to learn with teachers on the cutting edge of somatic sex therapy.

I look forward to meeting you!

Warmly,
Astraea Bella

• Smith College School for Clinical Social Work, M.S.W.
• Sarah Lawrence College, Cultural Studies, B.A.
• Stanford University, 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

• Full Embodiment Certification with Ariel Giarretto
• Decolonizing Therapy, Global Community
• 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)