About Sabrina Santa Clara

There is a phrase in Spanish that says, “No hay mal que por bien no venga.” Or, “There is no bad out of which a good cannot arise.” In other words, it’s true that there are many challenges in life, but it is also that challenges can lead to personal growth, even from really horrific experiences.

I often say that I have the best job in the world because I get paid for loving people. My work is my vocation, but I don’t know that I would have become a therapist and spiritual doula if not for the traumas and difficult challenges I survived. As a result of my own traumatic history, I struggled with mental health issues when I was younger. It took me a long time to learn how to love myself and to create a life that was rich, meaningful and stable. I know how impossible healing after trauma can seem. I also know how to help you get to the other side.

There were many things that helped in my healing process, including various physical practices (yoga, body building, movement and dance), spiritual practices (chanting, meditation, prayer), teachers (pastors, monks, rabbis, wise women and men) and a few really good therapists. I draw from my previous work as a holistic psychotherapist, spiritual counselor and somatic (body-integrative) psychotherapist and now as a Spiritual Doula and Meditation & Mindfulness teacher to help you come home to your Authentic Self.

Because of my own challenging history, I now have a breadth of wisdom to offer my clients. I specialize in helping those facing anxiety and mood disorders, trauma, loneliness and overwhelm, parenting and family dynamic conflict, relationship challenges, questions about sexual orientation and Authentic Sexuality, work/life balance issues, career transitions, religious and spiritual uncertainty and issues around food and poor body image, as well as all those seeking to create their best lives. I know that the challenges you’re facing do not define you. I can help you unearth your core self—the person you are beneath the trauma, behaviors and belief systems that might be obscuring your way.

For those in the healing professions, consultation groups and invidual sessions are geared towards your strengths while expanding your access to the wisdom that already resides within you. I will also teach you simple but effective tools for moving out of Self-like parts and into the spaciousness of your Most Authentic Self.

In addition to past pain, I have also arrived where I am today thanks to the beautiful parts of my upbringing. My mother taught me everything I know about unconditional love. She never judged, but listened and supported me through all my challenges. Now, I am honored to extend that same unconditional love and acceptance to my clients, regardless of background.

My extended family comes from European, Mexican, Filipino, Korean and African backgrounds. While my parents were far from perfect, both my parents were inclusive by nature, which rooted me in an openness to race, religion and different ways of seeing the world. And because I grew up as a White Minority in a California-Mexico border town and lived for 15 years in San Francisco, multicultural influences have deeply shaped my identity.

Because I have lived within mixed communities most my life, I have a broad appreciation for difference that allows me to work well with people from diverse cultures and lifestyles. I have also explored a wide variety of faith system since my teens, which has brought me an broad understanding of spirituality. In my practice, I honor all faith systems and foster curious self-exploration, creating a nonjudgmental space for you to create balance in your inner, outer and metaphysical worlds.

Today, I am told I am intuitive, open-minded, playful, down-to-earth and intelligent. I am both warm and direct and offer the same authenticity and vulnerability I cultivate in my clients. My job is to help you discover and name your own truth, and if you need a reality check at some point along your path to healing, I’ll gently give it. I offer loving compassion that’s supported by a strong, dedicated backbone.

I am also fiercely loyal, which means once you’re my client, I’m committed. If you head down into a deep dark well, I’ll be there with you—with the ropes, pulleys, headlamps and snacks you need to make it back up to the light. No matter where you go in sessions, you won’t be there alone.

My personal life is shaped by the same values that inform my practice. As a spiritual therapist, not surprisingly, my own connection to Source guides my life. I do believe that connection to a higher purpose is a key ingredient for happiness and meaning­. I am committed to helping you heal trauma and learn practical skills for living well so you can fully connect with your own Source.

There are some experiences that words can’t fully express, which is why I am drawn to the creative arts and embodied movement. For example, I make mixed media art from natural and repurposed items, and I collage, make jewelry and write poetry. If you are interested in incorporating creative expression into the therapy process, you’ve come to the right place. Art and embodied movement can help us all move away from the confines of our hyper-linear world and tap into the rich, vibrant wisdom beneath the surface.

I am also passionate about the environment and love to travel to places where I can be in nature. When I am sitting in front of a vast, ancient ocean, my life becomes so much smaller. I am a grain of sand on the beach, a drop of water in the ocean, and I feel myself connected to a Source bigger than me. I find great comfort it this.

No matter what you are going through today, with guidance and support, you can transform your life by cultivating a strong relationship to the Source within you—the key to transforming even the horrific into something good.

I invite you to contact me for a free, 20-minute consultation. You can ask me any questions you may have about spiritual guidance, transpersonal coaching, professional consultation or any other ways I may help.

Most of my Individual sessions are trainings are online. I do expect to start offering live groups in 2024. I do occassionally see clients in my old stopping grounds of Las Vegas NV and Henderson NV, or where I live in Lafayette, CO when clients are in town. Extended psychedelic integration sessions occur only in Colorado where the Natural Medicine Act has legalized naturally occuring psychedelics.

Sabrina Santa Clara is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Spiritual Doula. She studied at Naropa University, where she earned a Master of Arts in Somatic Counseling Psychotherapy, with a dual emphasis in Body Psychotherapy & Dance/Movement Therapy. She also received a bachelor’s in sociology, with an emphasis in human sexuality and Spanish, from San Francisco State University. She is continuously pursuing opportunities to enhance her education and training. She’s a Certified Internal Family Systems Therapist (Advanced) and an approved IFS Consultant. She was a massage therapist and yoga Instructor for many years which has influened how she practices. In 2021 she completed one of the first certification programs in Psychedelic Integration through Fluence, where she now teaches on Psyilocybin Assisted Therapy and Psychotherapeutic Touch. She is a specialist in Psychotherapeutic Touch, and trains other clinicians on the use of touch in therapy. She also trains and speaks on a variety of topics, Including Self Psychedelic Integration. You can read Sabrina’s publications here and listen to her on the Women in Depth podcast here. Sabrina is culturally mixed, heteroflexible, genderfluid and uses the pronouns she/her or ze/zir.