Livia is a psychotherapist, social worker, yoga therapist, Somatic Experiencing Practitioner, and spiritual activist. She is the founder of the Yoga-Informed Model and is an advocate of the shift in this paradigm towards greater understanding and integration of yoga and psychology. She implemented one of the first yoga therapy programs for mental health treatment in a nationally renowned residential treatment center. There she developed a trainee program to develop the next generation of psychotherapists to weave yoga into their treatment of complex mental health conditions and trauma. She is passionate about best practices and the integration of neurobiology, somatics, yoga and psychotherapy practices in the healing of addiction, eating and mood disorders and the often underlying acute and chronic traumatization. Livia’s psychotherapeutic experience includes training in Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT), Acceptance and Change Therapy (ACT), Somatic Experiencing (SE), Dialectical Behavioral Therapy- Prolonged Exposure (DBT-PE), Exposure and Responsive Prevention Therapy (ERP), anti-oppressive psychodynamic psychotherapy. Livia’s engagement with yoga began with a two-year residency at the Himalayan International Institute of Yoga Science and Philosophy where in 1999 she was initiated into the tradition of the Himalayan Masters. She has completed over a decade of advanced and therapeutic Yoga certifications along and becoming a Reiki Master in 1998. She is deeply influenced by the mindfulness trainings that she has received from Vietnamese Zen Monk, Thich Nhat Hanh and her longtime meditation mentorship with Pandit Jerome Smith. Today she works to educate healthcare organizations and presents and lectures nationally on the benefits of yoga for mental health and has implemented therapeutic programs, trainings and protocols that utilizes the Yoga-Informed model. She has enjoyed several clinical leadership roles in inpatient settings, most recently as Director of Trauma-Informed Care at a national treatment center - always with her hope to serve clients while supporting the system’s greater capacity for sustainable wellbeing.
