Brianna Ferreira
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
MFT #49833
brianna@mcaft.com
650-297-3400 x32
Locations: Los Altos | San Jose | Online
Languages: English & Spanish
Fee: $250
Areas of Focus:
Languages: English and Spanish
Children / Teens: Emotional Regulation Challenges, Tantrums, Anxiety (Social Anxiety, Separation Anxiety, Performance Anxiety), OCD, Perfectionism, ADHD, Neurodiversity, Identity, Acculturation Issues, Grief, Bullying / Social Bullying, Peer Relationships and School Adjustment
Adults: Trauma (Early Childhood Trauma, Complex Trauma, PTSD), Anxiety, Life Transitions, Parenting, Job Stress / Burnout, Identity & Acculturation Issues, Grief & Loss, Traumatic Grief, Substance Dependence, Co-dependence, 12-steps
Modalities:
Somatic Mindfulness-Based Therapy (Hakomi), Trauma Informed, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, Psychosynthesis, IFS Informed, DBT and Mindfulness-Based CBT. Utilizes varied approaches including multimodal expressive arts, dream psychology, ecotherapy & parts work.
Overall Description:
Brianna has a true passion for supporting people through the most challenging moments of their lives. With about 20 years of experience, she has a unique gift of remaining calm and compassionate as she skillfully guides clients through moments of emotional distress, relationship challenges, times of crisis and traumatic loss. She accompanies her clients one step at a time as they move from the depths of despair and overwhelm to newfound joy and resilience. Brianna has a gentle spirit and a depth of kindness that infuses her work. She creates a safe place for people to heal when things fall apart, so they can find their way through the dark night to a new and potentially more fulfilling way of being in the world. She has been inspired by the resilience in each of her clients, many of them realizing along the way that the very thing that caused the most pain led them to the most meaningful transformations.
Brianna grew up in Arkansas, which gives her a down-to-earth quality. She realized she loved working with children when she started babysitting as a 12 year old. She quickly became one of the most sought after babysitters in the neighborhood due to her natural ability to connect playfully with children - coupled with her knack for engaging kids in fun activities.
Brianna became a world citizen when she moved to South America for a high school year abroad in Ecuador and later studied in Germany during college. She continues to have a love for people of all walks of life and cultures.
In her early twenties, Brianna tutored high school students in academic subjects. Even then, she was drawn to the social-emotional realms. She found it useful to first help the students process social and emotional issues - as the social-emotional challenges were occupying their attention and interfering with their learning process. As soon as Brianna listened in a way that helped the students process their emotional challenges, Brianna found that they were able to learn more easily and take in new information with less strain.
Brianna continued her journey to becoming a therapist by enrolling in the holistic program at the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology. This program opened the doors to many ways of working, including somatic therapy, dream psychology, family systems, psychosynthesis (parts work), music and the arts - as well as an understanding of more metaphysical and spiritual aspects of psychology, such as near-death experiences.
Brianna believes in the transformative power of the human spirit. She understands that healing can happen in many different ways, and she recognizes that psychology has liberally borrowed healing processes from the wisdom traditions of the world. Brianna draws on these spiritual processes, such as forgiveness, mindfulness, compassion and gratitude to speed the healing process. Brianna helps people access these capacities within themselves so that they can tend to and befriend their hurt and traumatized parts, allowing them to release their frozen energy for more life affirming purposes. She continues to be inspired by each and every client she has the privilege of supporting.
Brianna has a special interest in planting native plants to support local bird and butterfly populations, as well as rekindling people’s connection with the natural world, and with all of life.
Experience:
Over the last 20 years, Brianna has cultivated a rich experience working within a variety of clinical and community settings. As a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, she has worked in outpatient clinics, schools, youth residential shelter, partial hospitalization and intensive outpatient programs serving clients with mental health and substance abuse challenges. S
he served as a clinical supervisor and program supervisor for the Centre for Living with Dying program, supporting individuals, couples, and families experiencing grief. She is well-known for helping people to move through overwhelming grief and trauma to regain their joy and sense of purpose in living.
In the community, she taught positive parenting in parent participation schools and served as a music teacher through the Community School of Music and Art. Recently, she has led workshops in ecotherapy.
Education:
- Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto, CA
- Minor in Improvised Music, San Jose State University
- Bachelor of Arts, University of Texas at Austin
- Junior year abroad at Julius Maximilians Universitaet, Wuerzburg, Germany
- High school exchange student, Colegio Guayaquil, Ecuador
Training:
Somatic Therapy
Hakomi Professional Skills Training
Trauma
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Trauma: Affect Dysregulation, Survival Responses, and Trauma Memory, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute
From Trauma to Dharma, Hakomi Institute
Grief and Loss
Certificate in Grief and Loss, Santa Clara County Training Collaborative
Couples
Mindfulness-Based Experiential Couples Therapy, Mental Research Institute
Gottman Level 1 Training
Creativity
Creative Expression at the Master’s Level, Institute of Transpersonal Psychology
Crisis Response
Critical Incident Stress Management, County of Santa Clara Training Collaborative
Music
Orff Schulwerk, Levels 1, 2, 3
Spiritual
Minister, Universal Church of the Master