Anya Valsamakis, LCSW
For over 25 years, I have worked within the social work field in various environments—from mental health and case management to education and career planning. Throughout these diverse social work settings, I have always sought to bring people resources that would help them improve their lives, counseling them on ways to navigate systems and offering the support they need to thrive.
My experiences led me to look deeply into patterns, and to explore the many different ways of seeing and understanding people. I am very curious about our human experience and will forever be learning how we can be more free and whole. This finally led me to want to bring my social work values and skills into a treatment relationship. I believe that when we build trust, tell the truth, and work collaboratively together, transformation is possible.
Two special threads appearing over and over in the fabric of my work have been the empowerment of women and girls, and of immigrants and refugees. These individuals and families inspire in me a desire for social justice, and I have spent my personal time in nonprofit organizations and in other venues that work to create a more just world for them, and for us all.
I have both a Bachelor’s Degree a Master’s Degree (MSW) in social work, and I am licensed as a clinical social worker (LCSW). I have studied mediation and have had years of education at the Summer Institute of Intercultural Communication. For several years, I’ve practiced somatic, body-mind areas of counseling, methods that integrate conscious insights with unconscious discoveries that are communicated by the body when encouraged by awareness and gentle touch. I believe in this powerful type of treatment and see it as an adjunct to regular counseling work.