Gaia Zanna

Gaia Zanna

About Specialties Fees Locations
Gaia Zanna

Gaia Zanna

Licensed Mental Health Counselor, LMHC

Not accepting new clients in Boston practice (updated November 15, 2019)

Specialties & Expertise

  • Emotional complexity of adjusting to a new city or country
  • Different cultural backgrounds
  • Trauma recovery
  • Anxiety
  • Depression
  • Relationship challenges
  • Sessions in English and Italian
  • Women’s mental health and empowerment
  • Self-esteem
  • Family issues
  • Life transitions
  • Existential challenges
  • Loss and grief
  • Academic issues
  • Bipolar disorder
  • LGBQ and sexuality topics
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Professional statement

Gaia Zanna is a Licensed Mental Health Counselor in downtown Boston. Originally from Bologna, Italy, Gaia has a deep understanding of different cultural backgrounds and the emotional complexity of adjusting to a new country. As a bilingual clinician, she offers sessions in English and Italian.

Gaia specializes in anxiety, depression, relationship issues, family issues, trauma, and cultural adjustment. She uses a range of therapeutic approaches depending on the client's needs, including CBT, psychodynamic, motivational interviewing, supportive therapy, and narrative therapy. She was recently certified for Comprehensive Resource Model (CRM), a trauma recovery therapy approach that focuses on helping clients release trauma from the body. She is currently working on empowering women in different aspects of life and its challenges regarding relationships, fertility, divorce, self-esteem, gender, identity, self-esteem, trauma, and work environment. She is also leading a support group for new moms.

Gaia received her MA from the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis and completed her fellowship training in child and family therapy at the Boston Institute for Psychotherapy. She strives to create a sensitive, warm, empathetic, nonjudgmental, and respectful space for all of her clients.

Message to clients

Sometimes it is difficult and scary to make sense of feelings, learning how to manage them, and being able to find healthy ways to cope while creating and fostering self-awareness. Therapy is a safe space and a confidential grounding process that through time, consistency and working together will allow you to identify and develop a healthy voice to express thoughts and feelings. I strive to help clients understand their emotional conflicts, behavioral repetitions and their inner-self by empathetically assisting them in working through emotional difficulties and life struggles. Feeling heard, being seeing, feeling that we have a purpose in life is a vital, indispensable healing and nurturing process of psychotherapy and I look forward to helping you to achieve it.

Specialties

Emotional complexity of adjusting to a new city or country - Acclimating to a new environment; managing stress and coping with the challenges of new relationships

Different cultural backgrounds - Works with clients to develop strategies to navigate relationships with people of different cultural backgrounds

Trauma recovery - Including dealing with past sexual assault, childhood trauma, environmental trauma (e.g. witnessing/experiencing violence), PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder)

Anxiety - Generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic attacks

Depression - Sleep and energy disruption, overall mood disturbance, inability to enjoy yourself, and difficulty being motivated, among many other symptoms

Relationship challenges - Feeling unsatisfied in your partnership; communication challenges; addressing issues of power and voice; contemplation of separation; questioning one’s place in the relationship; breakups, friendships, dating

Sessions in English and Italian - Offers sessions in English and Italian

Women’s mental health and empowerment - Addressing issues including infertility, divorce and relationship issues, as well as empowering women against discrimination

Self-esteem - Cultivate stronger sense of self; increase assertiveness, confidence, and self-compassion

Family issues - Includes helping parents with their own issues within the context of supporting children; helping young adults navigate family issues

Life transitions - Adjusting to college, new relationships, career transitions and direction; mid-life existential, relationship, and career challenges; losing one’s drive or burn out; learning self-care

Existential challenges - Questioning purpose, spirituality, existence; finding one’s path and voice, especially when it differs from society's expectations

Loss and grief - Processing the loss of a loved one, any form of grief; processing he emotional aspects of personal illness or the illness of a loved one

Academic issues - Adjusting to college; managing developmental and emotional challenges in school; balancing schoolwork and personal life

Bipolar disorder - Using coping and preventive strategies to stabilize swings between elevated mood or irritability and depressive episodes

LGBQ and sexuality topics - Includes coming out, relating to others, identifying and communicating needs, relationships, and family issues

General expertise

Insurance

Out-of-pocket fees

  • Ongoing sessions: $120 (50min)
  • Initial session: $180 (60min)
  • Couples sessions: $150 (50min)
  • Family sessions: $150 (50min)

Therapist's note

Gaia can provide you with paperwork for reimbursement from your insurance company if you are seeking out-of-network sessions. 

For clients seeking therapy phone sessions: I am accepting private pay therapy phone sessions and coaching in state and out of state.

For clients with insurance other than BCBS or Tufts: Services may still be covered in full or in part by your health insurance or employee-benefit plan. Most PPO and POS plans have "out-of-network" benefits that will cover some percentage of the cost. If you have an HMO from a company, most likely your insurance will not cover our services and you would need to pay directly. 

For clients with BCBS or Tufts: Clients with Blue Cross Blue Shield or Tufts plans are responsible only for co-pays and deductibles. Payment is due at the time of your meeting.

Location(s)

Remote video therapy sessions offered? Yes

Boston practice

50 Congress Street

Suite 642

Boston, MA 02109

Hours
  • Mon Please inquire about hours
  • Tue Please inquire about hours
  • Wed Please inquire about hours
  • Thu Please inquire about hours
  • Fri Please inquire about hours
  • Sat Please inquire about hours
  • Sun Please inquire about hours

Work and Education

Private practice, 2011 - Present
DCS Mental Health Inc., 2011 - Present
Boston Institute for Psychotherapy, Child & Family Fellowship, 2011 - 2013

Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, PsyA Candidate, Doctorate in Psychoanalysis and Culture, 2015 - Present
Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, MA, 2011
Emmanuel College, BS, 2002
Facolta' di Medicina e Chirurgia, Universita' di Ferrara, Italy, 1999

Languages

  • English
  • Italian

Therapy Groups

Gaia Zanna
Mommy Baby Talk

This is a group focused on new moms that need support around motherhood, relationships, self-esteem, body image, expectations, and other related concerns and relational issues. Moms are welcome with their newborns.
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