Luana Bessa(She/Her/Hers)

Dr. Luana Bessa is a Psychologist located in Boston, MA. Dr. Bessa is passionate about providing culturally competent, affirming mental health care for clients of all backgrounds and identities. She has extensive experience working with diverse clients, and brings an awareness to issues related to power, identity, and privilege to her work. Her clients often want support around working through trauma, anxiety, or issues in their relationships with themselves and others. They feel stuck in their emotional reactions, experience relationship stress with loved ones, and feel held back from feeling confident in their daily lives.

Dr. Bessa takes an integrative and holistic approach to helping her clients. She incorporates awareness and respect for both the mind and the body, and utilizes a mindfulness informed perspective that invites clients to relate to their experiences more intentionally and effectively. Dr. Bessa sometimes incorporates mindfulness practices into treatment, including breathing and meditation practice. Dr. Bessa also incorporates attachment theory into her work with clients who would like to explore and improve their relationships, work through relational triggers, and improve their relationship with themselves. She encourages clients to reflect on their relationship history and make connections with how they presently exist in relation to other people. Dr. Bessa also offers clients helpful coping skills, including cognitive behavioral skills, that they can use in their daily lives to better manage their emotions.

Dr. Bessa earned a PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Texas at Austin. She completed a postdoctoral residency at The Edith Nourse Rogers Memorial Veterans Hospital and has experience working with veterans, students, and other mental health professionals. She brings elements of social justice and feminism into her sessions to help clients better understand the larger contexts of their mental health challenges.