“After years of feeling battered by stress and trauma,  I was so very  fortunate to start working with Larissa.  They have taught me how to use the resources available to me to heal myself, and guide myself in a much more joyous, peaceful way of being.   This has allowed me a deeper inner sense of peace in my body,  and in all my relationships.  Through connecting to nature, movement , and beauty,  long forgotten parts of myself have also been renewed and validated.  Larissa is structured, and well prepared in their  approach, while at the same time so gentle, incredibly intuitive,  and flexible.   I am so grateful for having the opportunity to do this work with them.” —VK

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“When I first began working with Larissa, I was in a constant state of dysregulation with no end in sight. I was cautious of everyone and everything, living in a state of hypervigilance that started to toll on my body physically and emotionally. It took time for me to learn to truly honor my own vulnerability and pain as well as let another being bear witness to it. It was an experience wrought with hard truths, tears, and discomfort that’s transformed into self-compassion, trust, playful humor, and joy. Larissa’s commitment to investigating how structures of white supremacy, capitalism, and patriarchy impact our bodies and society is the framework for healing that I was searching for and unable to find in traditional forms of counseling. I love working with Larissa and their practice because it’s an integrative exploration that allows one to access their true power and strength amidst a history of trauma rather than a band aid solution.  The use of sensory orientation, sound, movement, and imagery that Larissa integrates into session offers me an extensive variety of tools that I rely on daily. Larissa’s practice guides me in cultivating active presence where there was once hypervigilance, curiosity in place of fear, and a propensity for pleasure over shame.  It’s been almost four years since our first session and I can emphatically say the work we have done together has radically altered my being, sense of belonging, and modalities of thinking.”

—SA

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“I honestly cannot describe best in words how much Larissa has helped me reclaim my independence, my confidence, and my assurance in myself.  Each of these connections have immensely improved my life.  To a large part, Larissa helped me move from self-informed and in my head, to self-aware and in my body.  I have seen therapists before, have done a lot of talk-therapy and reading-writing type of therapy exercises.  It helped me understand in a logical manner my trauma and disconnection, but it didn’t get me reconnected to myself.  No matter how many books I read, I still got caught up in my trauma triggers and couldn’t see where I was until after my emotional storm.  Larissa was able to hear and identify what I was wanting, where I was stuck, and guided me on my own journey back inside myself, to be my own caretaker, to be the witness I needed for my own pain, to seek my own guidance through processing difficult times of the past and for navigating the present.  At a pace that worked perfectly for me, I have been accomplishing exactly the steps I have been wanting to for years.  I’m convinced that they are able to read where I am at and help guide me to the right next step.  Each session felt right to me; not too fast, not to slow.  I left every session feeling empowered and grateful. I’m not exaggerating.  Even the hard sessions felt healing. To give you an idea of the intensity of my experience, part of my story includes trauma, CPTSD, disruptive patterning that leads to self-sabotage and poor coping mechanisms.  Larissa has taught me new tools that have given me the opportunity to adjust what I’ve needed in my life to live the way that I want to.  Furthermore, they have helped me learn how I can recognize when I need to use those tools and how to adjust my inner path to make that better choice.  They have even helped me find tools in which healing can be pleasurable.  I could not have asked the universe for a better guide.  If you are thinking about working with Larissa, don’t hesitate for a second! Just do it! And no, they aren’t paying me to recommend them, and this isn’t a work-trade.  I honestly, and truly, think they have incredible talent and is very skilled at guiding people on their journey to self-healing.  Sessions with them have been worth the time and money.  

How my life has improved: 

• Much more loving connection with my partner

• Better communication with my partner

• Better navigation of difficult conversations with my partner

• Expressing myself in real time, honestly, genuinely and from a centered place

• Differentiating between feelings

• Differentiating between boundaries and expectations

• Being able to hold space for difficult times from my past

• Focusing on what I want in my life vs. what I don’t want

• Becoming aware of my subconscious habits so that I may choose differently

• Changing my focus from worrying about whether people like me to whether I like them and how we can fit in each other’s lives

• The importance of prioritizing myself and my enjoyment of life

• Tools to bring myself out of a negative mood

• Tools to get out of a trigger at any point in the cycle

• Tools to recognize triggers as they are happening and make a better choice

• Tools to ground myself when things feel tense

• Tools to slow down and check in with myself instead of living life as a perpetual reaction”

—EA

What people are saying about Animist Arts: