Mirella Stoyanova

I’m a therapist with nearly fifteen years of experience supporting children, youth, families, and adults across child welfare, inpatient mental health, and private practice.

I hold a Master’s in Social Work from the University of Washington, where I studied family healing, historical trauma, and intergroup dialogue, as well as dual bachelor’s degrees in International Studies and Near Eastern Languages & Civilization with an emphasis on Refugee and Immigrant Studies.

Through my training and work, I’ve seen the resilience inherent in each of us and how our limiting beliefs - which are often shaped by societal messages about what we should have, be, or do - can keep us stuck. My role is to help you work through your most pressing concerns using the strengths you already possess, offering a safe, affirming space to explore whatever challenges you are facing with the benefit of being truly seen and heard.

While my approach varies depending on the client and circumstances, I mainly draw on principles from Relational-Cultural Theory, Existential Psychology, and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), as well as a small handful of mindfulness-based treatment methods like Buddhist Psychology.

My work is grounded in a commitment to social justice as well as a firm belief in the dignity and worth of all individuals. As a therapist of multicultural heritage, I am deeply aware of my own places of privilege and the complexity that this entails. I incorporate this awareness into my approach, recognizing the ways that our social and political systems have, throughout history, served to disconnect us from ourselves and from each other.

My practice is also trauma-informed meaning that I am trained in evidence-based care practices suited to the unique needs of individuals who seek to recover from traumatic experience. This includes treatment of survivors who have experienced isolated incidents who suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) as well as those who suffer from chronic occurrences of trauma resulting in what is known as Complex Trauma (C-PTSD).

There are typically one of two directions I take in my first session with a client following our assessment together of your history and background, depending on what your goals are for therapy at the time that you begin treatment. Either we begin with psychoeducation about the human brain and psychobiology, which I believe is fundamental to conversations we will have about your relationship to yourself, or we will begin with a more exploratory conversation surrounding your relationships and what concerns feel most pressing to you. Neither of these two approaches are better than the other, but to begin, I find it helps to offer structure and some grounding in the foundation of what will later unfold more organically as you get to know me, and I, you.