I’m Jessica Lu.
I’m a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW), Certified Perinatal Mental Health Clinician (PMH-C), Birth Doula, & Midwifery Assistant.
I’m the owner of this psychotherapy practice as well as
I’m an ambivert, a mom, a Marine Corps Veteran, a bookworm, a mutual aid worker, and a proud East Coaster who somehow wound up on the West Coast.
Before opening my practice, I spent my social work career in New York City. I started my career working at a high school in the South Bronx, then a preschool in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. I spent a year working in HIV/AIDS social work and inpatient psychiatry at Beth Israel Medical Center in lower Manhattan. I later transferred to their Victim Services Department, where I worked as an Emergency Department social worker, victim advocate, and trauma therapist.
During my time at victim services, I had the pleasure of helping train victim advocates & NYPD Special Victims detectives on trauma-informed care, served as co-chair on the Manhattan District Attorney’s Campus Sexual Assault Prevention committee, coordinated the New York City Rape Crisis Campaign “Enough is Enough”, and provided sexual assault prevention on-boarding to faculty and students at various college campuses in Manhattan.
Education, Training, and Licensure:
Education:
MASTER OF SOCIAL WORK
Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, New York, NY
BACHELOR OF ARTS in Women and Gender Studies
Hunter College, New York, NY
Clinical Training:
The Parnell Institute: Attachment Focused EMDR
Internal Family Systems Institute, IFS Level 1 and IFS Circle: Foundations of the IFS Model
Chesapeake Mental Health Collaborative: Rewire the Anxious Brain: Neuroscience-Informed Treatment of Anxiety, Panic, and Worry
Dan Siegel: Mindsight, Attachment, and Clinical Integration
Judith Matz, LCSW: Emotional Eating, Chronic Dieting, Bingeing, and Body Image
The Immigration Evaluation Training Center: Immigration Assessment & Evaluations
No More Gate Keeping: Gender Affirming Letter Writing
The Therapist Development Center: Trained and approved in the state of California to provide clinical supervision to unlicensed clinicians.
Clinical Training for Perinatal Mental Health Specialty and Birth Work:
Postpartum Support International: Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders Components of Care
The Seleni Institute: Perinatal mood and anxiety disorders, infertility, and loss
Dr. Loree Johnson: Infertility Grief and Trauma
Doulas of North America (DONA): Birth Doula Training
The Farm Midwifery Center: Midwifery Assistant Training
Penny Simkin, PT: When Survivors Give Birth
Spinning Babies: Optimal Fetal Positioning for Easier Birth
Blossoming Bellies Birth: Pelvic Shape, Fetal Positioning, and Obstetrical Bias: The Role of Pelvic Shape Classification and Optimal Fetal Positioning in the Perpetuation of Bias in Childbirth
Blossoming Bellies Birth: Induction of Labor: Understanding Informed Choice and Methodology
Licensure:
California Licensed Clinical Social Worker: #92640
Registered Florida Telehealth Provider: TPSW2856

In an ideal world we would all learn in childhood to love ourselves. We would grow, being secure in our worth and value, spreading love wherever we went, letting our light shine. If we did not learn self-love in our youth, there is still hope. The light of love is always in us, no matter how cold the flame. It is always present, waiting for the spark to ignite, waiting for the heart to awaken and call us back to the first memory of being the life force inside a dark place waiting to be born - waiting to see the light.
— bell hooks