Bella Lurie, LMFT - Therapist at Grow Therapy

Bella Lurie

Bella Lurie

(she/her)

LMFT
6 years of experience
Virtual

I am a psychotherapist, a meditation teacher, and an amateur naturalist. In my home country, I am licensed to conduct learning disability evaluations. My growing up was first-hand impacted by 3 very different languages and cultures. These cultures informed the style of my relationships and my esthetic preferences. For as long as I can remember, I have been mystified by human memory functioning, first as a scientist, then as a meditator. Having gone a long way from trying to remember everything I deemed worth remembering to a more effortless and drama-free attitude toward memory-creating moments, I am still making sense of what it means to integrate each moment of life as it comes. Approaching this subject experientially and relationally informs who I am as a practitioner and as a person. If topics like cognitive functioning, memory styles and focus make your curiosity antennas hum, this is a place for you. My approach to psychotherapy is highly relational and somewhat didactic. I love to explain everything I see and say at every step of the process. With me, you will never experience a blank screen characteristic of traditional psychoanalytic approaches (from which I draw inspiration in the realm of dream interpretation and theory).

Get to know me

In our first session together, here's what you can expect

During our first session, you will be listening to your intuition about how likely we are to become a good working match. That is not to say that your intuition will not change during subsequent encounters. There is nothing more important than a feeling of internal affirmation existing on a par and separately from the general optimism arising at the moments of openness to help.

The biggest strengths that I bring into our sessions

What I help achieve fits the variety of ages and conditions. It is never too late to accept oneself, understand the not-so-easy concept of boundaries, to achieve fulfillment at "work-home" work, no matter how your current state differs from the one you have been dreaming about. All my life I wanted to combine the art of observation in choice-making with the science that is based on hard facts rooted in practical everyday knowledge. It was only when I started to appreciate the very process behind the meaning-making machinery that I seemed to have picked up a trail. It is now very clear to me that it doesn't matter what we do or do not do, doesn't matter what we have time for or do not have time for, the wholehearted presence is the ultimate magical delight of our existence. Life craves simplification and silence so that its various shades and colors can be felt viscerally and automatically. Paradoxically, to achieve the ever-simplifying embodied states, it is sometimes important to have the freedom to do otherwise.

The clients I'm best positioned to serve

I love to work with people who are drawn to the idea of self-observation. According to a rich variety of spiritual traditions, all major setbacks in life can be solved by a "particular" attitude towards these setbacks and the person experiencing them. As a long-time self-observer and a practitioner of different meditation practices, I love to help people get a practical knack for the link between an ability to self-observe and the feelings of "everything is ok with me". Nonjudgmental listening and cognitive-emotional empathy sure being the staple of my work, I pay lots of attention to ways by which my clients are willing to serve as their own observers. To whoever is interested, I offer in-person Rosen bodywork sessions (in Dharma College, Berkeley) - a great asset in learning to relax and attune to subtle layers of experience. The work of collaborative self-observation is extremely fun and creative. It touches many life-affirming attitudes and healing modalities and it creates circumstances, by which no matter what type of setbacks and difficulties you are experiencing, you can choose never to go back to the way you are currently conceptualizing your problems and your victories.

About Bella Lurie

Appointments

Virtual

My treatment methods

Humanistic

In my practice I 1. Treat clients as a whole, integrating mind, body, emotion, and spirit. 2. Believe that everyone has an innate drive toward growth, fulfillment, and reaching their full potential. 3. Encourage alignment between a person’s inner experiences and outer behavior. 4. Offer understanding and acceptance without judgement. 5. Emphasize present-moment experience over past traumas.

Somatic

I am a triple certified Realization Process Non-dual Awareness meditation teacher and a Rosen Bodywork practitioner accepting clients for manual psychotherapy sessions in Dharma College, Berkeley.

Child Parent Psychotherapy

I use a variety of approaches to heal and improve child-parent relationships (among them: play therapy, motivational interviewing, experiential psychotherapy and positive psychology).

Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)

Cognitive behavioral therapy focuses on challenging and identifying unhelpful thoughts, reduces avoidance behaviors, teaches coping skills and gradual exposure to feared situations.

Mindfulness-Based Therapy

I teach you to observe yourself so that your meditation practice can happen in your everyday life, on the go.