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Meet Bianca

 

imageBianca is a registered associate marriage and family therapist, equine-assisted somatic trauma therapist, integrative health and well-being educator, healing sound practitioner, a certified Hatha yoga instructor, and was attuned to Shambala Reiki Master level in 2010 and Usui Reiki Master Teacher in 2019. Her energy healing practice expanded as she learned about sound healing with crystal bowls, tuning forks, and Tibetan gongs, and soon she was incorporating Crystal Tones Alchemy sound healing bowls into the meditation, yoga, and mindfulness-based stress reduction classes she taught. Bianca is also a practitioner of Somatic Experiencing, a trauma resolution method developed by Dr. Peter Levine and taught through the Somatic Experiencing International Trauma Institute, where Bianca assists in Dr. Abi Blakeslee’s (PhD, MFT, SEP) and Debra Clydesdale’s (LAC, DNBAO, SEP, CMT, CDS) international trainings and is an approved SE session provider. Bianca has led classes in hospitals, wellness centers, corporate workplaces, schools, yoga studios, and to her own private clientele since 2009, and in 2014 created Be Integrative Wellness, an integrative health and well-being therapeutic practice that brings together the physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual modalities for a “whole person” healing. In 2015, Bianca served as a yoga instructor for the YEAH study conducted at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine and Recreation department, an evidence-based and clinically informed longitudinal study on how yoga reduces inflammation and increases well-being. The study resulted in significant data evidencing the healing practices of hatha yoga and how it reduces anxiety and depression in women.

After a big move to Sun Valley, Bianca’s life experienced a pause wherein she underwent three major surgeries and was subsequently guided to take two to three years off to heal. During this time, she followed her heart and began her certification with PATH, The Professional Association of Therapeutic Horsemanship at Swiftsure Therapeutic Ranch in Idaho. This was a natural evolution from her start as a nationally recognized equestrian and competitor turned into an adulthood passion of partnering with horses to help people heal and enjoy life. She also laid the groundwork to attend graduate school after she recuperated. Having previously earned her BS in Allied Health in Executive Healthcare Leadership and Health Promotion 2013 and a BFA in Communications and Fine Arts 2004, in 2018 Bianca enrolled in and started the Community Mental Health Master’s Degree program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco and interned as the mental health therapist with the Blaine County School District in Idaho for her practicum in 2019-2020.

While Bianca was working toward her graduate degree, she partnered with NAMI (National Alliance of Mental Illness) and Swiftsure Ranch to pioneer NAMI’s first mental health equine-assisted therapeutic programs for children and families seeking mental health support. The in-person equine assisted mental health interventions, she observed significant equine assisted healing experiences, and began citing the clinical data she observed facilitating groups with NAMI and Swiftsure Therapeutic Ranch community mental health programs. This data allowed Bianca to populate original and evidence-based content for her graduate thesis titled, “How Equine Assisted Therapies Heal Attachment Ruptures.”

She graduated with her Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology in Community Mental Health in December of 2020. Bianca is a Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist who has worked as a school-based therapist and early childhood mental health consultant for Calm (Child Abuse Listening Mediation) and as a therapist specializing in co-occurring mental health and addiction for Casa Serena Treatment Programs for Women.

Bianca strives to allow for everyone to receive the healing they need with no barriers, stigmas, judgement, or other impediments to health and wellbeing. Sliding scales are available and group space may be reserved exclusively for people of color and LGBTQ+ upon request.