Sveta Rao (sway-tha rau, she/hers) received her Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Southern California.  As a queer, south Asian therapist, she is passionate about serving LGBQTIA+ people/couples of color and all ages with cultural humility and is drawn to depth work and the unique interplay of shame, attachment wounds, trauma, and grief while addressing anxiety, depression, or other mental health symptoms that negatively impact everyday life. Her approach is warm, curious, and empathetic and her work is identity affirming, sex-positive, and trauma-informed. She is allied to the sex worker, BDSM/Kink, Poly & ENM, and Health at Every Size (HAES) communities. She received training in Schema therapy and Emotionally Focused therapy and practices from an integrative approach that is tailored to each client’s unique needs.

With a passion for social justice, she originally pursued a career in law, working as a case manager serving the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles areas before returning to her passion of working interpersonally and relationally with people and mental health. Before graduate school, she held many positions such as the Asian Pacific Islander Queers (APIQ) secretary and social media chair. In this role, she created safe and confidential spaces and led workshops focusing on how our struggles as adults were shaped by our childhood and heavily influenced by the specific intersectionality of being first-generation, Asian-American, and queer people. This role influenced her presence as a therapist today: she hopes to provide a positive and supportive space for each individual and respect their unique experience by appropriately considering the socio-cultural context relevant to empowerment and healing through counseling. 

In her role at the LGBTQIA Resource Center as a Peer Educator, she presented workshops in non-queer-specific places, such as the freshman and transfer dorms, to educate new students on various social justice issues including gender, sexual orientation, consent, and privilege. These experiences have been extremely rewarding and have galvanized her focus on helping historically neglected populations that can benefit from a client-centered approach rooted in cultural humility and anti-racism.

In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her 3 cats or in nature, gardening, and cooking too much food to share with loved ones.

AMFT 147335