Meet Lara Clayman—Therapist at Best Therapists

Lara Clayman, Licensed Clinical Social Worker, has her Master’s in Social Work from the University of Michigan. Lara moved to the Bay Area to pursue a career in community organizing with BIPOC youth. Her career took an unexpected turn when the teens began to talk to her about their mental health struggles. It was then that Lara understood the transformative power of deep listening. Lara sought to deepen her clinical skills through post-graduate training at The Psychotherapy Institute in Berkeley, CA. Lara then shifted her focus to early childhood trauma and began working as a child-parent psychotherapist with survivors of domestic violence. Lara has experience working with a variety of mental health concerns including anxiety, trauma, depression, grief, relationship issues, separation and divorce, chronic illness, and life transitions–essentially the stuff of life! Today Lara is a relational, psychodynamic psychotherapist based in Oakland. She comes from a mixed cultural and religious background, is a parent and an environmental justice activist. She specializes in providing online therapy to multiracial and first-generation adults struggling with overwhelm. She helps stressed out, overworked and over worrying adults navigate the emotional roller coaster ride of life and find hope for the future.

As a first-gen adult, you feel so alone. You’ve done everything that was expected of you and still feel your parents’ love is conditional and that you’re failing. You get so triggered by even small things, and can’t figure out how to manage your intense emotions. You worry about your parents aging and this is stirring up feelings from childhood. You don’t feel that your partner, friends nor your parents really understand you. Within your family(of origin) and in the world, you are never quite sure of where you fit. You’re either too much (fill in the blank) or not enough (fill in the blank). At times you feel you have to defend your existence while not fully understanding your own multiracial identity. As a therapist in Oakland, I help first-generation clients who are exhausted from marginalization and feeling torn between multiple heritages get relief from the emotional toll that fighting for self-preservation and self-protection has taken on them. You don’t have to choose sides when it comes to your identities. All of you is welcome into sessions with me. We’ll meet weekly for 50-minutes to find a way forward through your suffering. Together, we’ll grow curious about what your emotions are telling us and what you are needing. We may revisit your childhood and adolescence to inform the challenges you’re having in the here and now. If you are ready to begin healing and find relief from the stress, anxiety and depression you feel in the present, call me.

Masters of Social Work | University of Michigan 2004