Javonna Arriaga(She/Her/Hers)

As your therapist, I hope to provide a space for ALL of you, your joy, pain, fear, courage, and compassion. I began my love of therapy first as a client working through my own lived traumas. I spent a lot of time with therapists who didn’t look or have experiences like me. I found relief, but I never felt the depth I needed to truly heal. This inspired me to become a therapist.

The world we live in now is overwhelming at times, with an overload of information, divisive news outlets, and all of that on top of the daily ins and outs of just living as a human. Identity is more complicated than it has felt before and it is getting harder for us to connect with one another. I am passionate about working alongside my clients and finding a way to reconnect with themselves and their community.

Through my own healing work and my Master of Science in Couples and Family Therapy at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, FL, I have realized that so many of our struggles originate with the expectations of society, our families, and the stories that we believe about ourselves. Identifying how this shows up for you is an important part of the process as well as deciding what stories you want to believe about yourself. We work together on making the choices you want for the change in you and your families lives.

I use Solution-Focused, Narrative, Bowen Family System and Trauma-Informed models in my healing work with a focus on Decolonial and Indigenous frameworks. I am Afro-Peruvian, European, Panamanian and I was born in the US. I am from the Inca and Moche peoples. I have lived experiences with the immigration, prison, foster care, correctional, mental health, and education systems.