Francisca Lizana, MA LMFT
Bilingual Psychotherapist | Expressive Arts Therapy | Consultant | Trainer | Facilitator
Professional Services
My services range from psychotherapy sessions to facilitating Expressive Arts groups.
I provide clinical trainings, talks, experientials and consultation.
For my peers and new therapists setting up private practice or therapy/counseling rooms in schools and/or agencies, I offer consultation on setting up beautiful and conducive therapeutic spaces.
Blooming Hearts Therapy Services for Adults, Adolescents, and Children
Half of my practice is dedicated to working with adults and the other half I support children. My psychotherapy practice stands on a mix of humanistic approaches (Person-Centered, Narrative Therapy, Solution-Focused, and Gestalt therapy approaches), CBT, and Expressive Arts therapy methods. My foundation and long-standing area of focus is emotional literacy development. I incorporate social-emotional learning opportunities through the arts in my work with children in a gentle, interactive and playful way. In my work with adults, I prefer to offer opportunities to co-create our experience, inviting natural interactive flow whether we use or not the arts. Entering the creative process through expressive arts is always a choice. I believe the more we get to know and understand our feelings and emotions, the better equipped we are to deal successfully with life's ebb and flows, offering us more opportunities to feel happier, confident, inspired, and satisfied.
​
Please note: During these challenging times of the COVID-19 Health crisis, I offer teletherapy sessions (video or phone) as well as a limited number of socially distant outdoor sessions.
​
If you are interested, I offer a 20-minute phone call free of charge to see if I can be of help and/or a good fit. Click here for contact details
I offer individual, dyad, family, and group sessions based upon the therapeutic need.
My most common areas of treatment:
​
Adults: Life transitions, women's issues, relocation/acculturation, relational challenges, self-esteem/empowerment, anxiety, depression, and trauma.
​
Children and Adolescents: Anxiety, depression, social-emotional skills, emotional literacy development, relational issues, behavior challenges, impulse control, ADHD symptom management, anger management, parent-child relationship, and trauma amongst others.
​
Parents: Parenting and co-parenting problem-solving, relational and behavioral challenges, connection, and communication challenges.
My therapy services include when appropriate; psychosocial assessment for adults and children (psychometric measures, clinical interviewing and collateral contacts), treatment, consultation, immigration evaluations (bilingual assessment), parent-child reunification (court-mandated or voluntary), parenting and co-parenting support, and referrals to other relevant services.
Community
Supporting our community is important to me and since the beginning of my professional endeavors, I have been involved with local communities providing advocacy, mentoring, counseling, training and therapy. I combine my private practice and community services. Part of my private practice is dedicated to supporting those who are underrepresented by offering access and support to quality services pro bono or low fees.
I have provided services to victims and witnesses of violent crimes through the California Victim Compensation Program (CalVCP) and performed psychosocial and immigration evaluations and assessments in Spanish and English.
​
I am a group facilitator for Latino LGBT asylum seekers and refugees as part of OLAS, a project of the East Bay Sanctuary Covenant.
I offered for 2 years a monthly Expressive Arts group for women at the Women Cancer Resource Center in Berkeley.
Training small and large groups
Teaching, training and facilitating workshops are very enjoyable to me. I offer a variety of training topics. At the center of my heart is emotional literacy, social-emotional learning and emotional problem-solving through the expressive arts.
I am also passionate about teaching and promoting the importance of setting the therapeutic space to be conducive to a rich therapy experience. I offer consultation to improve therapy offices and counseling rooms at school and community settings. ​
​
I have provided training for mental health agencies as well as parenting groups and theme-specific training opportunities for community members.
Expressive Arts Workshop at Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico
Expressive arts at community organization
At International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA) Conference, Lima Peru.
Expressive Arts Group Facilitation​
I have extensive experience facilitating small to large therapeutic groups in a variety of formats using the arts. I enjoy group work whether is continued work or a one-off. I currently facilitate an expressive arts monthly group at Women Cancer Resource Center, in Berkeley and I am a facilitator for OLAS-Sanctuary's group retreats.
I offer small intimate expressive arts groups at my office throughout the year.
Expressive Arts retreat for refugee women, Santiago, Chile
Tree of Life activity with elementary school Children
Tree of Life, Universidad de Guadalajara, Mexico
Expressive Arts retreat for refugee women, Santiago, Chile
Therapeutic Space Set-up Consultation
I believe that how we set up our offices, class or counseling rooms or any space that hosts therapeutic services, has a direct impact on the experience of therapy.
Since 2004, I have had many opportunities to set up counseling rooms and therapy offices, in the community and private settings. I specialized in setting up space to work with children that is warm and welcoming, age-appropriate and inviting and most importantly, fully equipped to provide a rich therapy experience.
If you have a therapeutic space that has untapped potential or feels tired or inefficient, please contact me for a consultation.