Victoria Venturella, MA, LMHC, Adjunct Professor of Psychology and Philosophy at Seattle University
Washington State Department of Health License Number: LH61112035
First, let’s take a moment to acknowledge your courage for exploring the idea of coming to therapy, as well as taking the time to find a therapist that best suits your needs. There must be something you’ve noticed within yourself, relationships, and life that has led you to this page.
Coming to therapy means that you are dedicated and committed to understanding yourself deeply. It means that you are willing to question your own truths, give meaning to your experiences, and develop greater heights of self-awareness.
My role as your therapist is to lead you to yourself. In this I help bring attention to what is already within you. Together we co-create space for discovery and understanding as we unravel the matter at hand; uncovering deeper meanings, developing a greater focus for both your future and present moment. This process leads to transformative growth, change, and a heightened level of awareness both for yourself and the world around you.
Understanding oneself comes as a process. I stand beside you as we explore all aspects of what has brought you here. You can’t move from one place to another without experiencing the distance between there and here. No matter how much we try to escape where we are, we are always still here. As we age, we unconsciously and consciously carve out space for what cannot escape the spotlight. We become more aware of what needs our attention.
We all have a story that forms from our departures and arrivals. Each pivot serving as a meaningful part in our lived narrative. The choices we take in any given circumstance change the course we take in our life’s work. Every experience we have informs our future and leads us to this present moment. Your future is full of infinite possibilities.
Victoria grew up in New York City with a single mother. She knows first-hand what it takes to strive beyond the cards that you have been dealt. She moved around a lot as a child causing her to attend a multitude of schools during her primary and secondary educational years. Victoria put herself through college working in the restaurant industry for fifteen years. During her undergraduate work she volunteered at a Youth Runaway Hotline in Texas, helping teenagers combat conflict in familial relationships, reduce tension in their homes, and find refuge through advocacy. After graduating with her undergraduate degree, Victoria worked for the Texas Department of Family Protective services helping the people of Texas report abuse, neglect, and exploitation of children, adults, and elderly.
Victoria first started college dabbling in photography, then majoring in English while emphasizing in creative writing with a minor in psychology. After taking her first philosophy course in ethics she re-positioned her path after hearing her professor recite the words of influential French Existential philosopher Simone de Beauvoir, “[T]o will oneself free is also to will others free” (Ethics of Ambiguity, 1948). It was in this moment something within her shifted. She was drawn toward finding deeper meaning within our existence and the nuances found within the complexities of being human. Finishing her undergraduate work with a double major in both philosophy and psychology. She then continued her graduate studies at Seattle University in Existential- Phenomenological Psychology, where she earned a Master of Arts in Psychology and currently teaches undergraduate Psychology and Philosophy as an Adjunct Professor.
Victoria’s life experiences allow her to connect with those who have experienced a significant amount of adversity in their lives.
A little about me
I am lover of animals, literature, poetry, and philosophy. I find restoration in music, dancing, friends, yoga, reading, writing, and tending to my indoor garden. My favorite philosophers are Simone de Beauvoir, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Maurice Blanchot, and Hans-Georg Gadamer. My Therapeutic approach is influenced by (but not limited to) the works of Rollo May, Irvin Yalom, Donnel B. Stern, Eugene T. Gendlin, Viktor E. Frankl, and Daniel Siegel. I also love exploring creativity, the creative process, and the relationship creativity has with the human being.
“. . .whatever one does, naturally, one is alive, but there is more than one way of unifying the moments in time through which one passes: by subordinating them to some specific action, for instance, or projecting them into a work of art. My own particular enterprise was the development of my life, which I believed lay in my own hands.”
-Simone de Beauvoir, The Prime of Life
We all have the ability to rise out of where we have found ourselves.
Education
- Seattle University, Seattle, WA: Master of Arts in Psychology, 2018
- Texas State University, San Marcos, TX: Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, 2015
- Texas State University, San Marcos, TX: Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy, 2015
Additional Clinical & Advanced Training
- Trauma Research Foundation’s Certificate Program in Traumatic Stress Studies, Dr. Bessel van der Kolk and 25 of today’s leading trauma experts, 2024
- An Experiential Understanding of Forgiveness for Psychology and Everyday Life: exploring the nature of forgiveness as a discovery rather than an action, with implications for psychotherapy and everyday relations, Steen Halling, PhD. Licensed clinical psychologist and professor of emeritus at Seattle University, 2023
- Healing the Wounds of Trauma with Gabor Maté, MD, 2022
- Psychology for the Other Conference: Transcendence and La Petite Bonte: Miracles of Mercy in Therapy and Everyday Life, 2022
- 8 Common Myths of Writer’s Block and Antidotes, with Linda Barnes MS, CJT, CAPF, 2022
- Working with Clients who Struggle with an Inner Critic, Rick Hanson, PHD, Terry Real, MSW, LICSW, Ruth Buczynski, PHD, Pat Ogden, PhD, Ron Siegel, PsyD, Dan Siegel, MD, 2021
- Therapy for Gifted Clients, Dr. Grace Malonai, 2021
- Working with the Pain of Abandonment, Dan Siegel, MD, Peter Levine, PHD, Resmaa Menakem, MSW, LICSW, Bessel van der Kolk, MD, 2021
- Phenomenology of Healing with Psychedelics: Presented by Thomas C. Swift, MA, AMFT and Leland Guthrie, MA, 2020
- Dr. Ira Progoff’s Intensive Journal Method Workshop: with Deborah Ross, M.A., LPC, CJT, 2020
- The Experience of Envy: With Steen Halling, PhD., Professor Emeritus, 2019
- Social Media Ethics for Mental Health Professionals, 2019
- Professional Ethics in Mental Health Counseling, 2019
- Suicide Prevention, Assessment, and Intervention, 2019
- Emotionally Focused Therapy: With Susan Johnson, PhD, 2019
- Mindfulness, Healing, and Transformation: With Jon Kabat-Zinn PhD, 2019
- Irvin Yalom and The Art of Psychotherapy, 2019
- Pongo Poetry Project, Pongo Writing Methodology Training, 2018
- Gottman Level One Training, 2018
- Advanced Focusing Oriented Therapy 2, 2017
- Advanced Focusing Oriented Therapy 1, 2017
- Grief- Valley Cities, 2017
- Motivational Interviewing, Valley Cities, 2017
