About

As a mental health specialist with over twenty years of experience, Dr. Celestial she is committed to helping high-achieving women of color nurture healthier relationships with themselves, their families, and their communities, and the Earth. Her work focuses on healing trauma holistically–body, mind, and spirit. Dr. Celestial believes in our innate power to recover from distress and to embody joy and love. She is a gifted healer, bearing witness with intuitively-guided compassion to her clients’ transforming and becoming.

My Journey

My ancestors and family come from the land and the sea of San Remigio, Cebu, Philippines (maternal) and from the land of revolutionaries, Cavite, Philippines (paternal).

I identify as a second-generation, straight, cisgender Filipina American woman. I was born on Chamoru land, Guåhan (Guam) and migrated with my family to Miwok land in Northern California. I offer Shuumi Land Tax to support the rematriation of land.

I was raised in a working to middle-class, Catholic family where I was immersed in collectivistic cultural traditions and the healing arts. I carry privileges of light brown skin tone, class status, education, U.S. citizenship, English language ability, and religion. As a first generation U.S. college student, I attended the University of California–Berkeley. My diverse coursework (e.g., Asian American Studies, Sociology, Third World Development Studies, etc.) and student artivism in Pilipinx American, social justice, and faith-based organizations crystallized my desire to make systemic change in the world. During this time, I began transforming my own lived experiences with ancestral and personal trauma and affirmed my spiritual calling as a healer.

I feel most at home and alive near the Pacific Ocean with my loved ones including my partner/husband, spirited young child, my elders, and my birth and chosen siblings/kapatid. I love dancing, yoga, and tending to plants.

I am a Psychologist.

Ph.D. Commencement Ceremony with Dissertation Committee Member & Mentor, Dr. Stanley Sue.

I earned my Doctorate in Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Clinical Psychology at Palo Alto University with emphases in Clinical Neuropsychology and in Meditation and Psychology. As a doctoral student, I was awarded the Minority Fellowship by the American Psychological Association for my commitment to ethnic and racial minority behavioral health. With pride and humility, I completed my doctoral internship at the Veterans Affairs Pacific Islands Healthcare System, serving Hawai’i and Micronesia. I culminated my postdoctoral training at Kaiser Permanente Psychiatry in Vallejo, California. At Kaiser, I helped establish & innovated new programs with the Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity component of the Northern California Mental Health Training Program, aimed at hiring, retaining, and advancing women, BIPOC, folks with disabilities, veterans, and LBGTQ community members.

Working in integrated health care settings, where mental and physical health are addressed together, I saw firsthand how adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and other trauma can become stored in the mind and body. “Toxic stress” can affect our emotional and physical health from childhood to adulthood. My background in guiding clients to transform painful experiences strengthened my conviction that healing is possible and can liberate us from personal, ancestral, and intergenerational trauma. As a culturally-rooted therapist, I also help my clients re-member the survivance, resilience, and wisdom of themselves and their peoples. Love and joy are our birthright.

In Fall 2022, I joined the Sweet Mango Therapy Group, a collective of therapists dedicated to culturally responsive and empathic care for women of color. Please reach out if you are interested in therapy services for adults.

I believe that we have the power and responsibility to use our voices to make systemic changes on the side of justice. As a mental health and wellness advocate, I, along with my colleagues, work to decolonize mental health. Together, we reclaim and draw from indigenous and cultural practices and innovate interventions that make holistic health relevant and accessible to Filipinas/os/xes and BIPOC communities.

Join Our Movement: FMHI-SF, FMHI-Napa/Solano, AAPA Division on Filipinx Americans

I am an Advocate.

Dr. Celestial with her workshop attendees at Pinayista Summit 2022. Photo Credit: Khariza Rae

I am an Embodied Liberation Practitioner.

Our brains, bodies, and nervous systems are wondrously wired for survival. As such, we have amazing capacities to adapt and accommodate for stress and trauma. Being a survivor of childhood and adult trauma myself has taught me a lot about the wisdom of trauma–how we inherently strive to keep ourselves safe. At the same time, healing and rehabilitating from life challenges taught me the importance of and power in metabolizing stress and trauma. Through my own therapy and self-discovery, I learned to shift unhelpful thoughts and beliefs and continue to practice letting go of survival strategies that no longer serve me. As a somatic praxitioner (praxis + clinical practice), I tune into thoughts, emotions, and intuitive inklings that arise in myself and my clients; these are gifts and tools we can use to explore our inner lives and heal.

Different types of oppression (institutional, interpersonal, and internalized) can affect our minds, bodies, and spirits. Liberation psychology is about freeing ourselves from the grip of oppression and using our power and privilege to make change in the world around us. Integrating evidence-based, somatic, and decolonial approaches, I help clients heal holistically from the effects of oppression.

I am… a daughter/anak, sister/kapatid, friend/kaibigan, mother/nanay, partner/asawa, beloved child of God, kapwa-tao/fellow human. Let’s breathe. Move. Heal towards Radical Holistic Wellness in Ourselves and with Our Communities.