About Yassi Keshavarz, LCSW

Yassi Keshavarz, LCSW, is a trauma therapist who believes healing is not only about surviving the past, it is about reclaiming joy, connection, and a sense of aliveness in the body. Her work is grounded in the understanding that trauma is both personal and collective, and that meaningful healing must also recognize the larger forces, such as political, cultural, and structural that shape people’s lives.

Originally from Iran, Yassi grew up as a member of a religious minority, which exposed her to fear, restriction, and systemic discrimination from an early age. She immigrated to the United States in 2011 and carries with her a deep, lived understanding of displacement, identity, and cultural transition. Early in her career, she worked with unaccompanied refugee youth, an experience that profoundly shaped her clinical lens. Their courage and resilience inspired her commitment to supporting refugees, immigrants, and survivors of complex trauma in reclaiming safety, dignity, and meaning.

Yassi specializes in Complex PTSD, dissociation, structural dissociation, and trauma related to chronic illness and medical experiences. Her style is integrative and deeply body-oriented, blending EMDR, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Ego State Therapy, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and the framework of structural dissociation. She helps clients access deeper layers of healing—beyond symptom management—by working with mind, body, nervous system, and the internal parts that carry pain, protection, and wisdom.

In addition to trauma survivors, Yassi works closely with professionals and high-functioning adults—including medical providers, therapists, engineers, educators, leaders, and caregivers—who give deeply to others yet quietly run on empty. Many of these clients are seen by the outside world as capable, dependable, and strong—the ones who “hold everything together.” But internally, they may live with exhaustion that never fully lifts, perfectionism that never rests, pressure to always perform, or a quiet belief that rest has to be earned. Yassi creates a space where even the most intellectual and high-achieving parts can soften, be understood, and finally exhale.

Movement, music, and dance—especially Kurdish, Turkish, and Persian rhythms—also play a meaningful role in her work. She believes the body often knows how to express and release what words cannot touch, and that rhythm can open new pathways toward regulation, grounding, and emotional integration.

Yassi is licensed in both California and Utah and practices in Sacramento, where she lives with her husband and two children. Outside her professional life, she enjoys reading, singing, dancing, and spending time in nature with loved ones.

At the core of Yassi’s work is a warm, nonjudgmental space where every part of a person is welcome—from the strongest protector to the most vulnerable exile. She walks alongside clients at their pace, helping them move toward healing, clarity, and a life that feels more rooted, empowered, and alive.