MEET tessa vita

After a decade spent building strategy and power within the progressive movement as a political and community organizer, Tessa transitioned into the world of Depth Psychotherapy. Her clinical and research practice bridges liberatory frameworks, psychedelic consciousness, and somatic wisdom.

Beyond her private practice,Tessa serves as a community organizer, convener, and facilitator with organizations like the Global Psychedelic Society and others, working to deepen human-to-human connection across lines of difference across the psychedelic ecosystem. 

As a seasoned leader, she has navigated complex ethical challenges—leading response-planning and decision‑making when community members and senior practitioners breached professional boundaries in various training and social communities, while championing accountability, safety, and integrity in therapeutic and community spaces.

Academic Background:

PhD, Psychedelic Studies (in progress)
Ubiquity University

Certificate of Completion in Psychedelic Therapy Training (1,400 hour training) (2025)
AWE Foundation

M.A., Counseling Psychology, emphasis in Depth Psychology (2021)
Pacifica Graduate Institute
Thesis: White Power and Innocence: The Dissociative Defense Structure as Archetypal Expression of White Supremacy

B.A., Global Studies and Social Movements (2012)
LIU Global
Thesis: Expanding our Definition of Peace to Expand our Capacity for Peacebuilding: An Exploration Through the Lens of Cameroon

Select Additional Training History

  • Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy Externship — S FEFT (2022)

  • Brainspotting Phase One — Pacific Counseling and Trauma Center (2022)

  • Institute for the Advancement of Psychotherapy Summer Intensive (2021)

    •  Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy (EFT) Training

    • Integrative Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

    • Evolving Structural-Strategic Family Therapy

  • From Trauma to Dharma Level 1 — Hakomi Institute of California (2020)

  • A Lifetime in Quarantine — BIPOC Led and Centered Somatic Experiencing Skills for Nervous System Regulations (2020) 

  • Politicized Naturalized Co-Counseling (2018)

  • Psychedelic Support Training with Annie Oak (2017)

  • Interchange Counseling Institute (2016, 2017)

  • Zendo Psychedelic Harm Reduction Training (2016)

  • UnTraining White Liberal Racism, Level 1 (2015) 

  • Dismantling Racism in Our Communities: Building Collaboration for Resilience-- Catalyst Project & Affiliates (2014)

  • Bend the Arc — Community Organizing Residency (2013)

  • Reiki Level 1 (2009)