Welcome to Mah e Azizam Somatics! I’m Roya, a WA Licensed Mental Health Counselor Associate (LMHCA) #MC61673106 and CA Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (AMFT) #159388.

With over two decades of experience in somatic practice, bodywork, arts & crafts, and ecological ritual, my work lives at the intersection of the personal and the ancestral, grounded in the understanding that when we strengthen our relationships with our own lineages, we gain the support to address and heal from the events that severed so many of our connections to the traditions and wisdom our ancestors carried.

Mah e Azizam translates to “my dear moon” in Farsi. My healing lineages include a moon reverence lineage of my ancestors from both Iran and Hungary, and this honoring of the moon is what centers her work. With over two decades of experience in somatic practice, bodywork, arts & crafts, and ecological ritual, my work lives at the intersection of the personal and the ancestral — grounded in the understanding that when we strengthen our relationships with our own lineages, we gain the support to address and heal from the events that severed so many of our connections to the traditions and wisdom our ancestors carried.

I am a lifelong lover of the moon and initiated stick and voice diviner in the Dagara tradition of Burkina Faso. I practice divination, ritual, and ancestral connection both in the Dagara tradition and in a moon reverence tradition of my grandmothers from both Hungary and Iran. I tend to relationships with our tree friends and other nature allies, and work with various stars that allow my ancestors to come closer for support and connection. I have two dogs that are the most wonderful beings and enjoy reading, baking, spending time in nature, and sitting at the ocean singing to the whales.

I received my Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology with a Somatic Specialization from the California Institute of Integral Studies. Prior to becoming a clinician, I practiced therapeutic bodywork in Santa Fe, NM, studying approaches to healing trauma through the body with training in Ortho-Bionomy®, Shifting Consciousness through Dimensions®, and massage therapy. All of my work stems from relational healing methods. My approach looks through the lens of our relationships not only with one another as humans, but with land, ancestors, animal friends, and the wider spectrum of life. I have continued my learning by studying Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy, Somatic Practice and Ecology mentorship, Community Herbalism, and various embodiment and ritual practices.

Ritual is simple and comforting and sane. Ritual connects us to a wild love that refills our well, offering gratitude and gifts to nature and spirit, of which we are an integral part. We all deserve to feel this type of love. This work is one means of healing and strengthening the connections between humans and our individual and collective ancestors, the beings of the land, water, and cosmos, and the spirit of our Earth. We each have the gift and the opportunity to heal our lineages and to learn our magic. We can transform generational trauma and embrace the resilience that we inherited from thousands of years of ancestral strength.