Find your way back home
in your body.
skilled holistic therapist in Lafayette and Walnut Creek, CA,
virtual in San Francisco Bay Area and across California & Pennsylvania
About David Wu, LCSW, SEP
I’m here to help you rediscover the sweetness of life.
I am a mindfulness and somatic-based therapist who focuses on the integration of mindfulness and embodiment practices for anxiety & depression, grief, and trauma resolution.
Often, folks who have been through marginalization and othering hold so much within ourselves.
You have overcome so much and you are skilled with others. The work you do, your family, community, and causes can precede, dominate, and even overwhelm your body, mind, and spirit. The space to feel, sense, acknowledge, fear, rage, and grieve - in the molecules of your body - can be dormant and unfamiliar. Or, they are sounding off with bells and whistles.
Perhaps you have been in talk therapy before and are looking for deeper solutions beyond immediate band-aids to challenges and problems. Or this may be the very first time reaching out for support just for you. Either way, our sessions can be a space where tenderness and ease grow and move in your body.
How I work:
At the core of my approach to therapy is a belief that:
You matter! Your body matters and needs tending and care.
I support folks who are activated or shut down, cycling in grief, trauma, anxiety, and depressive loops. Folks who are ready to belong - to be at home in their bodies, relationships, and communities. Folks ready to do the difficult work to love themselves & their bodies unconditionally and live in their authenticity bravely and gracefully.
Therapy with me is rooted in…
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This means sharing what has worked or not from my lived & clinical experience. We witness, illuminate, and integrate your strengths and truths shining through.
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My clinical practice parallels my daily personal practice: to do no harm, to protect life, to express energy wisely, to speak truth with kindness, and to refrain from consumptions that can cloud my presence & actions with you.
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The healing power of now. We tap into resources and awareness here, beyond simply reliving past pains & cycling in future worries. Discover and access new energies here!
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Meeting you where you are at. We collaborate and touch base about what works well and what can be even better. I provide a judgment-free space so you can freely explore your challenges and needs.
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Our work can shift from session to session - from immediate stressors to childhood struggles. I track across sessions for various layers of mendings to unfold with rhythm & space, generous presence & time.
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You are not alone. Some of the deepest connection, and at times most unfamiliar relating, occurs in the marrows of our families, ancestry, and lineage (bio and chosen). We can remember, relate & return to them.
About Me
Through my clinical training since 2006, I have had the privilege to learn, grow, grieve, and laugh with folks challenged with severe mental illness in community mental health. For over 7 years, I supported countless folks and their families confronted with death & dying in a hospice & palliative care non-profit.
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For over 20 years, I have been a student of Buddhism at the East Bay Meditation Center - a welcoming place that centers LGBTQ, BIPOC, folks with disabilities and other underrepresented communities for personal & interpersonal healing, inclusive community building, and social engagement. I have done extended retreats within the Theravāda Buddhist lineage at Spirit Rock Meditation Center and the Insight Meditation Society. Deep bows to my primary Buddhist teachers - Larry Yang, Mushim Ikeda, and Sean Feit Oakes.
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I was born in the tropics of Taiwan before immigrating as a child to the US. I - along with my family and ancestors - know the potential benefits in movement, as well as the harms from being othered, not belonging, not being seen or valued, which lead to powerlessness, isolation and fear.
Over 20 years ago I began caregiving for a loved one with severe mental illness. This brought me to therapy, somatic practices, and meditation for my own grieving and healing. Over time, this healing journey led me to become a therapist. I bring a deep pool of capacity and compassion to be with the emotional anguish & the existential pain that can manifest - in you, your loved ones, and your communities & systems.
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Nowadays, I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, in unceded Bay Miwok land, with my family and beloved community. My other daily love offerings are being a queer dad & a husband, a son & a sibling, and an engaged member & neighbor in my co-housing community. These deep interconnections are direct grounds to practice loving-kindness and care, belonging, and embodiment in myself, family, systems & communities, and ancestry.
All these aspects of my background inform my work as a therapist. I welcome all the varied aspects of your background to enter our work together - for composting and care, for honoring and belonging.
Now in my humble private practice, I weave secular mindfulness and somatic-based therapies with ancient Buddhist lineages and practices towards individual, familial, cultural, and collective healing.
My own healing journey informs my approaches to healing; the two are interconnected.
You have your own lived experiences with individual, familial, systemic, intergenerational, and ancestral stressors & traumas…. and healings too.
This is your soil for tending & healing.
Specializing in…
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My Training & Education
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BA, Psychology & American Studies - Tufts University
MSW, Masters in Social Welfare - UC Berkeley
CA - LCSW # 77882
PA - CW# 024102
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Certified as Somatic Experiencing Practitioner (SEP)
Certified in Palliative & End-of-Life Care
Certified in Family & Systemic Constellations
Completed Practice in Transformative Action (PiTA) mindfulness training program for social activists at East Bay Meditation Center
Graduated from Commit2Dharma (C2D), year-long Buddhist study and practice program at East Bay Meditation Center
Get in touch