Ana Rosa Najera
Hi, I’m Ana Rosa.
I’m a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) and I’ve helped families, couples, students, and individuals increase their resilience to stress for over 18 years.
I’m a certified facilitator of The Resilience Toolkit, developed by Lumos Transforms. This toolkit teaches ways of using mindfulness, meditation and the “therapeutic tremor” to reduce stress and increase resilience over time.
I am a certified provider of Tension & Trauma Release Exercises (TRE). These exercises teach you how to release deep muscular patterns of stress in the body.
I am also a Green Belt Nia Instructor. Nia is a holistic fitness practice that’s part dance, part mindfulness and part martial arts, designed to engage the senses and enliven the mind, body and soul.
I’m bilingual in Spanish and English, with roots in Colombia. I bring a multi-cultural sensitivity and awareness of social justice issues into my work, and especially love working with cross-cultural families.
I believe that the best gift I can give to anyone is the ability to self-heal. My mission is to empower my clients with the tools they need to meet life’s challenges with more ease and calm.
My Holistic Philosophy
I believe that healing begins with the mind-body connection. I help my clients shift their entire relationship to the world by changing their relationship to the stress response in the body.
Somatic resilience therapy means learning what feels good and what doesn’t, when you’re stressed and when you’re not, and how to choose new reactions in moments of physical stress. We start by bringing awareness to our physical bodies in order to connect to the mental, emotional and spiritual parts of ourselves that need healing.
This practice over time can actually rewire your brain for more joy and less tension. I find that this practice is great for anyone who is just starting their deep work, as well as for people who have tried therapy in the past. Somatic resilience therapy adds a whole other layer to traditional talk therapy by providing actionable tools to create new neural pathways in the brain. In other words, by changing your physical reactions, you can literally create a “new you.”
Just like anything, with practice, you can master living a life of peace and ease.
This work is available to anyone, and I believe every body deserves freedom and ease.
My Story
I was always a natural helper, and I found myself drawn to the healing fields early in life. I earned my undergraduate degree in social science from UC Irvine and my master’s degree in social work from Boston University. My desire to love and support others through difficult times led me to some amazing global volunteer opportunities, such as serving disabled adults in Lyon, France, and caring for HIV positive orphans in Tanzania.
As an LCSW, my career in social work focused on guiding families with young children through transitions and trauma. Whether my clients’ needs centered on developmental delays, the challenges of the foster care system, abuse, or neglect, I found that the ability to self-heal was the best gift I could give anyone struggling to meet life’s challenges.
Personally, I experienced the healing benefits of dance, and this inspired me to become a certified Nia instructor—teaching people how to use movement to enhance overall well-being. A few years ago, my workplace introduced TRE (Tension, Stress and Trauma Release) to help social workers minimize vicarious trauma. This new modality of somatic healing was so transformational for me that I became a certified provider so I could teach people how to release muscular tension and calm their nervous system. Shortly after that, I became a certified provider of the Resilience Toolkit, which offers additional somatic tools to de-stress and build a foundation of personal resilience.
After over 15 years of working in social services, I am so gratified to have found these somatic healing practices to deepen my practice. I bring all of these modalities together to help my clients reduce stress and return home to their bodies. Self Integration Guidance is the culmination of these many years of work, and I cherish the opportunity to offer my full gifts as a healer.
Professional Specialties
Certifications & Specializations
Parents Anonymous Parent Group Leadership certificate - Claremont, CA
Parents as Teachers Home Visitation Program - St. Louis, Missouri
The Fatherhood Program (Children’s Institute International) - Los Angeles, CA
Certified Nia Instructor - Los Angeles, CA
Certified TRE® Provider - Los Angeles, CA
Certified “The Resilience Toolkit” Provider - Los Angeles, CA
Cultural Attunement & Languages
Multilingual in English, Spanish, & Italian. Worked with diverse populations within both rural and urban environments including children, adolescents and adult age groups in Africa, France, and South Los Angeles. Studied abroad at University of Padua, Italy.