Makando Mutanda, LCSW, MPH
Integrative Mind-Body Therapist
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with graduate degrees in social work and public health from the University of Southern California.
I am a Certified Sex Therapist, trained through the California Institute of Integral Studies, where my work was shaped by relational, trauma-informed, and culturally responsive approaches to sexuality and intimacy.
My yoga training includes a 200-hour teacher training at The Tree Yoga Cooperative, where the emphasis was on inclusive practice, embodied awareness, and socially conscious approaches to yoga. I also completed an additional 300 hours of therapeutic yoga training through YogaX, with a focus on applying yoga in clinical and healthcare settings. This training integrates mind–body awareness, neuroscience-informed practices, and an understanding of psychological and relational context.
Who This Work Is For
I work with individuals and couples who feel they have been carrying more than they can hold on their own. This may show up in relationships, work, family life, or internally. Some people arrive feeling worn down, while others sense that something needs care or attention.
I support concerns such as anxiety, depression, stress, grief, and loss, along with the ways difficult experiences shape daily life and relationships. This process often includes making space for the impact of trauma and the weight many people carry, particularly in demanding personal or professional roles.
This approach also supports those navigating intimacy and sexual wellbeing, questions of identity and belonging, and periods of transition.
About Me
I am a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, Certified Sex Therapist, and Yoga Therapist, and the founder of Sela. I created this practice to offer accessible and inclusive mental health care that centers the whole person emotionally, cognitively, spiritually, and physically. I am deeply interested in how people carry their experiences, how meaning emerges over time, and how thoughtful care can support clarity, connection, and a greater sense of ease.
When I think about mental and emotional well-being, I do not imagine something fixed or static. I experience it as living and responsive, influenced by time, environment, and experience. At times, it feels like a garden, where care and patience allow growth to unfold. At other moments, it feels like the sea, moving in cycles, with periods of calm followed by intensity. Both are meaningful and a natural part of being human.
My relationship to this work has grown through both clinical training and personal experience. Early in my career, I believed self-awareness was enough. It was through working closely with people navigating trauma, grief, and profound loss that I began to see how bearing witness changes the way we engage with the world. I entered this field with purpose and a strong sense of calling. Over time, I learned that doing this work well required staying connected to my own internal process.
I learned to notice what this work stirred in me and how ongoing exposure to suffering left its mark. I also learned the importance of making room for my own emotional and embodied responses. This was not about stepping away from the work, but about remaining present without becoming depleted or disconnected from my own life. The practices I developed continue to guide how I show up with empathy and humility.
My personal history informs how I work with people and how I attend to cultural, relational, and social context in therapy. I was born in Kitwe, Zambia, and moved to the United States as a first-generation immigrant. Living between cultures deepened my sense of belonging and identity and taught me what it can feel like to hold multiple truths at once. These experiences taught me to listen, particularly to what remains unspoken, and how I approach each person’s story with cultural sensitivity.
At the heart of my work is the belief that living well should not be a privilege, but something everyone deserves access to. Emotional distress is not a personal failure. It is often a natural response to prolonged strain related to loss, migration-related stress, caregiving, or structural systems that place ongoing demands on our lives. While the sources of pain may differ, no one is meant to carry this alone.
This belief guides how I work with clients. My therapeutic approach is integrative and trauma-informed, grounded in the view that people carry inner wisdom and a capacity for growth, even during difficult seasons. Rather than seeing people as broken or in need of fixing, we process how emotional patterns, stress responses, and relational experiences have taken form over time.
In our work together, we attend to what the mind holds and what the body remembers. I draw from somatic practices, attachment-based and cognitive therapies, and trauma-focused approaches. I also integrate yoga-based therapeutic practices when they feel supportive, because healing does not happen through insight alone. It unfolds through felt experience, through slowing down enough to notice internal signals, sensations, and patterns that have been asking for care.
Sela is cultivated as a warm and attentive environment where you can begin to settle, notice what you are carrying, and explore it with openness. My hope is that this space creates room for healing within, allowing your internal process to reveal what you need along the way.
Education & Training
Who This Work Is For
Who This Work Is For
My practice supports people from diverse backgrounds, including first-generation Americans, immigrants, medical trainees, and those navigating complex cultural identities or high-pressure environments. I work with individuals and couples around concerns such as anxiety, depression, trauma, intimacy and sexual wellbeing, grief, loss, identity, belonging, and life transitions.
My clinical work is informed by graduate training in Social Work and Public Health at the University of Southern California, where I focused on the intersection of mental health, systems, and community-based care.
Building on this foundation, my training expanded into relational and embodied approaches to healing. I am a Certified Sex Therapist (CST), trained through the California Institute of Integral Studies, where I developed a culturally responsive, affirmative, and pleasure-oriented approach to Sex and Sexuality.
In addition, I completed training in Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy (AEDP) through the AEDP Institute. This attachment-based, experiential model fosters emotional processing within a safe and supportive therapeutic relationship. My clinical training also includes trauma-informed care and integrative approaches: Psychodynamic Therapy (exploring unconscious processes), Trauma-Informed Care (prioritizing safety and understanding trauma responses), Parts Work (addressing distinct inner experiences), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (identifying thought-behavior patterns), Interpersonal Therapy (improving communication and relationship skills), Motivational Interviewing (supporting behavioral change), and Problem-Solving Therapy (enhancing coping strategies).
Further, my work draws on movement-based practice. I am a 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher with training at The Tree Yoga Cooperative, focused on mindfulness, sustainability, and social justice. I am completing a 300-hour Therapeutic Yoga in Healthcare program through YogaX at Stanford, where yoga tools are applied to clinical and healthcare settings, combining mind–body awareness and neuroscience-informed, relational practices.