Hi, I’m Megan Shaina Bakva.
Somatic Psychotherapist · Breath + Sound Facilitator · Writer · Los Angeles, CA
I integrate trauma-responsive somatic therapy with spiritual depth, breath, sound, and movement to support healing on every level: body, psyche, and soul. I work with sensitive, soulful seekers and disruptors craving a more harmonious, grounded, and aligned life.
My orientation is to the unspoken, felt phenomena that emerges between two humans when relational safety is present. I revere the distinct wisdom each individual possesses and trust their unfolding process, holding it all within the collective field of myths and archetypes.
As a therapist and facilitator, my goal is to walk side-by-side with you, bearing compassionate witness to your being and your becoming. I believe in the power of our therapeutic relationship – through moments of tender presencing, supportive inquiry, attuned challenging, and somatic resourcing – to catalyze the awakening of your inner healer.
MY PHILOSOPHY
Pain demands to be felt.
This life is a mosaic composed of shades and textures of both beauty and pain, with infinite in-betweens.
I believe that pain is a portal, a teacher, and a threshold of initiation: the metamorphic process present in all of nature. Each of our souls calls us across that threshold – be it through a yoga class, falling in love, an injury, or a layoff – to initiate transformation.
Pain demands to be felt. When we numb or suppress it, we miss the full spectrum of beauty and aliveness available to us, and the opportunity for evolution that our soul is calling us toward. Much of what I offer in my work is the medicine I return with, time and time again, when pain cracks me open.
My work encompasses the full spectrum of the human experience – death and rebirth, descent and return, collapse and expansion – all in devotion to transformation for the individual and the collective. I don’t offer depth oriented, nervous-system level work to follow a trend or because a “regulated” nervous system is a worthy goal (it’s sometimes just another way of being good or small). I offer this work out of devotion to my soul’s journey, the awakening of my body, and an outpouring of what was dammed too long.
Pain is a portal. Your body is the map.
Through the soma, we access what has kept us suspended, braced, numbed, reactive, or controlled and bring medicine to the original wound.
MY EDUCATION & TRAINING
My formal training spans clinical psychotherapy, somatics, sound, breath, movement, meditation, and energy – a range that reflects my belief that healing is rarely one-dimensional.
ACADEMIC
Master of Social Work emphasis Children, Youth, & Families: University of Southern California
Bachelor of Arts, Psychology minor Applied Psychology: University of California, Santa Barbara
CLINICAL
Sensorimotor Psychotherapy for the Treatment of Trauma: Sensorimotor Psychotherapy Institute
EMDR in Clinical Practice: EMDR Consulting
Somatic Parts Work, Level 2: Embody Lab
SOUND, MOVEMENT, ENERGY
Sound Meditation Facilitation: The Sound Ceremony
Vinyasa + Hatha Registered Yoga Teacher, 200 Hours: Yoga Alliance
Kids’ Yoga, 30 Hours: Zooga Yoga
Yoga Nidra Meditation, 60 Hours: Practices of Self Love
Reiki Practitioner, 2nd Degree: Love Yoga Space
My work is further scaffolded by lifelong study across yogic and mystical traditions, transpersonal and mythopoetic psychology, intersubjectivity, literature, and my own self-discovery.
MY SPECIALTIES
I work with those who feel deeply and seek meaning within it all.
POPULATION
Individual, one-to-one therapy for adults 18+
Life transitions, trauma, grief, depression, anxiety
Highly-sensitive people (HSP), neurodivergence
First-generation children of collectivist cultures, emotionally immature parents
APPROACH & MODALITY
Somatic psychotherapy for incidental trauma (PTSD)
Nervous system and attachment repair for complex trauma (C-PTSD)
Reparenting and somatic parts work for developmental and attachment wounds
Sound meditation (harmonic instruments and vocal toning) as a conduit for healing
Breath work, meditation, visualization, sonic journeys for coherence and resonance
Your body is already listening.
You don’t need to understand a frequency to be changed by it. Guided breath softens the body, sound carries it deeper.
MY STORY
Pain precedes purpose.
I don’t come from healers or mystics (not that I know of), but from immigrants – people forced to flee their ancestral land and, as a result, their feeling bodies. As a child with big questions and bigger feelings, my inner world outsized the containers and mirrors available to me. My depth, sensitivity, creativity – unexpressed – went dormant; my aliveness and interiority slowly sacrificed at the altar of belonging.
I was a little girl who was a pleasure to have in class and I became a woman who thrived in fast paced environments as a marketing manager. I grew older and the stage changed, but the script remained: be good, be small, be easy – hold it all in and someone will someday hold you.
I moved through life with urgency and vigilance, braced and breathless as I shifted into the shapes each relationship or job asked of me. I found momentary relief by numbing my body and indulging in my over-active mind: intellectualization, control strategies, and fantasies of rescue.
But no one came and eventually the anesthetic wore off…
On the threshold?
I offer a free mini-session – a 15 minute phone or video call – to connect, ask questions, and experience my offerings. If it feels aligned, we’ll go over next steps and book your first session through my client portal. I’m looking forward to connecting with and supporting you.