Hidden Gems: Meet Anastazyia Vareschi of AV Therapy and Wellness

Today we’d like to introduce you to Anastazyia Vareschi.

Hi Anastazyia, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I hadn’t set out to become a therapist. After finishing my bachelor’s degree, I worked for a few years teaching adult ESOL. During that time, I was connected to a volunteer opportunity supporting a housing and recovery program for women Veterans navigating co-occurring conditions like substance use and PTSD. I worked alongside psychologists and social workers, and I was seeing women rebuilding their lives. I became curious about what actually supports recovery and healing, so I returned to school for clinical rehabilitation counseling.

In my clinical training, I worked with adolescents and young adults in foster care. After completing my master’s, I was a mental health counselor for a youth development non-profit in Washington, DC, working with youth impacted by systemic barriers and instability. This deepened my practice in trauma-informed and relational clinical care.

A key experience in my journey was completing a trauma-informed yoga teacher training that changed how I understand the relationship between the body and mental health. That led me to training in Somatic Experiencing (SE), where I continued my learning about the nervous system, stress, and more integrated approaches to healing.

Since 2024, I’ve been running my virtual practice in Georgia, where I support individuals and couples with navigating trauma, burnout, and long standing survival patterns like overfunctioning, perfectionism, people-pleasing and shutdown. I stay curious about what those patterns are protecting, and I help people move through overwhelm, recover more easily from stress, and feel more connected in their relationships and daily lives.

Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In the midst of building my practice in 2022, I gave birth to my son. It was a deeply joyful and a painfully disorienting time. I later understood I was experiencing severe post-partum depression. I had navigated mental health challenges earlier in my life, but I had no awareness that that history would impact me postpartum. I felt adrift and disconnected from myself and others. Even with the access and support I had, I found it exceedingly difficult to find treatment that felt supportive, affirming, and responsive to my needs.

I stepped back from work to focus on healing, and over time I began to find my footing again. This experience continues to shape how I show up in my work. It reminds me that affirming, specialized, and non-pathologizing care is essential to helping people face and work through hard moments.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about AV Therapy and Wellness ?
I’m a mental health therapist and Certified Rehabilitation Counselor licensed in Georgia, Maryland, and Washington, DC. My practice supports adults navigating trauma, burnout, and long-standing survival patterns like overfunctioning, perfectionism, people-pleasing, and shutdown, helping them move toward greater self-trust, presence, and connection. I see symptoms less as problems to fix and more as meaningful adaptations that make sense in the context of someone’s life experience. I sit with clients and ask not “what’s wrong?” but “what makes complete sense given their life experience?”

I’ve also completed a three-year professional training program through Somatic Experiencing International as well as comprehensive training in neuro-affirming somatics. I now assist SE trainings as a way to give back to a modality that has profoundly influenced my work and continues to deepen my understanding of trauma, stress, and the nervous system.

My training is important, but my lived experience shapes how I practice. My own experiences of seeking care taught me how difficult it can be to find support that is responsive and attuned. This perspective continues to shape how I show up in my work, with a commitment to providing care that is collaborative and affirming.

Who else deserves credit in your story?
There are more people than I could reasonably name who have positively influenced my path. I’m grateful to my family who support my unconventional schedule and commitment to learning and growth.

I also hold gratitude for the spiritual and recovery communities that have strengthened my understanding of how to be present for people and hold them in their wholeness. In building my private practice, I’ve also benefited from resources that helped move the concept from idea to a sustainable business. I’m appreciative of my clients, from whom I learn every day, and who continue to shape my understanding that there are many ways to experience wellness, and no single path to arrive there.

I’ve also benefited from good care from professionals who held a steady belief in my capacity to recover.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.avtherapyandwellness.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/avtherapyandwellness/

Image Credits
Photo credits: Images by Bora Chung Photography (2)