“Life is slippery. Here, take my hand.”

Jila Behnad is an Iranian-American Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist who graduated from JFK University.

She is an adjunct Faculty member at Palo Alto University, where she teaches Couples Counseling and Multicultural Counseling to master’s level students.

Jila is certified by the International Center of Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT) as a Certified EFT Therapist and Supervisor. She is also trained in EMDR, CBT, ACT, and DBT.

Jila Behnad is CEO and Founder of Raha Foundation. Raha is a non-profit mental health organization in Northern California. www.RahaFoundation.org

Jila is also the founder of the Iranian EFT Community, the ICEEFT-affiliated community in Iran: www.ireft.com/en/

She created the “Can You See Me?” workshop to help therapists better understand the immigration experience and to identify the unique mental health challenges faced by immigrant clients:

www.psychotherapywithoutborders.org

In her private practice, Jila works with individuals and couples struggling with depression, anxiety, trauma, marriage, and relationship problems.

Jila loves her job and believes the secret of happiness is helping others. She hopes people can embrace their most basic universal human attachment needs without fear of persecution or marginalization because of religion, race, ethnic or national origin, sexual/affectional orientation and preferences, gender expression, family structure, age, class, mental health, physical character, or disability.

In 2020, Jila received the John Douglas Award from Dr. Sue Johnson for her efforts in helping grow EFT and bringing more diversity to the EFT community.