Makando Mutanda

Hello, I’m Makando Mutanda, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Los Angeles and the founder of Selah, an integrative therapy practice. I created Sela as a space for individuals and couples seeking care that attends to the mind, body, emotions, relationships, and lived experience.As a first-generation immigrant born in Kitwe, Zambia, I bring a personal understanding of how culture, identity, and belonging shape the way people move through the world. These experiences influence how I listen and how I approach therapy, with attention to context, nuance, and the many layers that inform a person’s internal process. I often work with people who feel emotionally overwhelmed or weighed down by ongoing responsibilities, relational dynamics, professional demands, or long-standing patterns that no longer feel supportive. I also support couples seeking to better understand one another, strengthen communication, and move through periods of change together.I have over six years of clinical experience and received my graduate training in Social Work and Public Health at the University of Southern California. My work has included community mental health settings, university counseling centers and PhD training programs. I support individuals and couples navigating relationships, identity exploration, life transitions, anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, and intimacy concerns.My approach integrates evidence-based therapeutic modalities such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, psychodynamic therapy, attachment-based work, and somatic practices. I work collaboratively with clients and believe that people carry insight and wisdom shaped through experience. My role is to walk alongside clients as they develop understanding, cultivate inner resources, and tend to their healing in ways that can continue beyond therapy and be integrated into daily life.Thank you for taking the time to explore how therapy at Sela might support you. If this feels like a place to begin, you are welcome to reach out.