Aparna Bell, LPCC

Aparna Bell, LPCC, is a Licensed Professional Counselor in California with 13 years of experience providing mental health and substance use treatment. She works with people facing depression, anxiety, low self-esteem, addiction, stress, and relationship concerns, drawing on years of practice in both outpatient and residential dual diagnosis programs and recovery services in San Francisco.

She earned a master’s degree in rehabilitation counseling from San Francisco State University in 2009. Her work centers on helping individuals move beyond negative thoughts and patterns by cultivating new insights and greater self-understanding. She is engaged, supportive, intuitive, empathetic, and a good listener, and she brings those qualities to work with clients from diverse cultures and backgrounds.

Her approach is person-centered and strength-based, with an eclectic blend of psychodynamic perspectives and practical cognitive-behavioral techniques. She tailors interventions to each person, using reflective listening to identify patterns and underlying issues that contribute to distress and collaborating with clients to define and pursue meaningful goals. She emphasizes building healthier coping skills, clearer communication, effective boundaries, and consistent self-care.

When supporting people in addiction and recovery, she addresses common underlying concerns such as depression, anxiety, and trauma. She works with clients on harm reduction or abstinence-related goals, exploring resistance and ambivalence with patience and compassion. She recognizes the stigma and shame that often surround addiction and aims to create a nonjudgmental therapeutic space where those issues can be examined and worked through.

Her counseling style is authentic, caring, and warm, with a focus on helping people develop new ways of thinking, feeling, and relating that support longer-term health and well-being.