Samantha Nau

PSYCHOLOGISt

Samantha Nau (she/her) is a Clinical-Community Psychologist who received her doctorate degree in Clinical Psychology, with a concentration in Community Psychology, at DePaul University and her Bachelor’s in Psychology, with Minors in Medical Anthropology and Sexuality Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She has experience working with communities impacted by trauma, including forced migrant and immigrant populations, veterans, and other marginalized communities. She has also worked with individuals of all ages struggling with addiction and recovery, mood and anxiety disorders, psychosis, and other severe mental illness, in a variety of settings across Chicagoland. 

She specializes in working with trauma, relationship difficulties, and identity exploration. As a second-generation Haitian American, Samantha understands the unique challenges and experiences of children of immigrants. She is especially passionate about working with clients of immigrant backgrounds, particularly of the Black Diaspora, that are seeking treatment related to intergenerational and oppression-based trauma, cultural loss and erasure, family separation and conflict, navigating multicultural identities, intimacy difficulties, duty and sacrifice, guilt/shame, and setting boundaries. Samantha is an LGBTQIA, sex positive, kink, and polyamorous/ENM affirming therapist who enjoys working with clients that hold diverse identities. In her work, she strives to support those most impacted by systems of oppression by co-creating spaces where healing can be personal, political, and deeply transformative.

She provides both individual and couples therapy using different approaches including cognitive behavioral-based interventions, such as Dialectical Behavior Therapy, relational psychodynamic, mindfulness-based, and somatic approaches. Because structured evidence-based treatments are not always developed with people of color, or other historically underserved and marginalized communities in mind, she centers relationships as the primary mechanism for healing. Committed to not replicating the harm and power hierarchy that are often embedded in traditional clinical spaces, Samantha works with clients to provide treatment that is grounded in building safety and trust, cultural responsiveness, and shared-decision-making. This involves collaboratively discussing which treatment approach might work best based on clients’ concerns, treatment goals, and personal preferences.

Samantha’s healing approach is rooted in justice, liberation, and community. She works with clients to help them move toward lives that are aligned with their values and authentic selves. She views mental health not as a solely individual struggle, but as a reflection of the environments, systems, and power structures that shape our lives. She draws from frameworks including Black Liberation Psychology, politicized healing, migrant justice, attachment theory, and feminist theory. 

In her free time Samantha enjoys spending quality time with friends, going to local artisan festivals and comedy shows, caring for her house plants, kickboxing, working her way through her long Netflix watchlist, and going on aimless neighborhood and lakeside walks. 

You can reach Samantha at samantha@headhearttherapy.com.