Who you'll work with.

Gerdenio "Sonny" Manuel, S.J., Ph.D.

Founder & Senior Clinician · Clinical Training Director, Equity Health · Professor Emeritus, University of San Francisco

Dr. Gerdenio "Sonny" Manuel, S.J., has practiced as a licensed psychologist in California since 1985. He completed his clinical internship and advanced clinical fellowship in inpatient and community psychology at Cambridge City Hospital, Harvard Medical School, and received his Ph.D. in clinical psychology from Duke University, his M.Div. from the Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley, and his B.A. from the University of San Francisco.

His areas of clinical practice and scholarship include adult psychotherapy, relationships and sexuality, coping with suffering and traumatic life events, addiction and recovery, and the relationship of psychology and spirituality to human flourishing. He is the author of Living Celibacy: Healthy Pathways for Priests (Paulist Press, 2012), winner of a Catholic Press Award.

Dr. Manuel is Professor Emeritus of Psychology at the University of San Francisco, where he served as Professor and Chair of Psychology and Director of the Saint Ignatius Institute. As staff psychologist and clinical supervisor at St. Anthony's in San Francisco, he led and supervised psychotherapy groups for men struggling with addiction and recovery.

Much of his career has been spent in education and religious formation. At Santa Clara University he was the first Dean of the School of Education, Counseling Psychology, and Pastoral Ministries, Vice Provost for University Programs and Multicultural Education, and Rector of the Jesuit community; he also founded the University's Center for Multicultural Learning and co-founded its program of community-based learning in faith and justice. He taught clinical foundations in pastoral counseling at the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, and has served as a trustee of Santa Clara University, Fordham University, the University of San Francisco, and Loyola Marymount University.

For the Jesuits of California and USA West, he served as Director of Vocations and Provincial Assistant for Formation — religious superior to the Jesuits in training, responsible for their studies, supervision, and readiness to advance toward ordination — and later as Prefect of Studies and Provincial Assistant for Higher Education. From 2012 to 2022 he was the Province Safety Delegate, chairing the review board on sexual misconduct and overseeing both the protocol governing allegations and investigations and the outreach and care offered to those who had been harmed. He has advised the Diocese of San Jose on mental health interventions for clergy and has published on assessment, treatment, and intervention in clergy sexual abuse.

Today he serves as Clinical Training Director at Equity Health, a federally qualified health center providing integrated primary and behavioral health care to San Francisco's diverse and underserved communities, where he trains and supervises the next generation of clinicians while continuing to teach, write, and practice.

Dr. Manuel is a therapist's therapist… He perfectly blends excellent clinical skills based in psychology, spirituality, and rich personal experience to offer clients the very best psychotherapy experience they can hope to receive.

— Thomas G. Plante, Ph.D., ABPP, Santa Clara University

Benjamin J. Gadbaw, M.A., M.F.A.

Co-Founder & Psychological Associate

Benjamin Gadbaw is a Registered Psychological Associate who works with adults, both individuals and couples. Couples therapy is a particular focus, along with men's mental health and people who are outwardly successful but unsettled by questions of identity, purpose, and meaning. He also works with anxiety, depression, trauma, grief, and life transitions.

He studied Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University, a program that examines behavior at every level — from cells and neural systems to psychology and social context. He then spent about a decade in design and user research, at Figma, Amazon, and IDEO, and consulted for technology, finance, and philanthropic organizations. He has taught at Cornell, Harvard, Parsons, and the School of Visual Arts, and his sculpture has been exhibited in San Francisco and is permanently installed at Emory. He later returned to school for a master's in psychology.

His work draws on psychodynamic, Jungian, attachment-based, and somatic approaches. With couples, he works from an attachment perspective — helping partners understand recurring conflicts and rebuild trust. He sees therapy as a relationship, not a set of techniques applied to a problem, and his practice is affirming, anti-racist, and LGBTQ+ inclusive.

Elasha Racks, M.S.

Registered Psychological Associate · Doctoral Student in Clinical Psychology · Founder, Elated & Well

Elasha Racks is a Registered Psychological Associate who brings an integrative, body-centered perspective to the work of healing. She practices under the supervision of Dr. Manuel. A Bay Area native with a lifelong reverence for the ocean, she is pursuing her doctorate in clinical psychology at the California Institute of Integral Studies, where her work centers the body, cultural identity, and the conditions that allow a person to feel safe enough to grow.

Her path to psychology runs through movement and wellness. She holds a B.S. in Kinesiology from William Jessup University and an M.S. in Integrative Health Sciences, with honors, and is a NASM Certified Personal Trainer, certified Flexologist, and Dale Carnegie facilitator. As the founder of Elated & Well, she has spent years coaching individuals and corporate teams toward their own definitions of wellness — creating psychologically safe spaces grounded in growth, balance, and empowerment.

Having grown up amid instability and limited access to care, Elasha is especially committed to serving communities underrepresented in mental health and wellness. She integrates somatic, relational, and culturally attuned approaches, attending to mind and body as inseparable parts of a whole.