It’s HR Therapy
Bridging Leadership, Mental Health, and Work
I support founders, executives, couples, and HR professionals in understanding the patterns that shape how they cope, connect, and lead—and how they navigate stress, burnout, grief, loss, trauma, uncertainty, growth, and change at work, in relationships, and throughout life.
Psychotherapy
I provide integrative, trauma-informed psychotherapy for individuals and couples. My approach blends person-centered and narrative therapies, somatic practices, EMDR, and a multicultural perspective. Together, we explore how past experiences, relationships, identity, and emotional patterns shape the way you live, relate, and work today.
With encouragement, curiosity, and candor, I help clients deepen self-awareness, regulate their nervous systems, develop healthier responses to stress, and shift patterns that are no longer serving them—creating greater well-being in their relationships, work, and lives.
Founder & Executive Psychotherapy
Understanding how you became the leader you are begins with understanding yourself. Leadership can be deeply rewarding, but it can also be stressful, demanding, and isolating. The responsibility, uncertainty, constant decision-making, and pressure to care for others can take a toll on your relationships, health, and sense of self.
I help you explore how your developmental history, identity, relationships, trauma, habits, emotional patterns, and stress responses shape the way you live, relate, work, and lead. What happens at work follows you into the rest of your life, just as your life follows you into work. Together, we explore this connection, reduce stress, strengthen emotional regulation, and interrupt patterns that may once have protected you but are no longer serving you.
The goal is not simply to become a more effective leader. It is to create a healthier, more grounded, creative, and fulfilling life—so you can show up more intentionally for yourself, the people you love, and the culture you are building.
When leaders heal, the impact extends beyond the individual—transforming their lives, relationships, teams, and workplace cultures.
Couples Counseling
How we relate at home shapes how we show up everywhere—including at work and in leadership. I help couples understand the patterns influencing their relationship, communicate more openly, repair ruptures, and strengthen trust and emotional intimacy.
Whether you are navigating conflict, disconnection, parenting, career pressures, or a major life transition, therapy creates space to understand what is happening beneath the surface. As each partner develops greater self-awareness and relational skills, they become better able to show up for one another—and in every other area of their lives.
EMDR Therapy
EMDR therapy can help people process distressing experiences that continue to affect how they feel, respond, and relate in the present. I use EMDR to support clients working through trauma, anxiety, grief, difficult relationships, painful memories, and deeply rooted beliefs about themselves.
Through a structured and collaborative process, we work to reduce the emotional intensity of past experiences, strengthen internal resources, and create space for healthier beliefs and responses. The goal is not to erase what happened, but to help the past feel less present in your everyday life.
HR Consulting
I help leaders and organizations in building healthier, more thoughtful workplaces. Drawing on more than two decades of HR leadership experience, I advise companies through growth, organizational change, employee relations, leadership development, performance management, policies, benefits, and workplace culture.
My approach brings together practical HR expertise and a therapist’s understanding of people, behavior, relationships, and systems. I help organizations address immediate challenges while also considering the deeper patterns shaping how their organization communicates, makes decisions, and cares for its people.
Industries served: Fashion, advertising, branding, strategy, innovation, wellness, and e-commerce in NYC.
Sessions: Weekly, biweekly, or monthly sessions are available, with flexible options for short- and long-term therapy based on your needs and goals.
When work works better,
life works better.
Donna Karan Sent Me To Therapy
By Britta Larsen
April 29, 2026
On the eve of Mental Health Awareness Month, I reflect on my own mental health and the power of an HR decision in the fashion industry 25 years ago that set off a ripple effect, shaping my healing and my career ever since.
Fashion helped me shape my identity. HR taught me to advocate for the employee journey. Psychotherapy gave me a way to support the whole human journey.
The word “It’s” has always been part of my story. I grew up as the seventh of ten children—six adopted and four by birth. Our parents sewed labels into our clothes that read “itsalarsen” in case anything got lost. In a family that large, I was often confused for one of my siblings, and people rarely remembered my name. I spent much of my childhood saying, “It’s Britta.”
Fashion became a way to express myself and form an identity of my own. I began working at 13 and haven’t stopped since—I’m 50 now. In 1997, I moved to New York City to build a career in fashion. That path led to a surprise promotion into HR in 2006, where I found a new purpose: advocating for employees and shaping healthier workplace experiences.
After years of people calling me an “HR therapist,” I decided to become one. In 2023, I returned to school and earned a master’s degree from Northwestern University in Mental Health Counseling, with a focus on multiculturalism, social justice, and the intersection of work and well-being.
Today, I’m a psychotherapist and former HR executive supporting founders, executives, people leaders, couples, and workplaces. Through It’s HR Therapy, I bring together identity, work, relationships, leadership, and human development—because who we are shapes how we live, work, lead, and relate.
My integrative, trauma-informed approach combines person-centered and narrative therapies, somatic practices, EMDR, and a multicultural perspective to support nervous-system regulation, healthier stress responses, relational well-being, and sustainable leadership. With encouragement, curiosity, and candor, I help individuals and couples untangle old patterns, deepen self-awareness, and create healthier relationships, workplace dynamics, and cultures.
That work is grounded in a question I’ve been asking throughout my own life: How did I become who I am? Exploring that question—and helping others explore it for themselves—became the foundation of my forthcoming book.
The Boston Globe
June 4, 1981
We received a lot of attention as our family grew —we were both admired and glared at as we navigated a world that struggled to understand how we came together as a family.
A Family of Many Colors
“In their courting days, they baby-sat together. Four years later, when they still hadn’t conceived a child, they adopted a 3-week-old black American boy… His adoption was followed by a mixed-race American boy… and well before the much publicized Vietnam baby lifting - a half Vietnamese and half black American boy.
Only then did they start having babies — three girls — and in between births, they adopted three more, a Cambodian baby girl… a Vietnamese girl… and El Salvadorian boy with polio. To say Pam and Rikk Larsen love children is an understatement.”
Articles & Speaking Highlights
“Because of the last few years, I’ve seen an increase in mental health challenges with employees and how much that has affected them at work, so this year, I was inspired to go back to grad school and study mental health counseling in order to understand better with the lens of what that means for people at work.” — Britta Larsen, VP of People Operations and Culture
Britta’s Salary Story on Refinery 29!
In Refinary 29 Salary Stories, women with long-term career experience open up about the most intimate details of their jobs: compensation. It’s an honest look at how real people navigate the complicated world of negotiating, raises, promotions, and job loss, with the hope it will give young women more insight into how to advocate for themselves — and maybe take a few risks along the way.
