Find a Therapist in Rancho Palos Verdes, CA

As a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT), I specialize in the treatment of anxiety using multiple approaches to recovery.

I work with couples, families, and individuals who are interested in improving their relationships, and people who are struggling with strong emotions like anxiety. I believe that the quality of our relationships, both with ourselves and others deeply affects our overall well-being. Healing, in my view, happens both individually and within the dynamics of our connections with others. I recognize that building and maintaining strong partnerships requires effort, but I know that the rewards of healthy relationships are invaluable. I earned my BA from UCSB and my Master's in Clinical Psychology from Pepperdine University, with a certification in Somatic Psychotherapy. I have also trained at the Boston Graduate School of Psychoanalysis, which has deepened my understanding of how unconscious processes and early relational patterns influence present behaviors. I help clients uncover emotions, thoughts, and patterns affecting their relationships, guiding them toward deeper self-awareness and lasting change. My background as a yoga teacher and trainer for over a decade has shaped my holistic approach, allowing me to integrate somatic awareness and mindfulness into my work. In addition to my psychoanalytic and somatic training, I also use Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) to help clients strengthen emotional bonds and foster secure attachments. This blend of psychoanalytic exploration, somatic awareness, and EFT offers a comprehensive approach to healing and improving relationships. I work with clients both online throughout California and in-person in Santa Barbara.

Let's embrace the future and make it different than what it might be. Together, we will work towards finding a way to transcend your Anxiety, overcome Depression, resolve Relationship Issues, & get your vibrant energy going again. Whether you're seeking personal growth or enduring extensive distress, it can be essential to have a helpful guide along the way. I'm a Clinical Psychologist and an adult generalist, having worked with many forms of psychological suffering and difficulties in living. Our therapeutic interaction and strategy will be tailor-made to your needs and respectful of your desire and readiness for change. I offer an integrative approach, which means I carefully draw from a wide-ranging toolbox and bring together different aspects of a variety of well-founded psychotherapies and employ them for what they're best at. Good therapy helps you to open up to and pursue what is truly important. We'll work collaboratively towards your self-defined goals. The process of choosing a psychologist can be very personal, so please contact me to go over your questions and concerns. You can check out my website through the button below.

For more than 20 years, I’ve been providing compassionate guidance and support to individuals and couples who want to confront challenges, gain insight, and improve relationships and communication. I especially enjoy working with adults of all ages who are navigating life transitions, like entering adulthood, becoming parents, facing midlife, changing careers, ending long-term relationships, or adjusting to an “empty nest.” I view therapy as a creative and collaborative process, and I’m flexible in my approaches, which include walk-and-talk sessions in Ojai, California. My overarching focus is on the importance of a genuine relationship between my clients and me. My clients would describe me as open-minded, nonjudgmental, and curious, with a calm presence and a sense of humor. I’m active in sessions, and I’m an out-of-the-box thinker who is comfortable with unconventional ways of thinking and respectful of different perspectives. For more information, please visit my website: susanlacroixmft.com

As a contemporary psychoanalyst, my treatment approach is to encourage a free flow of thoughts and feelings which we will listen to and come to understand. I offer practical evocative feedback to help clients address current life challenges and long-standing issues. The results are transformational. With compassion and understanding, individuals are empowered to find their own unique relationship, understanding, and resolution to a wide range of personal concerns and psychological issues. A spectrum of techniques are employed with traditional and current psychoanalytic thinking at the core. Psychotherapy leads to insight, enhanced capacity for love and intimacy; effecting change while enhhancing your experience of having more connected communication, satisfaction, and fulfillment. This growth and development are also pertinent in the areas of business and financial breakthrough. With the integration of complimentary approaches, a variety of methodologies and techniques are incorporated to provide what is most helpful for each individual, couple, family, or group. In a comfortable and professional setting, a highly personalized approach tailored to each client's unique needs allows them to attain the personal growth they are striving for. Together, with each patient, as thoughts and feelings are clarified and worked through, strengths are developed and life goals are attained.

Codependency, alcoholism, compulsive behaviors, and addictions often begin as coping mechanisms but eventually become the main problem in a person’s life. I use an integrated approach based on self-acceptance work, boundary modeling and psychodynamic-attachment theory to help clients process, reframe, replace and transform character defects and addictive behaviors that no longer serve them. I believe the role of the therapist is to provide the client with enough unconditional support and practical strategies to help them succeed in their recovery journey. To facilitate this dynamic, I provide a non-judgmental and empowering therapeutic environment.

Together we will walk through your growth, always providing the safety and support that your healing requires. It is of great importance for me to establish safety for my clients by committing time and care to each individual, both inside and outside of scheduled sessions. I provide scheduling flexibility and off-the-clock support (such as email check-ins throughout the week) as a way of meeting my clients where they are and solidifying a firm therapeutic relationship as you move through your healing. Together we will brainstorm coping activities and tools geared towards your specific needs. I have a firm belief that psychoeducation, or learning about one’s own psychology, is an integral part of the healing process. Together we will utilize psychoeducation and the individualized coping skills needed for you to transform your life.

Meet Kelly Rauch. Kelly is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT), practicing in California and Texas. With a master’s degree in marriage and family therapy and a PhD in business psychology, she has been practicing as an LMFT for nearly 10 years. Kelly works with people from diverse backgrounds, supporting substance abuse, anxiety, depression, and trauma. In addition to using cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), mindfulness, and solution-focused approaches, she practices eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). Kelly believes in and engages in a mind, body, and soul connection. Kelly will work with you closely to assess, understand, and collaboratively build strategies to address your personal struggles and make progress achievable.

Many of my clients come to therapy for help with relationships, and are frustrated that they repeat patterns but don't have an alternative. I believe relationships are central to life and I also know that much of what we learn about how to relate comes from childhood. Often we've outgrown certain ways of interacting, but it can be hard to know what or how to do things differently. My approach to therapy is collaborative and leans heavily on curiosity. I don't see therapy as a place to "get fixed" but a place to explore, learn, and embrace who you are. In order to do things differently, we need to understand ourselves, and this requires an open, non-judgmental a mind. Of course it can feel difficult and even scary to learn about yourself or discover new things, so I will work at your pace and refer to you as the expert on your experiences. I have great respect for our ability to heal and grow if given the opportunity and a safe space to do so. I believe we are all capable of living a life that aligns with who we authentically are, not the person we created to make the world happy.

With a background in entertainment, I bring a creative and intuitive lens to therapy—helping you reconnect with yourself, understand your inner world, and create meaningful change from the inside out. My style is warm, engaged, and real—I offer insight, empathy, and humor in a space where you don’t have to perform or get it “right.” Whether you’re feeling anxious, stuck, overwhelmed, disconnected, or just not like yourself, therapy with me is about helping you understand what is going on for you, why you feel the way you do, where it comes from—and what to do about it. Together, we’ll build tools to regulate emotions, communicate more effectively, and move through life with greater clarity and confidence. I work with teens, adults, and couples, and I often help clients explore how early roles and relationships shaped the way you show up today. Many of us learned to adapt in ways that once made sense—but no longer serve us. In our work, we gently untangle those patterns so you can respond to life, rather than react from old wounds. I integrate insight-oriented work with practical tools, and I believe the therapy relationship itself is a powerful place for healing and change. You’ll have space to be honest, to be challenged, and to grow. If you’re ready to feel more connected—to yourself, your relationships, and your life—I’d love to support you.

At The Center for Couples Therapy, we are dedicated relationship therapists with expertise based on the groundbreaking work of Dr. John Gottman. We are also broadly trained in the Developmental Model, the Psychobiological Approach to Couples Therapy, Internal Family Systems, Gestalt Therapy, Emotion-focused Couples Therapy and others. Our methods empower our clients with tools that can deepen intimacy and friendship, help you more effectively manage conflict, nurture greater understanding between one another, and support one another's goals for the future.

What kind of dystopian hellscape is this? A world that insists everything is fine while quietly unraveling. Welcome. You might belong here. Your brain runs like a browser with too many tabs open. Thoughts move fast. Environments overwhelm. Social rules feel unclear. You care deeply, think intensely, and sometimes wish you could just turn it all off and breathe. Your nervous system stays alert. You catch tone shifts, subtext, and dynamics others miss. Conversations get rehearsed and replayed. You move between craving connection and needing space. You show up for others while wondering if anyone truly sees you. If you have ever felt like you do not fit, it may be because the mold was never built for you. Neurodivergent. Anxious. LGBTQIA+. Creative. Empathic. Complex. You belong here. I work with people who experience life at a deeper level. Those who feel everything quickly and are done shrinking to stay comfortable for others. Here, your sensitivity is not a problem to fix. Your identity does not need explaining. You get to exist as you are. My approach blends evidence-based therapy with intuitive attunement. We honor your nervous system, your lived experience, and your story. Together, we explore what you have been carrying alone. We make space for the parts of you that have been masked or misunderstood. Anxiety does not get to run the whole show. We build something that actually feels like your life. You do not have to translate yourself here. Too much becomes exactly right. You are not lost. You are not alone. I will be here. Try not to overthink your way out of showing up.