Elaine Skoulas, MA, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

I am interested in what is happening beneath the surface, but I am just as interested in what is happening between us in the room. Therapy with me is relational, engaged, and deeply attentive. I notice the places where you become quieter, move away from yourself, brace, minimize, change the subject, or suddenly come alive. I am listening to what you say, but also to what may be harder to say. I do not approach therapy as a formula or assume that one explanation accounts for everything you are experiencing. Your history matters. Your relationships matter. Your body matters. The larger systems and environments you have lived within matter. I want to understand how all of these pieces fit together in the context of your particular life. I am also not a therapist who sits silently while you do all of the work alone. I will be present with you, ask questions, offer observations, slow us down when something important is happening, and help us stay curious about what emerges. At times that means making connections to the past. At other times it means noticing what is unfolding between us right now, or helping you remain present with an experience that once felt impossible to stay with. Therapy is a relationship in which there is enough safety, honesty, and room to encounter yourself differently. Change can happen not only through what we understand together, but through what you are able to experience differently while another person is genuinely there with you

I provide secure online therapy for adults throughout California and in person in Los Angeles. My practice specializes in trauma, anxiety, chronic stress, chronic pain and illness, grief, addiction recovery, and nervous system related symptoms. Many of the people I work with are professionals, caregivers, healthcare providers, creatives, and highly sensitive individuals who have spent years managing responsibility while feeling overwhelmed internally. I also work with adults experiencing perfectionism, people pleasing, relational trauma, burnout, and persistent mind body symptoms. My treatment approach integrates EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Pain Reprocessing Therapy, psychodynamic therapy, mindfulness, and person centered therapy to support meaningful and lasting change.