Kirsten Suarez, LMFT

Kirsten Suarez is a California licensed marriage and family therapist who helps people facing stress, anxiety, parenting challenges, anger, depression, relationship struggles, and mood concerns like bipolar disorder. She also supports people coping with ADHD, caregiving strain, obsessive thoughts and compulsions, autism and Asperger syndrome, and panic attacks.

Her style is warm, collaborative, and practical. Sessions focus on clear goals and doable steps. She avoids stigmatizing labels and treats people with respect and compassion.

Kirsten draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, mindfulness, and solution-focused techniques. She mixes tools from these approaches to match what a person needs in the moment. Conversations and exercises are tailored to each situation rather than following a single script.

In sessions she emphasizes the present and workable strategies to reduce symptoms and improve daily life. That can mean practicing new thinking patterns, learning grounding or breathing skills, or trying short behavioral experiments between meetings. The approach is collaborative - the person and therapist set priorities together.

Kirsten earned her license as a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, LMFT, and has three years of counseling experience. She works with adults in California and conducts sessions in English. Her background also includes extensive work in behavior analysis and with developmental differences, informing a practical, skills-focused approach.

Online approaches that focus on skills and values

CBT, or Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, helps people spot and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. It often involves setting small behavioral experiments and practicing new ways of thinking to reduce anxiety, manage mood, or address ADHD-related patterns.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, teaches acceptance of difficult feelings while clarifying personal values. It supports people who want to act toward what matters despite uncomfortable emotions. Dialectical Behavior Therapy, DBT, offers practical skills for emotion regulation, distress tolerance, and better interpersonal handling when strong feelings or conflict arise.

Choosing the right approach is a team process. The therapist will listen to a person's goals, try strategies, and adjust methods based on what works best. Sessions blend talk, skill practice, and short homework tasks so progress is visible between meetings.

Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make care more flexible. Video is useful for full sessions and visual cues, phone can be a quicker check-in or help when bandwidth is limited, and live chat or texting can fit short updates or between-session support. These options aim to make therapy easier to fit into daily life and schedules.