A life where you move with clarity knowing who you are, who you're becoming, and what stands in the way. Where you respond to life instead of just reacting. Where your patterns make more sense, your pain feels less lonely, and your choices feel more intentional.

What if healing didn’t mean becoming someone new but coming home to yourself?

Individual Therapy in Los Angeles

Based in Hermosa Beach, I provide individual therapy for clients throughout the South Bay, including Manhattan Beach and Redondo Beach, as well as online across California and greater Los Angeles area. My work helps you heal, grow, and connect more fully with yourself and others.

You have wounds that need tending, patterns that once protected you but now ask to be unlearned, and new ways of being that want to be practiced.

It takes time to unravel what was passed down, and even more time to replace it with something new. But nothing is broken at your core. Nothing is wrong with you.

You deserved to be seen, understood, valued, and loved. And therapy can be the space where all of that begins to unfold.

There’s nothing wrong with you

 Finding Clarity and Healing with Individual Therapy in Hermosa Beach

I believe meaningful therapy invites us into a deeper relationship with ourselves. It’s not about quick fixes or learning how to tolerate more of the same; it’s about understanding why we are the way we are, feeling what we’ve had to suppress, and learning how to do things differently. Whether you’re coming together in couples therapy to explore patterns in your relationship or seeking online therapy to do this work from home anywhere in California, we’ll create a safe space to slow down, notice what’s happening beneath the surface, and practice new ways of being with yourself and each other.

Insightful, relational, and emotionally attuned therapy for people who want more than just coping

 Building Emotional Resilience Through Counseling Across the South Bay


Issues we work on in therapy ...

Therapy for Emotional and Life Challenges in Los Angeles

Anxiety often shows up as racing thoughts, tension, or a constant sense of worry. In therapy, we explore what triggers these patterns, how your nervous system responds, and develop strategies to feel steadier, more grounded, and more able to engage with life.

therapy for Anxiety

Depression can make life feel heavy, flat, or unmanageable. Together, we explore the roots of these feelings such as past experiences, unmet needs, and self-critical patterns, and work toward building energy, meaning, and connection to yourself and others.

therapy for Depression


Being driven and accomplished can be rewarding but also exhausting. Therapy offers a space to explore perfectionism, burnout, and the inner pressures you carry, helping you align your drive with emotional balance and self-compassion.

therapy for high-achievers



Perfectionism can show up as constant self-criticism, overworking, or the feeling that nothing you do is ever enough. In therapy, we explore the roots of these patterns, practice self-compassion, and develop ways to honor effort and progress rather than just outcomes.

therapy for perfectionism




Shame can quietly shape how you show up in relationships, work, and life. In therapy, we identify its origins, understand its impact, and practice self-compassion and courage to move toward more authentic connection.

therapy for shame





Past trauma often shapes how you relate to yourself and others in ways that feel automatic or out of control. Therapy provides a safe place to process these experiences, integrate emotions, and develop new ways of responding rather than reacting.

therapy for trauma





Past trauma often shapes how you relate to yourself and others in ways that feel automatic or out of control. Therapy provides a safe place to process these experiences, integrate emotions, and develop new ways of responding rather than reacting.

therapy for divorce





Parenting can be joyful but also triggering, overwhelming, or isolating. Therapy helps you understand your patterns, manage stress, and create more attuned connections with your children while staying connected to yourself.

therapy for parenting





Body image struggles often reflect deeper messages about self-worth, comparison, and identity. In therapy, we explore these patterns and help you cultivate self-compassion and a healthier, more grounded relationship with your body.

therapy for body image





Body image struggles often reflect deeper messages about self-worth, comparison, and identity. In therapy, we explore these patterns and help you cultivate self-compassion and a healthier, more grounded relationship with your body.

therapy for insecurities

Challenges around intimacy or sex often reflect deeper emotional patterns, vulnerabilities, or fears. Therapy helps you understand your needs, communicate clearly with partners, and cultivate connection that feels safe, fulfilling, and authentic.

therapy for intimacy / sex

Self-sabotaging patterns can show up in relationships, work, or personal goals. Therapy helps uncover the underlying fears or unmet needs driving these behaviors and supports new ways of acting that align with your values.

therapy for self sabotaging

Anger and resentment often point to boundaries being crossed or needs being unmet. In therapy, we explore the underlying emotions, patterns, and triggers, and help you express these feelings safely while rebuilding connection and personal empowerment.

therapy for anger / resentment

Life transitions, career changes, moves, or major life events, can stir uncertainty and stress. Therapy provides a space to process these changes, explore your identity, and find grounding as you step into what’s next.

therapy for life transitions

Many patterns of self-criticism or avoidance come from unmet needs early in life. Therapy helps you connect with your inner child, learn to nurture yourself, and develop self-parenting skills that bring more safety, care, and trust in yourself.

therapy for Self-Compassion / Inner Child / Self-Parenting

Relationship patterns, conflicts, or repeated struggles often reflect deeper dynamics from past experiences. Therapy helps you understand these patterns, improve communication, and cultivate healthier, more connected relationships.

therapy for relational issues

Questions about purpose, meaning, or identity can feel overwhelming or isolating. Therapy offers a space to explore these concerns, clarify your values, and find ways to live more authentically and intentionally.

therapy for Existential Issues

Loss can be devastating, whether through death, divorce, or other endings. Therapy provides a space to process grief, honor what’s lost, and find ways to integrate change while staying connected to life and meaning.

therapy for Loss / Grief / Death

Attachment wounds from early experiences often shape how you relate to others and yourself. Therapy helps uncover these patterns, heal relational wounds, and create more secure, trusting connections.

therapy for attachment wounds

Struggles with self-esteem or identity can feel isolating and confusing. Therapy helps you explore the origins of self-doubt, strengthen your sense of self, and step into life with more confidence and clarity.

therapy for self-esteem / identity

Faith, doubt, or spiritual identity can be a source of comfort, conflict, or questioning. Therapy provides a space to explore your beliefs, values, and experiences, helping you integrate them in ways that feel authentic and nourishing.

therapy for Religion / Spirituality


Neurodivergent clients often experience the world differently in terms of executive functioning, feelings, processing and communication. Therapy provides a supportive space to understand your unique needs, navigate challenges, and develop strategies that honor how you relate to yourself and others.

therapy for Neurodivergence

high-achieving individuals

relational trauma and attachment wounds

moms

areas of specialty

The work we do is grounded in three interconnected layers:

how your early experiences shaped you

Access repressed emotions

practice new ways of being

01.

02.

03.

Three-Layered Approach to Therapy in Los Angeles


We begin by exploring your early relational world. Not because we’re looking to blame your parents, but because our earliest attachments shape how we learn to relate to others, to ourselves, to our needs, to conflict, to intimacy, to achievement, to everything.

No one grows up in a perfectly attuned environment. Even the most loving caregivers can miss things. And so, we adapt. We learn how to be safe, how to belong, how to stay connected. Maybe you learned to be the good one, the achiever, the invisible one, the peacekeeper, the caretaker, or the emotionally self-sufficient one. These survival strategies once served you, but now? They might be keeping you stuck.

In therapy, we begin asking:

What did you have to do to stay connected to the people you depended on? Who did you have to become to feel safe, accepted or loved?

What needs did you have to mute to maintain closeness? What do you believe you’re allowed to need or not need from others?How did your family handle conflict? Vulnerability? Boundaries?

What core beliefs about yourself were formed in that early environment? What parts of you were welcomed? What parts were ignored, criticized, or misunderstood?

What roles did you play that still show up in your adult life even when they no longer fit?


We begin to see that who you are is not fixed or broken. You’re not the problem. The ways you learned to be were intelligent responses to your environment. Now, you get to choose something new.



We look at how your early experiences shaped your sense of self

Exploring Early Wounds and Attachment with Therapy in Hermosa Beach 

“The greatest happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved - loved for ourselves or rather loved in spite of ourselves.”

victor hugo

Once we understand the protective patterns that shaped you, we turn toward what got pushed aside along the way. Maybe it wasn’t safe to be angry or sad or playful or excited. Maybe you learned that needing too much made you a burden or that being so happy made others uncomfortable.

When we cut off certain emotions to stay close to others, those emotions don’t disappear. They live in the body, and they find ways to speak through anxiety, burnout, irritability, shame, perfectionism, shutdown or chronic over-functioning.
In therapy, we make space for those feelings to come forward - not just talk about them, but actually feel them, in real time, in a way that’s held, slow, and safe.

This is where healing begins: when you stop abandoning parts of yourself just to stay acceptable to others.

Together we’ll explore:
What feelings did you learn to suppress or disown? What emotions feel threatening or “too much”?

What does your body do when big feelings start to surface? Where do those emotions live in your body now?

Where do you feel disconnected from your emotional self or overwhelmed by it? What have those buried parts of you been trying to say?

How do you protect yourself from feeling too much, and how has that been both helpful and limiting?

What would it be like to give yourself permission to feel fully, without shame or apology?

We integrate the emotions you’ve had to set aside

Processing and Healing Emotions Through Therapy in the South Bay

"What lies before us and what lies behind us are small matters compared to what lies within us."

H.D. THOREAU

Insight and emotional release are powerful, but change happens in the small, everyday choices we make. Healing is not just about understanding; it’s about doing something different, in real time. Insight opens the door, but practice walks you through it. This layer of therapy is about integrating what you’ve learned into how you live. It’s not theoretical- it’s lived, practiced, tried on in real time.

Maybe it looks like:
Saying no without guilt
Allowing rest without earning it
Speaking up when something hurts
Receiving care instead of always giving it
Slowing down instead of speeding past your needs
Choosing a partner or job or life that aligns with who you are now and not who you had to be


This is where we ask:
What patterns do I want to shift?
What feels possible now that didn’t before?
What behaviors align with the version of myself I’m becoming?
Where can I experiment with being more honest, more soft, more bold, more true?
What happens when I choose something different, and how can I keep choosing it, again and again?

This is not about becoming a “better” version of yourself. It’s about becoming more you. More whole, more connected, more alive. Therapy becomes the space to try, fail, adjust, and try again until change becomes something that lives in your body, not just your head.

We practice new ways of being

Creating Lasting Change in Hermosa Beach Therapy

After spending years in mediation with couples at the end of their relationships, I decided to head down a more positive path becoming a therapist who specializes in work with couples. The goal in therapy is for clients to gain clarity and direction in their relationships, and to learn tools for happier and healthier bonds with their partners.

My main theoretical approach to couples therapy is Imago Relationship Therapy that believes that our childhood experiences and attachment wound create expectations and defenses that cause problems in our relationship. The goal of therapy is to help couples heal old childhood wounds by recognizing and interrupting old patterns and developing healthier ones. 

While I take most from Imago, I consider myself an integrative therapists by borrowing from different modalities I am trained in.
 

About me

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) Training 
  • Inner Child and Early Attachment Trauma Certificate
  • Anxiety Certification Course
  • Complex Trauma Certification Training with Interventions from EMDR, Parts Work, CPT, and Polyvagal Theory
  • Treating Complex Trauma with Internal Family Systems (IFS) Course
  • Transforming Trauma with Emotionally Focused Individual Therapy (EFIT) Course
  • Accelerated Experiential Dynamic Psychotherapy for Trauma and Attachment Wounds course
  • Peter Levine's Trauma Master Class: Somatic Experiencing
  • Certification in Somatic Therapy for Attachment Trauma

Individual Therapy in Hermosa Beach and online in California

How to get started with therapy

contact me

Reach out using the contact form. Share a bit about what’s bringing you to therapy- no need to overthink it. I’ll get back to you with next steps.

01.

initial
consultation

We’ll start with a free call. This is a chance for both of you to ask questions, get a feel for my approach, and see if we’re a good fit. No pressure, just conversation.

02.

first
appointment

If we decide to work together, in our first full session, we’ll dive into what’s been feeling stuck or painful in your relationship. I’ll help you both slow things down, name what’s not working, and begin mapping a path forward.

03.

ongoing
sessions

We’ll work together weekly (or biweekly, depending on your needs) to build stronger communication, heal past wounds, and create more connections. Every step is tailored to your relationship, not a one-size-fits-all plan.

04.

Begin Your Therapy Journey in Hermosa Beach & the South Bay

                                                                    In all the world, there is no one exactly like me. There are persons who have some parts like me, but no one adds up exactly like me. Therefore, everything that comes out of me is authentically mine because I alone choose it.

I own everything about me; my body including everything it does; my mind including all its thoughts and ideas; my eyes including the images of all they behold; my feelings whatever they may be… anger, joy, frustration, love, disappointment, excitement; my mouth and all of the words that come out of it polite, sweet or rough, correct or incorrect; my voice loud or soft; and all my actions, whether they be to others or to myself.

I am me.

I own my fantasies, my dreams, my hopes, my fears. I own all my triumphs and successes, all my failures and mistakes. Because I own all of me, I can become intimately acquainted with me. By doing so, I can love me and be friendly with me in all parts. I can then make it possible for all of me to work in my best interests. I know there are aspects about myself that puzzle me and other aspects that I do not know. But as long as I am friendly and loving to myself, I can courageously and hopefully look for solutions to the puzzles and for ways to find out more about me.

However I look and sound, whatever I say and do, and whatever I think and feel at a given moment in time is ME. This is authentic and represents where I am in that moment in time. When I review later how I looked and sounded, what I said and did, and how I thought and felt, some parts may turn out to be unfitting. I can discard that which is unfitting, and keep that which proved fitting, and invent something new for that which I discarded.

I can see, hear, feel, think, say and do. I have the tools to survive, to be close to others, to be productive, and to make sense and order out of the world of people and things outside of me. I own me, and therefore I can engineer me.

I am me and I am okay.

By VIRGINIA SATIR