About Bente
Bente Hansen is a California licensed marriage and family therapist with over 20 years of clinical experience. She uses a warm, respectful approach to help people manage stress, anxiety, grief, and relationship challenges. Her work focuses on building confidence, motivation, and practical coping skills for everyday life.
Bente blends several approaches to meet each person's needs. She draws on attachment-based ideas to look at how early relationships shape current patterns.
How Bente works
She uses cognitive behavioral techniques to help people notice and change unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. Emotionally focused and psychodynamic perspectives guide deeper exploration of feelings and long-standing patterns. Sessions are tailored to what each person brings.
Conversations are calm and straightforward, aimed at understanding the problem and finding steps that fit daily life. She pays attention to communication, family of origin issues, and the impact of chronic illness or caregiving stress. Bente also supports people facing divorce, substance use concerns, workplace stress, and social anxiety.
She can address pregnancy and childbirth related worries, hospice and end-of-life concerns, and feelings of isolation. Her goal is to help people build clearer relationships with themselves and others. She offers therapy in English and Danish.
As a licensed marriage and family therapist, LMFT, in California, she combines practical skills with steady support to help clients move forward.
Bente lists 5 ways of working on the entry:
What Bente works with
The areas below are the ones Bente selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also listed
- Attachment issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Divorce and separation
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family of origin issues
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Isolation / loneliness
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Workplace issues
Training and background
| Register | LMFT |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 20 |
| Languages | English, Danish |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | California |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How her approaches translate to online therapy
Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early bonds influence current relationships. Online sessions can help identify patterns of closeness and distance and practice new ways of connecting. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on spotting unhelpful thoughts and testing small behavior changes. This approach often works well for anxiety, stress, and mood shifts through goal-oriented exercises and homework.Finding the right approach is part of the work together. The therapist will listen to what matters most, discuss options, and try methods that match goals and preferences. Clients and the therapist decide together whether to focus on feelings, thoughts, or relationship patterns as therapy progresses.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging to fit different needs. Video is good for face-to-face conversation and nonverbal cues. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or for quick check-ins. Live chat and text messaging make it possible to share brief updates, reflections, or steps between longer sessions. These options aim to make it simpler to keep therapy consistent while working around busy schedules or mobility limits.
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Common questions
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A practical next step
Write down two things you would want to be different in six months. That is the most useful thing to bring to a first session, whoever it is with. If you would rather start now than keep reading, online sessions are the quickest route.
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