About Estella
Dr. Estella Lerlo is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 14 years of experience practicing in California. She focuses on stress, anxiety, relationship and intimacy concerns, and on healing after trauma and abuse.
Dr. Lerlo aims to make the first step easier for people who are nervous about starting therapy. She creates a calm environment where thoughts and feelings can be shared without judgment.
Sessions are conversational and focused on what matters most to the client.
How Estella works
She listens for patterns that cause repeated conflict or distress and helps people try different ways of responding. Her work often addresses attachment and abandonment worries. She helps people understand how early relationships shape present reactions and closeness.
That can include looking at trust, boundaries, and fears around commitment. Practical tools are part of sessions. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques help change unhelpful thought and behavior cycles.
Mindfulness practices teach simple ways to reduce stress and notice emotions as they arise. For relationship concerns she draws on Emotionally-Focused Therapy and the Gottman Method to improve communication and repair connection. She also supports people dealing with life transitions like money stress, midlife questions, or recovery from a disaster.
Clients can expect a steady, patient approach that balances insight with down-to-earth skills. Dr. Lerlo works step by step with each person to set goals and try strategies that fit their life.
Estella lists 10 ways of working on the entry:
What Estella works with
The areas below are the ones Estella selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Blended family issues
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Training and background
| Register | LMFT |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 14 |
| Languages | English |
| 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
Therapeutic approaches for connection and coping online
Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships affect current patterns in close relationships. It helps people notice safety and trust issues and try new ways of being close. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on the link between thoughts, feelings, and actions; it offers concrete exercises to reduce anxiety and change unhelpful habits. Emotionally-Focused Therapy helps partners or individuals name core emotions and work toward repairing hurt and increasing emotional responsiveness.Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to decide which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences. Sessions can blend approaches over time so interventions match what is most helpful in the moment.
Online therapy is offered through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to make care more flexible. Video is useful for deeper conversations and interactive exercises. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and messaging let people pause, collect thoughts, and keep momentum between longer appointments.
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A practical next step
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