About Jennifer
Dr. Jennifer De Costa is a licensed marriage and family therapist with more than 22 years of experience. She practices in Hawaii and brings a calm, conversational style to sessions.
She helps people facing stress, anxiety, grief, trauma, and life transitions. Her approach centers on respect and building on a person's existing strengths. She favors a client-centered stance that places the person's perspective first.
That means listening carefully, asking questions, and tailoring the work to what matters most to the individual.
How Jennifer works
She also uses narrative techniques to help people reframe painful stories and find new meanings in their lives. Motivational Interviewing is another tool she uses when people want to change habits or address addictions. This method helps people explore ambivalence and strengthen their own reasons for making a change.
Sessions aim to be collaborative rather than prescriptive. Her experience includes a broad set of concerns such as intimacy-related issues, family and blended family challenges, caregiver stress, bipolar disorder, anger, self-esteem, and career-related pressures. She also supports people dealing with adoption and foster care matters, aging and geriatric issues, and feelings of isolation or lack of purpose.
Dr. De Costa works with people who are ready to talk through hard moments and try practical steps forward. She focuses on dignity and empowerment, and helps people identify concrete next steps.
The work is paced to the individual and shaped around their goals.
Jennifer lists 3 ways of working on the entry:
What Jennifer works with
The areas below are the ones Jennifer selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Addictions
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Self esteem
Training and background
| Register | LMFT |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 22 |
| Languages | English |
| Session format | Online: video, phone, live chat or messaging |
| Country | Hawaii |
Memberships and registers are shown as supplied; they are not licences, and this directory does not verify them.
Online support options
How therapeutic approaches translate to online work
Client-Centered Therapy places the person's needs and perspective at the center of the work. In practice this looks like listening first, reflecting what is said, and building a plan that follows the client's lead. It works well for stress, anxiety, grief, and relationship concerns because the therapist adjusts to each person's pace and goals.Motivational Interviewing helps people clarify their own reasons for change and strengthen commitment. The therapist asks open questions, explores ambivalence, and highlights a person's strengths. This approach suits people addressing addictions, behavior change, or difficult life transitions.
Narrative Therapy invites people to separate themselves from their problems by looking at the stories they tell about their lives. By retelling and reorganizing those stories, people often find new options and greater agency when facing issues such as identity, life purpose, or caregiver stress.
Finding the right approach is part of the process. The therapist collaborates with each person to choose techniques that match their needs, goals, and preferences. That decision is revisited as work progresses so adjustments can be made together.
Online sessions offer practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions use less bandwidth and can be easier during a busy day. Live chat or text-based messaging support brief check-ins or ongoing reflection between longer sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into daily life while keeping the focus on meaningful change.
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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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