About Teresa
Teresa Lakin is a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) in California with 17 years of experience. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, addictions, trauma and abuse, and low self-esteem. Teresa aims to make the first step feel possible for someone who is worried or unsure.
She uses a client-centered approach that places the person's experience at the center of sessions. That means conversations start with what matters to the client and move at a comfortable pace.
How Teresa works
Teresa also draws on psychodynamic ideas to look at patterns that repeat over time and where they might come from. For trauma and abuse concerns, she applies trauma-focused methods to help people process painful memories and reduce their hold on daily life. Her style tends to be direct but warm, helping clients name difficult feelings and try small changes between sessions.
Teresa works with a wide range of life challenges that often overlap, like codependency, substance use, family of origin wounds, and feelings of emptiness or isolation. She helps people spot patterns such as avoidant or dependent ways of relating, and then test new options in the real world. Sessions aim to be practical and rooted in everyday life.
Teresa supports people through midlife transitions, questions about life purpose, and recovery from post-traumatic stress. She encourages steady progress and realistic goals rather than quick fixes.
Teresa lists 3 ways of working on the entry:
What Teresa works with
The areas below are the ones Teresa selected when setting up a profile. The first few are listed as the main focus; the rest are also named.
Also listed
- Attachment issues
- Avoidant personality
- Co-morbidity
- Codependency
- Communication problems
- Coping with life changes
- Dependent personality
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Training and background
| Register | LMFT |
|---|---|
| Years in practice | 17 |
| 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 suited for online care
Teresa uses client-centered therapy to keep the focus on the person's experience and current concerns. This approach emphasizes empathy and listening, which helps people feel heard while they talk through stress, anxiety, or life changes.She also integrates psychodynamic therapy to notice and name patterns that repeat across relationships and life stages. That work can be useful for understanding attachment issues, avoidant or dependent behavior, and long-standing family of origin problems.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Teresa will work with each person to decide which methods fit their goals, needs, and preferences. The plan can change over time as progress is made and new concerns arise.
Online therapy offers flexibility through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video calls allow fuller conversation and nonverbal cues, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat works for quick check-ins, and messaging supports brief reflections between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule and to continue work during life transitions.
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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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