About Arlene
Arlene Drake is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in California with 40 years of professional experience. She helps people facing anxiety, stress, relationship struggles, and life transitions. She also works with concerns related to trauma, intimacy, and LGBT issues.
Arlene starts by listening to each person's story and noticing strengths they already have. She treats clients as the expert on their own life and partners with them to set practical goals.
Background and approach
Sessions focus on clear steps people can try between meetings. Her approach is straightforward and supportive. She offers a calm space to talk through painful experiences like abuse, abandonment, or infidelity.
She also helps people sort family problems, attachment questions, and identity-related stress. Arlene draws on evidence-based therapeutic techniques to address symptoms of anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and codependency. She helps people rebuild trust, reestablish boundaries, and try new ways of relating.
Work often includes skills for managing strong emotions and improving communication. Clients can expect a steady, collaborative style that balances empathy with practical tools. Arlene helps people explore life purpose, career concerns, and the pain that comes with divorce or separation.
The goal is clearer choices and better daily functioning.
Evidence-based approaches and online care
Arlene uses evidence-based therapeutic techniques that focus on practical change. One common approach she uses helps people learn skills to manage anxiety and stress with breathing, grounding, and step-by-step behavior changes. This approach is useful for daily worries, panic symptoms, and stress that gets in the way of work or relationships.Another approach concentrates on working through traumatic experiences and their emotional effects. This involves gently processing painful memories, building coping strategies for strong emotions, and learning ways to reconnect with trusted people. It can help with post-traumatic stress, grief, and recovery after abuse or other harms.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. Arlene will collaborate with each person to decide which techniques match their goals, needs, and comfort level. That plan can change over time as progress is made.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet. Video calls are helpful when visual cues matter for communication. Phone sessions and live chat can fit into a busy schedule or be used when bandwidth is limited. Text-based messaging supports brief check-ins and ongoing encouragement between longer sessions. These options make it simpler to sustain regular contact and keep momentum toward goals.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- LGBT
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Coping with life changes
- Divorce and separation
- Family problems
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Life purpose
- Post-traumatic stress
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Relationship issues
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexual dysfunction
- Sexuality
- Stress, Anxiety
- Women's issues
- Experience
- 40 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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