About Elissa
Elissa Padilla is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) based in California. She brings three years of direct clinical experience and previous roles in counseling, case management, and social work. She often supports people who are dealing with anxiety and stress and helps them find clearer ways to cope.
Padilla uses practical, goal-oriented methods in sessions. She draws on cognitive behavioral techniques to identify unhelpful thoughts and make small behavior changes.
Background and approach
Solution-focused work helps set short-term goals and track progress. She also uses psychodynamic ideas to look at patterns that repeat across relationships. Sessions tend to be conversational and straightforward.
She listens for what matters most to each person and helps build steps people can try between meetings. The approach aims to reduce overwhelm and increase skills for handling everyday problems like worry, grief, or changes in life circumstances.
Elissa has experience helping people with mood concerns such as depression and bipolar symptoms, struggles with substance use, parenting stress, and attention-related challenges like ADHD. She also addresses relationship strains, attachment questions, and issues related to pregnancy, postpartum, and young adulthood. Her work is client-centered and adaptable.
People who appreciate a practical plan plus attention to emotional patterns may find her style a good fit. Sessions are offered in English and delivered remotely through several online formats.
Therapeutic approaches and online care that fit your life
Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) helps people understand and reshape how they respond in close relationships. It looks at emotional patterns and aims to build stronger bonds and clearer communication when relationship distress or attachment issues are present.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) centers on spotting unhelpful thoughts and trying new behaviors. It is useful for anxiety, mood concerns, and everyday stress because it breaks problems down into steps that can be practiced between sessions.
Finding the right approach is collaborative. The therapist will work with each person to pick methods that match their goals, needs, and preferences, and will adjust those methods as things change. Clients can expect a mix of short-term goal setting and exploration of deeper patterns when helpful.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation for in-depth work, while phone sessions can fit into a busy day or require less bandwidth. Live chat and text-based messaging are useful for brief check-ins, quick coping tools, or ongoing support between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy around work, school, caregiving duties, and other obligations.
Questions people ask
What concerns does she help with?
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Attachment issues
- Bipolar disorder
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Commitment issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Parenting issues
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 3 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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