About Gia
Gia Castiglia Schwarzer is a California licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) with seven years of clinical experience. She focuses on practical ways to reduce stress and anxiety and to help people manage life changes. Gia centers sessions on the person's own strengths and what already works in their life.
Gia earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Political Science from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master of Arts in Psychology from Chapman University in Orange, California.
Background and approach
She has worked in independent practice and in school settings. After earning her license she took time away to raise a family and then returned to counseling work. Her approach begins by listening and helping people notice the skills they already have.
She uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy techniques to identify unhelpful thoughts and habits and to try new responses. She also draws on interpersonal ideas to improve how someone relates to others and manages relationships. Sessions are collaborative and focused on concrete steps.
Gia helps clients connect what they learn in sessions to real situations at home, work, or school. She guides short experiments and practical exercises that can be tried between meetings.
Gia works with a wide range of concerns, including relationship strain, parenting stress, grief, self-esteem struggles, addiction-related issues, trauma and abuse, anger, depression, intimacy-related worries, coping with life transitions, compassion fatigue, and young adult issues. Her style is direct, compassionate, and geared toward everyday problem solving.
CBT and Practical Approaches for Online Care
Gia uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to help people identify thoughts and behaviors that fuel anxiety and stress. CBT sessions focus on simple, concrete exercises such as tracking thought patterns, testing assumptions, and practicing new ways of coping to see what works in daily life.She also draws on interpersonal ideas to improve communication and relationship patterns. That work looks at how someone interacts with others and teaches small changes that can reduce conflict and improve connection. Together these approaches help with anxiety, relationship struggles, parenting stress, grief, and coping with life transitions.
Finding the right approach is part of the process. Gia works collaboratively to figure out which techniques match a person’s goals and preferences. She will adjust strategies over time based on what helps most for the client’s situation.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to give flexibility. Video is useful for deeper conversation and visual cues, phone sessions need less bandwidth and can fit a short break at work, and chat or messaging can support quick check-ins or ongoing reflection between meetings. These options make it easier to keep therapy consistent around busy days and changing schedules.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also listed
- Addictions
- Anger management
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family conflicts
- Intimacy-related issues
- Parenting issues
- Self esteem
- Trauma and abuse
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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