About Kristina
Kristina "Kris" Yates is a licensed marriage and family therapist in California with 20 years of experience. She helps people who are feeling overwhelmed by stress and anxiety, or who are facing trauma, life changes, and LGBT-related concerns. Kris centers sessions on each person's strengths and choices.
She aims to offer steady support as clients make changes and try new coping strategies. Her approach treats the client as the expert on their own story.
Background and approach
Kris listens without judgment and helps people notice what works for them. She uses client-centered therapy to build a trusting working relationship and to clarify goals that matter to each person. Over two decades she has worked with many issues tied to stress and trauma.
That includes compassion fatigue, attachment and abandonment concerns, body image, chronic illness and pain, and post-traumatic stress. She also addresses practical struggles like money worries, communication problems, and divorce or separation. Sessions focus on small, clear steps so progress feels manageable.
Kris helps people practice new ways of coping, strengthen supportive habits, and reduce overwhelming feelings. She emphasizes realistic choices that fit a person’s life and values. People can expect a calm, respectful space to talk through painful experiences and make decisions.
Kris offers steady guidance while centering the client’s priorities and pace.
How client-centered care works online
Client-centered therapy focuses on listening, empathy, and helping people find their own solutions. In practice this means the therapist mirrors concerns, asks about what matters most, and helps clarify goals. This approach suits anxiety, stress, and life changes where people need support to identify strengths and options.Because the work emphasizes the client's perspective, sessions adapt well to conversation-based formats like video or phone. Kris uses the same attentive listening and goal-focused planning whether meeting on a call or by text. That makes it easier to try new coping steps between appointments and bring results back into the next session.
Finding the right method is part of the process and will be collaborative. The therapist will talk with the client about what feels helpful, what goals matter, and which techniques to try. Adjustments happen over time so the approach matches the person's needs and preferences.
Online formats offer practical benefits. Video calls let people read facial expressions and body language during deeper conversations. Phone sessions work well when lower bandwidth or no camera is preferred. Live chat or text-based messaging can be used for brief check-ins, quick coaching, or ongoing support between sessions. These options make it easier to fit therapy into work, family, and daily life.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
Also listed
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Body image
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Chronic pain, illness, and disability
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Divorce and separation
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Isolation / loneliness
- Money and financial issues
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Post-traumatic stress
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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