ABOUT ME

Hey there, I’m Emily, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (CA LMFT #155054). I am a first-generation, mixed-race Chicana, native Los Angeleno, Chingona (pero chillona) — and mother of two.

I attended Loyola Marymount University, where I earned my BA in Chicana/o Studies and Fine Art Photography in 2004. I later completed my Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family Child Therapy at Pacific Oaks College in 2010, with a specialization in Latino Families.

My path to becoming a therapist began through my work with marginalized foster and probation youth. Bearing witness to their pain, resilience, and the impact of systemic injustice pulled me toward this work. I saw how much it mattered for someone to show up with consistency, care, and curiosity — and I wanted to be that person.

I also know firsthand the power of therapy as a client myself. That experience taught me that healing doesn’t come from fixing people. It comes from creating space where people feel seen, safe, respected, and able to reconnect with the parts of themselves they had to silence, protect, or push aside in order to survive.

My work is especially rooted in supporting first-gen, BIPOC, Latine, and LGBTQ+ communities who are tired of carrying everything alone. Many of my clients come to therapy carrying anxiety, family expectations, guilt, overthinking, self-abandonment, and the pressure to keep everyone okay while slowly losing touch with themselves.

What drives me is the belief that healing is not just personal—it’s cultural, generational, political and collective.

I take a trauma-informed, relational, culturally responsive, anti-oppressive, and LGBTQ+ affirming approach to therapy. I integrate EMDR, EFT/tapping, somatic awareness and psychodynamic therapy to help clients understand old patterns, rebuild self-trust, set boundaries, and stop measuring their worth by how much they do for everyone else.

Therapy with me is a space where your lived experience is honored, not pathologized. We can explore what healing looks like on your terms — with room for your culture, your identity, your grief, your anger, your tenderness, your humor, and your truth.