About Alison
Alison "Cindy" Lapidus helps people manage stress, anxiety, relationship and intimacy issues, and difficulties with self-esteem. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist - LMFT - practicing in California and brings 14 years of experience to each session.
Background and approach
Her work also covers career concerns, addictions, grief, sleep problems, and coping with life changes. Cindy keeps sessions straightforward and focused on what matters most to the person in front of her.
She listens and asks practical questions that lead to small, useful changes. Her style blends empathy with tools that people can use between sessions.
She draws on client-centered therapy to follow each person’s priorities and on cognitive behavioral techniques to tackle unhelpful thoughts and behaviors. Cindy also uses mindfulness practices to build calm and the Gottman Method to address communication and connection challenges when relationship patterns are part of the concern.
Over her 14 years of practice she has supported people dealing with trauma, compassion fatigue, body image issues, and life purpose questions. She also helps with codependency, forgiveness, and financial or career transitions.
Her work includes attention to veteran and first responder issues as listed in her focus areas. Cindy aims to create a respectful, nonjudgmental space for people to try new ways of managing problems.
Sessions combine listening, practical exercises, and goal-focused work so clients can make steady progress between appointments.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Client-centered therapy focuses on the person’s own goals and experience. The therapist listens closely and follows what matters most to each client, helping them find their own solutions and build confidence in taking steps forward.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, identifies unhelpful thoughts and behaviors and replaces them with more helpful patterns. It is often used for anxiety, depression, sleep problems, and stress by teaching concrete skills people can practice between sessions.
The therapist treats approach selection as a collaborative process. She talks with clients about their goals and preferences, then suggests methods that match those needs. Together they try strategies and adjust the plan based on what helps.
Online sessions offer practical flexibility. Video calls let people have a longer, face-to-face conversation for skill work and deeper discussion. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging work well for brief support, progress updates, and coaching-style exchanges between longer sessions.
These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to keep momentum between appointments while using approaches like client-centered work and CBT in ways that suit the person.
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Intimacy-related issues
Also works with
- Addictions
- Anger management
- Body image
- Cancer
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Family conflicts
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Infidelity
- Isolation / loneliness
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Parenting issues
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Trauma and abuse
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 14 years
- Licensed
- Florida, California
- Languages
- English