About Cathy
Cathy Simmons is a licensed marriage and family therapist in California with 24 years of experience. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, grief, depression, and relationship concerns.
Background and approach
Cathy listens for strengths and practical steps so clients feel more capable between sessions. She treats trauma, abuse, addiction, and intimacy-related issues with a steady, supportive approach.
Parenting and family problems, including adoption and foster care and blended family concerns, are part of her work. Cathy also helps people dealing with career strain, compassion fatigue, and the challenges of major life changes.
Cathy believes clients know their own stories and brings curiosity rather than judgment. Sessions emphasize clear goals, small experiments, and skills that fit daily life.
She encourages people to build self-love and stronger boundaries while working through painful histories. Therapy may include practical coping tools, communication practice, and paced reflection on difficult memories.
Cathy draws on evidence-based therapeutic techniques to guide the process and tailors her methods to each person. The aim is to make change feel possible and manageable.
People who choose her often want a down-to-earth therapist who balances empathy with concrete steps. Cathy invites clients to take the first small step and says courage shows up in many ways.
She supports people as they try things, adjust, and move toward clearer priorities.
Approaches and online options that fit everyday life
Cathy uses evidence-based therapeutic techniques that focus on practical change. One common approach involves building coping skills for anxiety and stress - learning short, usable strategies to manage overwhelming feelings and to recover more quickly from setbacks. Another approach focuses on processing trauma and abuse in a paced way that balances emotional safety with gradual work on painful memories and triggers.Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Cathy will talk with each person about goals, past efforts, and preferences, then try methods that seem to fit. She will adjust the plan as progress is made so the work stays relevant to daily life and real concerns.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and nonverbal cues, phone sessions can be simpler when bandwidth is limited, and live chat or text-based messaging work well for shorter check-ins, notes between sessions, or when typing feels easier. These formats help people fit therapy around work, caregiving, and school schedules while keeping momentum between appointments.
Frequently asked questions
What concerns does Cathy commonly help with?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much experience does she have?
What credentials and location are listed?
Which languages and international options are available?
What session formats are offered?
How is cost handled?
How do I start working with her?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Addictions
- Adoption and foster care
- Blended family issues
- Career difficulties
- Coaching
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Family problems
- Grief
- Intimacy-related issues
- LGBT
- Parenting issues
- Relationship issues
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Experience
- 24 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English