About Lilia
Lilia Gonzalez-Joly is a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) in California with 16 years of clinical experience. She focuses on helping people untangle relationship strains, family conflicts, trauma and abuse, and struggles with self-esteem and career direction.
Background and approach
Lilia aims to make the first step feel manageable for someone who is worried or unsure about therapy. She creates a calm, nonjudgmental space where clients can speak freely about painful memories, repeating patterns, or everyday worries.
Sessions are practical and direct, with attention to what feels most pressing in a person’s life. Lilia listens first, then offers tools and ideas clients can try between visits.
Her work draws on approaches that target thoughts, emotions, and connection. She uses methods that help people notice difficult feelings, identify unhelpful thoughts, and practice new ways of relating.
The focus is on realistic steps that fit each person’s life and values. Lilia also supports people working through guilt, shame, forgiveness, and questions about life purpose and self-love.
Conversations often move between what happened in the past and what a client wants now, with attention to making sustainable change. She adapts her style to match each person’s pace and communication style.
Sessions are offered in English and Spanish. Lilia practices in California and brings steady, practical support to people seeking clearer direction, healthier relationships, and stronger self-regard.
Using evidence-based approaches in online therapy
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps people notice their thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them and then take actions that match their values. It can be useful for anxiety, low motivation, and building a clearer sense of life purpose. Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT) focuses on understanding emotional responses and improving emotional connection in relationships, which can help people who struggle with attachment and communication. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at how thoughts influence mood and behavior, and teaches practical strategies to shift unhelpful thinking and try new behaviors.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Lilia will collaborate with each person to determine which methods fit their needs and goals. She combines listening with small experiments so clients can see what helps and what doesn’t, and adjusts the plan as they go.
Online sessions are available as video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to increase flexibility. Video calls allow a fuller face-to-face conversation, phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited, live chat lets a client check in quickly, and text messaging supports short updates or reflections between appointments. These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life and to try different formats as needs change.
Frequently asked questions
What kinds of concerns does she address?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much clinical experience does she have?
What are her credentials and where is she based?
Which languages are available for sessions?
Can international clients work with her?
What session formats are offered?
How does payment and scheduling work?
Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
- Gottman Method
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 16 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English, Spanish