Online Therapy in California
Work on communication, conflict, and trust with your partner.
Improve how family members communicate, resolve conflict, and support each other.
Explore patterns from your past and present relationships one-on-one.
Prepare for marriage, parenthood, and other major changes together.
When a relationship is struggling, the problem rarely belongs to one person. Arguments, emotional distance, and broken trust usually grow out of patterns that involve everyone in the relationship. Marriage and family therapy is built around that idea.
This guide explains what marriage and family therapy is, what a Marriage and Family Therapist does, how this approach differs from other types of therapy, and what to expect when you work with one of our therapists online, anywhere in California.
Marriage and family therapy, often called MFT and sometimes written as marriage family therapy, is a form of psychotherapy that treats emotional and relationship problems in the context of a person’s relationships. A marriage and family therapist may work with a couple, a whole family, or one individual, and always pays close attention to how relationships shape what each person feels and does.
This approach grows out of family systems thinking, which views a couple or family as a connected system. When one part of the system changes, the rest responds. For that reason, marriage and family therapy focuses less on finding who is at fault and more on changing the patterns between people.
A marriage and family therapist is a mental health professional trained to assess and treat emotional and relational problems. MFTs work with couples, families, and individuals on concerns such as communication problems, recurring conflict, infidelity, parenting stress, anxiety, depression, and major life transitions.
In sessions, your therapist helps everyone involved understand the patterns that keep repeating, express needs more clearly, and practice new ways of responding to each other. When working with one person, the therapist still looks at how that person’s relationships, past and present, affect their wellbeing.
In California, marriage and family therapists are licensed and regulated by the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS).
Our team includes both LMFTs and AMFTs. You can read about each therapist’s background in the team section of this page.
Psychologists, licensed clinical social workers (LCSW), licensed professional clinical counselors (LPCC), and marriage and family therapists can all provide psychotherapy. The main difference lies in training. A marriage and family therapist’s graduate education centers on relationships and family systems, including specific training in couples and family therapy.
This makes marriage and family therapy a strong fit when the concern involves a partner, a family member, or patterns that keep showing up across relationships. If you want to understand how couples work and personal work fit together, read our article on combining couple and individual therapy.
Despite the name, marriage and family therapy is not only for married couples. Our therapists work with:
Many couples and families argue about the same issues for years. Often the conflict follows a cycle: one person pushes for connection, the other pulls back, and each reaction makes the other stronger. Your therapist helps you recognize the cycle as it happens and learn new ways to respond.
An affair, hidden spending, or a serious lie can shake a relationship to its foundation. Marriage and family therapists help partners work through the hurt, take responsibility, and rebuild trust step by step. Learn more about our infidelity and affair recovery counseling and trust issues therapy, or read how long it takes to rebuild trust after infidelity.
Disagreements about discipline, routines, and responsibilities can strain both a marriage and the whole household. Therapy helps parents work as a team and helps the family find calmer ways to handle conflict. Our article on parenting disagreements in marriage explains why the same fights keep coming back.
Some couples and families face differences in culture, values, or the way each person’s mind works. Our therapists work with neurodiverse couples and multicultural couples to turn these differences into understanding instead of ongoing conflict.
You can share a home with someone and still feel alone. Emotional distance often builds slowly through stress, busy schedules, and unspoken needs. Therapy helps you understand how the distance developed and rebuild closeness. You can learn more in our article on loneliness and why connection heals.
Your therapist chooses and combines approaches based on what you need.
Systems-based work looks at roles, rules, and patterns within a couple or family, and how each person’s behavior affects the others. Small changes in one part of the system can lead to meaningful change for everyone. A related model, Internal Family Systems, applies systems ideas to the different parts of one person; you can learn about it in our article What Is Internal Family Systems Therapy?
Emotionally Focused Therapy, developed by Dr. Sue Johnson and Dr. Les Greenberg, helps partners understand the fears and needs beneath their reactions and respond to each other in ways that rebuild emotional safety. Read how EFT supports neurodiverse couples in our article on working with neurodiversity in EFT.
The Gottman Method, developed by Drs. John and Julie Gottman, offers practical tools for handling conflict, repairing after a fight, and strengthening friendship and appreciation in a relationship.
Marriage and family therapy at Heartfelt Flourish usually follows a similar path:
All sessions at Heartfelt Flourish take place online through a secure video connection, and each session lasts 50 minutes. Partners and family members can join from the same room or from separate locations, which makes regular sessions easier for busy households and for families living in different cities.
Because our therapists are licensed in California, everyone taking part needs to be physically located in California during sessions. We work with clients in Los Angeles, San Diego, San Jose, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, Oakland, Irvine, and communities throughout the state.
The length of therapy depends on what you’re working on, how long the patterns have been in place, and how consistently everyone takes part. Many couples begin to notice meaningful change after about 3 to 6 months of consistent work. A focused concern may take less time, while recovery from infidelity or years of family conflict often takes longer. Your therapist reviews progress with you along the way.
Finding the right therapist matters as much as the type of therapy. Questions worth asking during a consultation:
Pay attention to how you feel during the conversation as well. You should feel heard and respected, and every person involved should feel the therapist is not taking sides.
Marriage and family therapy may help if:
Reaching out doesn’t mean your relationship is failing. It means it matters enough to work on.
Joint sessions work best when everyone feels safe enough to speak openly. If there is violence, threats, or one person feels afraid of another, joint therapy is not the right place to start. In that case, we will talk with you about safer options, such as individual therapy, before any joint work begins.
Heartfelt Flourish is an online-only practice that provides marriage and family therapy to clients across California. Every therapist on our team is trained as a Marriage and Family Therapist, so relationships are at the center of how we work, whether you come alone, with a partner, or with your family.
We see the relationship as the client. That means we don’t take sides, and we make sure each person feels heard from the very first session.
If your relationship or family feels stuck, you don’t have to work it out alone. Book a consultation, and we’ll talk about what’s happening and whether our approach is a good fit for you.
Clinically reviewed by Hamed Fatahian, LMFT · Last updated: October 2026
Marriage and family therapy is a form of psychotherapy that treats emotional and relationship problems in the context of a person’s relationships. A marriage and family therapist may work with couples, families, or individuals, and focuses on changing the patterns between people rather than blaming one person.
A marriage and family therapist assesses and treats emotional and relational problems. MFTs help couples, families, and individuals with concerns such as communication problems, conflict, infidelity, parenting stress, anxiety, depression, and major life transitions.
An LMFT (Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist) has completed the required degree, supervised experience, and licensing exams, and practices independently. An AMFT (Associate Marriage and Family Therapist) has completed the required degree and provides therapy under the clinical supervision of a licensed clinician while working toward licensure.
No. Marriage and family therapists work with dating, engaged, married, and separated couples, as well as families, siblings, friends, and individuals. The name reflects the field’s focus on relationships, not a requirement to be married.
Yes. Many people work with a marriage and family therapist individually. Your therapist will help you understand how your relationships, past and present, affect what you’re going through, and how to make changes on your own side of those relationships.
Both can provide psychotherapy. The main difference is training. A psychologist holds a doctoral degree with broad training in psychology and assessment, while a marriage and family therapist’s graduate training centers on relationships and family systems, including specific training in couples and family therapy.
Each session lasts 50 minutes. The overall length depends on what you’re working on and how long the patterns have been in place. Many couples notice meaningful change after about 3 to 6 months of consistent work, while long-standing conflict may take longer.
No. Our therapists are licensed in California, so everyone taking part in sessions needs to be physically located in California at the time of each session.
We don’t bill insurance companies directly. If your plan includes out-of-network mental health benefits, you may be able to request reimbursement. Check with your insurance provider about your coverage, and ask us about it during your consultation.
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