Meet Our Redondo Beach Therapists

What to expect?:

• Collaborative assessment: Your therapist begins with a thorough, respectful intake to understand your history, current concerns, strengths, and goals. This informs a personalized treatment plan.

• Tailored treatment: Therapy blends modalities guided by your needs—EMDR for processing traumatic memories and reprocessing distressing beliefs, cognitive-behavioral strategies for anxiety and phobias, and somatic/mind-body techniques to regulate the nervous system and increase resilience.

• Practical skills and insight: You’ll learn coping tools for symptom management (grounding, emotional regulation, exposure and behavioral strategies), while also exploring underlying patterns and beliefs that influence your relationships and wellbeing.

• Pacing and safety: Work proceeds at a pace you can tolerate. We prioritize safety, stabilization, and resource-building before engaging in deeper trauma processing.

• Measurable progress: Goals are defined collaboratively and revisited regularly. Therapists use outcome-focused measures and clinical judgment to track progress and make adjustments.

Who benefits?

Individual therapy is appropriate for adults, children, and adolescents seeking relief from anxiety, panic, phobias, PTSD and complex trauma, life transitions, interpersonal difficulties, and chronic stress. It is especially suited to people ready to engage in a healing process that balances symptom reduction with deeper emotional and somatic integration.

Our clinicians combine clinical expertise with attunement and curiosity—meeting you where you are while gently challenging unhelpful patterns and supporting growth.

→ Learn more about Individual Therapy

What we offer?:

• Trauma-focused care: Safe, effective EMDR adaptations for children and teens to process distressing memories and reduce trauma-related symptoms.

• Anxiety & phobia treatment: EMDR, CBT, exposure techniques, and coping-skills training to reduce avoidance, worry, panic, and specific fears.

• Emotional regulation & mood support: Skills-based strategies to manage depression, irritability, and mood swings, including mindfulness and somatic (mind-body) techniques.

• Behavior & school challenges: Collaborative plans with caregivers and schools to address attention, defiance, school refusal, and learning-related stress.

• Play- and developmentally appropriate interventions: Therapeutic play, expressive techniques, and creative modalities to engage children at their developmental level.

• Family-focused work: Parent coaching, family sessions, and communication strategies to support healing and strengthen attachment and boundaries.

How we work with families?:

We begin with a thorough, strengths-based assessment that includes the child or teen and caregivers. Treatment plans are tailored to developmental level, temperament, and family goals. Caregivers are active partners in treatment through regular check-ins, skill coaching, and guidance for supporting progress between sessions. We collaborate with pediatricians, schools, and other providers as needed.

Who benefits?:

Children and adolescents experiencing trauma, separation or loss, anxiety, panic, phobias, OCD, depression, behavioral concerns, adjustment issues, or school-related difficulties. We welcome neurodiverse youth and provide trauma-informed, culturally responsive care.

EMDR is an evidence-based, trauma-focused psychotherapy that helps people process and resolve distressing memories, reduce symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, and panic, and transform the negative beliefs and physical sensations that keep distress alive. Rooted in the Adaptive Information Processing model, EMDR facilitates the brain’s natural capacity to reprocess traumatic or stuck experiences so they become integrated and no longer trigger the same emotional intensity or behavioral avoidance.

What EMDR treats?:

• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and complex trauma

• Panic attacks and anxiety disorders

• Specific phobias

• Complicated grief and loss

• Performance anxiety and preparation for high-stakes events

• Distressing memories, developmental wounding, and attachment-related difficulties

How EMDR works?:

In plain terms EMDR combines focused memory processing with bilateral stimulation (commonly gentle side-to-side eye movements, taps, or auditory tones). During guided sessions, the therapist helps the client identify a target memory, the negative beliefs that accompany it, and the desired positive belief. While the client attends to the memory and the accompanying sensations, bilateral stimulation is applied. This process promotes adaptive reprocessing: the memory becomes less emotionally charged, the body’s stress response diminishes, and more balanced thoughts and meanings can emerge.

What to expect in therapy?:

• Comprehensive assessment and stabilization: We begin by building safety, coping skills, and a clear treatment plan tailored to your needs.

• Preparation and resource-building: Before addressing traumatic memories, therapists establish grounding tools and emotional regulation strategies to support you between sessions.

• Targeted reprocessing sessions: When you’re ready, we move into prioritized memory processing using EMDR protocols. Sessions vary in length and pace depending on your history and tolerance.

• Integration and closure: After processing, we focus on consolidating gains, reinforcing adaptive beliefs, and applying new learning to present-day challenges.

Why clients choose EMDR?:

• Efficient: Many clients notice symptom relief in fewer sessions compared with traditional talk therapy for trauma-related issues.

• Non-verbal processing: EMDR can help when words alone are insufficient to capture somatic or sensory aspects of memory.

• Holistic: EMDR integrates cognitive, emotional, and physical healing—aligning with mind-body approaches.

Our therapists are highly skilled and trained in EMDR, bringing trauma-informed, compassionate care to each session. We prioritize safety, collaboration, and cultural humility, tailoring EMDR protocols to your pace and therapeutic goals.

Adjunct EMDR at Catherine Alvarado Therapy + EMDR offers targeted, time-limited interventions that complement ongoing psychotherapy or serve as focused, stand‑alone sessions to address specific symptoms related to trauma, anxiety, phobias, and distressing memories. These services are provided by experienced EMDR clinicians who follow the standard EMDR protocol while integrating holistic, mind‑body approaches tailored to each client’s needs.

Who benefits?:

• Clients who need focused relief from a single or a small number of targeted memories, triggers, or symptoms

• Individuals in therapy with another provider seeking specialized EMDR processing for trauma or phobic responses

• Clients seeking accelerated symptom reduction without committing to long‑term weekly therapy

• Those preparing for or recovering from a stressful life event who want stabilizing, trauma‑informed care

What to expect?:

• Brief intake and assessment to identify target memories, triggers, or symptoms appropriate for adjunct EMDR work

• Collaborative goal setting to define the scope and number of sessions

• Safe, paced EMDR processing using bilateral stimulation (eye movements, taps, or tones) and grounding resources to maintain regulation throughout the session

• Integration and stabilization techniques, including mind‑body interventions, to support lasting symptom relief and resilience

• Communication with primary therapists when requested and consented to, ensuring coordinated care

Common ways EMDR can help?:

• Processing isolated traumatic memories or single-incident events (e.g., accidents, medical procedures, assaults)

• Reducing intrusive images, flashbacks, or nightmares

• Desensitizing specific phobias and reducing anticipatory anxiety

• Addressing performance anxiety, public speaking fear, or situational avoidance

• Relief for acute stress reactions or after exposure to a distressing event

→ Learn more about Adjunct EMDR