Dr. Cynthia Curnan, LMFT

Dr. Cynthia Curnan offers help for stress, anxiety, relationship struggles, trauma and abuse, grief, and intimacy-related concerns. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist who draws on a long clinical background to help people find clearer thinking and steadier emotions. Cynthia writes and talks plainly so parents can understand practical next steps. She practices from California and communicates in English.

She focuses on making inner experience easier to recognize and manage. She guides people to notice thoughts and reactions, and to work toward more helpful patterns. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is one of the approaches she uses to address unhelpful thinking and behavior. She also uses trauma-focused tools when past events keep causing current distress.

Her work mixes talking with focused techniques. That can include breathing exercises, guided imagery, interactive hypnotherapy, EMDR elements, and dream or inner-child work. The goal is to reduce painful symptoms and build practical coping skills people can use at home.

Cynthia earned her California LMFT in 1992 and completed a PhD in psychology in 1996. She is the author of The Care and Feeding of Perfectionists, which looks at how perfectionism can block satisfaction and growth.

She helps people recognize how perfectionism, guilt, or shame can shape choices. Then she supports steps toward self-knowledge, clearer goals, and less internal pressure. Sessions emphasize simple practices that can be tried between meetings.

Additional focus areas include caregiver stress, chronic pain and illness, communication problems, control issues, grief around divorce and separation, forgiveness work, and end-of-life counseling.

Approaches you may use in online sessions

Dr. Curnan often draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people identify unhelpful thoughts and try different behaviors. CBT focuses on small, practical changes in thinking and routine that can reduce anxiety and stress. She also uses EMDR-informed methods for people whose current symptoms are linked to past trauma; these techniques aim to reduce the emotional charge of traumatic memories and make daily life easier.

Finding the right approach is collaborative. The therapist will talk through your concerns, goals, and preferences and suggest which methods to try first. Together you can adjust the plan over time based on what helps most, combining talk work with exercises to practice between sessions.

Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging. Video sessions allow face-to-face interaction and visual cues, while phone calls can be a simpler option when bandwidth is limited. Live chat and text-based messaging make it easier to fit short check-ins or to continue work between meetings. These options give flexibility for scheduling and different ways to stay connected with a licensed professional.