Rachel Carlos, LMFT

Rachel Carlos is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) based in California. She brings nine years of clinical experience and a background in social work to her practice. Rachel focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, trauma, and life changes with straightforward, practical care.

She has spent much of her career connected to foster care and juvenile justice settings and now also oversees operations for a nonprofit offering clinical case management. That background shapes a practical, systems-aware way of looking at problems. Rachel emphasizes strength, self-love, and self-acceptance as starting points for therapy.

Her style is client-centered and collaborative. She listens first, then offers tools that fit a person’s daily life. Sessions often include cognitive behavioral techniques to name and shift unhelpful thoughts, and motivational interviewing to support change. Mindfulness practices are used to calm overwhelming feelings.

Rachel is comfortable addressing a wide range of concerns, including grief, parenting stress, relationship problems, depression, and compassion fatigue. She also works with issues linked to adoption and foster care, attachment, and postpartum depression. Sessions are intended to be a calm place to sort priorities and build practical coping skills.

People who prefer clear steps and gentle encouragement tend to fit well with her approach. Rachel aims to make therapy useful and usable in everyday life, helping people take manageable steps toward the goals they name.

Therapeutic approaches and online care

Rachel combines Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Client-Centered Therapy with mindfulness practices to help people manage thoughts, feelings, and daily routines. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors, which can help with anxiety, depression, and stress. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening, empathy, and building on a person’s strengths to set goals and make changes. Mindfulness Therapy offers simple exercises to reduce reactivity and increase attention to the present moment, useful for overwhelming emotions and trauma-related symptoms.

Finding the right approach is part of the work together. Rachel will discuss goals, preferences, and what feels most helpful, then tailor techniques in a collaborative way. Clients are invited to give feedback so the plan can be adjusted as progress is made.

Online therapy offers flexible ways to meet. Video calls allow face-to-face conversation and visual cues. Phone sessions can be a good option when bandwidth is lower or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging allow ongoing support between sessions or brief updates when schedules are tight. These formats make it easier to fit therapy into busy lives and keep continuity when in-person visits are hard to arrange.