Hi! I'm so glad you're considering therapy!

Taking the step to reach out can feel vulnerable, and I'd love the opportunity to connect with you!

My name is Kristen Mihara, and I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) in California with over 15 years of experience in the mental health field. I earned my Master of Social Work (MSW) from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). I am able to see clients all over the state of California virtually and in person in West Los Angeles.

I help adults who are struggling with anxiety, perfectionism, emotional wounds, and painful relationship patterns. I also provide pre-marital and pre engagement counseling for couples looking to stregthen their relationship. I believe therapy is about more than managing symptoms. It's an opportunity to understand yourself more deeply, experience your emotions in new ways, and find freedom from patterns that have kept you stuck.

Therapy for Anxiety, Perfectionism, and High-Achieving Adults

You may be someone who looks like you have it all together on the outside but feels overwhelmed on the inside.

Many of the adults I work with are successful, responsible, and highly capable. Yet they privately struggle with constant worry, overthinking, self-criticism, and the exhausting feeling that they're never doing enough.

You may have tried different strategies to manage your anxiety or stress. Perhaps you even understand why you feel the way you do, but that insight hasn't brought the relief you hoped for.

I help adults explore the deeper emotional patterns that contribute to anxiety, perfectionism, and chronic stress. Rather than simply learning how to cope with difficult feelings, we'll work together to understand what's underneath them and what may be keeping those patterns in place.

My hope is that you can move toward greater emotional freedom, self-compassion, and a more peaceful relationship with yourself.

Healing Childhood Emotional Neglect, Trauma, and Relationship Patterns

Sometimes the ways we learned to protect ourselves earlier in life become the very patterns that cause us suffering as adults.

You may find yourself struggling with shame, guilt, difficulty trusting others, or feeling disconnected from your own emotions. Perhaps you recognize painful patterns in your relationships but aren't sure how to change them.

I work with adults who have experienced childhood emotional neglect, manipulation, emotional abuse, and other forms of developmental or relational trauma. Often, the impact of these experiences becomes clearer over time as people begin to notice how their past continues to shape their present.

Together, we can explore the emotional wounds and self-protective strategies that may have helped you survive but are no longer serving you. Therapy can help you develop greater compassion for yourself, reconnect with your emotions, and experience healthier, more meaningful relationships.

Therapy for Bicultural Adults and Adult Children of Immigrants

Growing up between two cultures can be both enriching and complicated. You may find yourself navigating different expectations around family, success, emotions, and relationships while trying to understand who you are and what matters most to you.

I work with bicultural adults and adult children of immigrants who struggle with guilt, perfectionism, people-pleasing, family expectations, or the pressure to make others proud. Sometimes these struggles are difficult to recognize because the values and patterns you grew up with feel so normal. As someone who is biracial, I understand that navigating multiple cultural identities can bring unique experiences of belonging, identity, and expectations. While everyone's experience is different, my own background has given me a personal appreciation for the complexities of culture and how it shapes the way we see ourselves and relate to others.

Therapy can be a space to explore how your cultural upbringing and family experiences have shaped your sense of self, relationships, and emotional world. My goal isn't to help you reject your culture or family, but to better understand the patterns that may be causing you suffering and discover how to honor your values while developing a more compassionate and authentic relationship with yourself.

Christian Counseling, Church Hurt, and Religious Trauma

For many people, faith is an important part of how they understand themselves, their relationships, and the world around them.

I provide Christian counseling for adults who want their faith to be understood and respected as part of the therapeutic process. I also work with individuals who have experienced church hurt, spiritual abuse, or religious trauma.

Whether you're wrestling with painful experiences in a faith community, questioning aspects of your beliefs, or hoping to reconnect with God in a healthier way, therapy can provide space to explore your experiences with compassion and curiosity.

My Christian faith naturally shapes the way I approach my work. At the same time, I deeply respect each client's individual beliefs, values, and experiences. You do not need to be Christian or religious to work with me. My goal is to create a space where you feel understood, respected, and free to explore what matters most to you.

My Approach to Therapy: Going Beyond Coping Skills

My approach to therapy integrates psychodynamic therapy and Dynamic Emotion Focused Therapy (DEFT) to help clients understand and change the deeper emotional patterns that contribute to their suffering.

Psychodynamic therapy helps us explore how past experiences, early relationships, and unconscious patterns continue to influence how you see yourself, relate to others, and navigate emotions today. Often, we repeat patterns without fully understanding why, even when we recognize they are no longer serving us.

Through DEFT, we move beyond simply understanding these patterns intellectually to experiencing and processing the emotions underneath them. Together, we'll explore the defenses and self-protective strategies that may be keeping you stuck, helping you develop greater emotional freedom, self-compassion, and more meaningful relationships. Many people have learned to intellectualize, avoid, minimize, or push through their emotional experiences. While these strategies may have once served an important purpose, they can also contribute to anxiety, depression, shame, and disconnection.

Through our work together, I help clients become more aware of these patterns, access their underlying emotions, and develop a more compassionate relationship with themselves.

I also incorporate EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) to help clients process distressing memories and experiences. My work integrates psychodynamic, attachment-based, experiential, and person-centered approaches, allowing therapy to be tailored to your unique needs.

I believe that lasting change often happens not only when we understand ourselves intellectually, but when we begin to experience ourselves differently on an emotional level.

What You Can Expect When Working With Me

I believe a trusting therapeutic relationship is an essential part of healing.

My style is warm, genuine, collaborative, and compassionate. I want you to feel comfortable bringing your whole self into the therapy room, including the parts of yourself you may struggle to understand or accept.

Therapy isn't about fixing what's wrong with you. It's about becoming curious about the ways you've learned to cope, understanding the suffering underneath those patterns, and discovering new ways of relating to yourself and others.

My hope is that our work together helps you experience greater emotional freedom, deeper connections, and a renewed sense of peace.

If you're looking for a therapist in California who can help you explore the deeper roots of anxiety, perfectionism, trauma, or emotional distress, I'd love to connect with you.