Dr. Pilar Castaneda

Dr. Pilar Castaneda, LMFT Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist In the State of CA #121944 In the State of NY #000505 In the State of TX 204466 Associate Marriage and Family Therapist in CA Clinical Fellow of the AAMFT AAMFT Approved Supervisor I am a bilingual (English and Spanish) Catholic Family Therapist with over twenty years of experience working with individuals, couples, children and families from different ethnicities, cultures, genders, socioeconomic and religious backgrounds. I have extensive experience working with a wide range of issues, one area being specifically with trauma survivors. I believe in change and I believe that we all can find our internal resources to grow. I am a respectful and warm person, who believes in connecting and healing in relationships. I show this through my care for my clients and my enjoyment in our work. I think systemically about my clients' challenges and help them heal and move forward in their lives. I understand the importance of relationships and attachments and the impact that difficult separations can have in my clients' lives, thus I work in a way that supports safe emotional experiences and change. My process of therapy is one where I start with my clients first by creating an environment where my clients feel safe, heard and understood. To learn about my clients and to understand them in their context, I explore the history of their lives that includes not only information regarding their family backgrounds, dynamics, values and patterns but also their connections and relationships, their strengths and difficulties, in their context. I base my interventions on my client's strengths and resources, and I encourage empowerment in their lives. My personal experience in particular with diversity, my professional and personal qualities, strengths and abilities, makes me a therapist that feels comfortable working with differences in a respectful and skillful manner. My greater strength is working with diversity and with couples, families and young children. I believe in the process of therapy where individuals and families work on the issues they are experiencing at the present moment, learn ways to resolve them and heal, and then leave therapy to continue growing on their own. Once we meet, we will find a way to work successfully. Areas of Expertise Adoption & Foster Care, Assessment & Diagnosis, Dissociative Disorders, Children & Adolescents, Couples, Intimacy, Death & Grief, Depression, Divorce, Extramarital Affairs, Parenting, Physical and terminal Illness, Disability, Pre-marital Counseling, Remarriage & Stepfamilies, Sexual Abuse, Spirituality, Religion, Trauma and Violence.