Couples Therapy in Long Beach
Reconnect, repair, and grow together, all without leaving home.
Weekly 50, 75, or 90-minute sessions · Secure video sessions · Serving Long Beach residents and clients across California
Couples therapy that meets Long Beach where it lives.
Long Beach is a city where a lot of couples are quietly running on two different clocks. One partner works a shift at the port or the terminals, home when the other is heading out, asleep when the other is finally free. Nurses at Long Beach Memorial and staff at Cal State Long Beach keep their own hours that don't fold neatly into an evening. The couple that moved down from LA to make rent work now spends the difference back on the 710, one of them gone before the other is awake. What wears on people here usually isn't a shortage of love. It's that the week keeps handing them opposite halves of the day, and they haven't been awake and unhurried in the same room for longer than a handoff in weeks.
Long Beach behaves like several towns sharing one map. Belmont Shore and Naples run on a beach-village rhythm, gondolas on the canals and brunch lines along Second Street. Bixby Knolls and Cal Heights keep an older, rooted feel, Craftsman blocks and neighbors who've stayed for decades. Downtown and the East Village pull the artists, the LGBTQ community, and the younger renters who made Retro Row on Fourth Street what it is. Out toward the port, whole families organize their lives around terminal shifts, longshore schedules, and the truck traffic that never really stops on the 710. The through line is work that doesn't keep office hours. Logistics runs around the clock, healthcare and education keep irregular schedules, and anyone commuting toward downtown LA knows what the 405 or the A Line adds to both ends of the day. On top of that sits the cost story: Long Beach used to be the affordable coast, and a steady arrival of people priced out of LA has bent that math for renters and buyers alike. The couples I see here are often two tired people trading a kid and a car in a driveway, or a pair who love the city and can barely afford to keep loving it. The individuals carry the particular fatigue of a shift and service economy that asks for cheerfulness on no sleep. It's a proud, diverse, unpretentious place, and the pressure under it is real.
About Couples Therapy
Couples therapy that meets you where you are, in the relationship, in your life, and in your home. I work with couples navigating disconnection, conflict, intimacy challenges, life transitions, and the slow drift that happens when partnership is on autopilot. Together we slow down, get curious about what's actually happening between you, and rebuild the connection from the ground up.
When one of you works port or hospital shifts and the other is up the 710 to LA, finding an hour you are both free, let alone both awake, is half the battle in Long Beach. Couples therapy online lets you log in together from the living room, or from two places on one screen, so mismatched schedules stop deciding whether you get help.
What to expect
- An initial 90-minute intake where I meet both of you and we map what's going on
- Weekly sessions of your chosen length: 50, 75, or 90 minutes
- A blend of structured tools (communication, repair, attachment work) and open exploration
- Real homework between sessions, because the work doesn't happen only in the room
- A pace that follows your lead. I'm here to support, not push
Common reasons people come in
- —Communication patterns that feel stuck or escalate quickly
- —Loss of emotional or physical intimacy
- —Major life transitions like parenthood, career shifts, and blending families
- —Trust ruptures, including affairs and betrayals
- —Resentment, distance, and the feeling of being roommates
- —Differences in sex drive, desire, or sexual expression
- —Mismatched shift schedules pulling the relationship apart, port, logistics, healthcare, or hospitality hours that leave the two of you awake in the same room only in passing
Weekly 50, 75, or 90-minute sessions
- All sessions held online via secure HIPAA-compliant video
- Cancellation policy: 24 hours
- Currently accepting new Long Beach clients
Why online sessions are a good fit for Long Beach
Long Beach runs on schedules that don't bend. Port and logistics work happens in shifts, healthcare and education keep irregular hours, and anyone commuting toward downtown LA knows exactly what the 710 or the A Line adds to a day. Booking a weekly 5pm across town, and actually keeping it, is genuinely hard here. Online therapy takes that friction out. You meet from home in Bixby Knolls, on a lunch break near the terminals, or after the kids are down in Alamitos Beach, without stacking another drive onto a city where the average commute already runs about half an hour. There's also the small-town truth underneath a big city. People run into each other on Retro Row, along Second Street in Belmont Shore, at the Cal State Long Beach farmers market. Meeting by secure video keeps your therapy yours: no waiting room, no parking lot, no running into someone from your block. I'm licensed across California and based up in the East Bay, so sessions are online only, wherever in Long Beach you happen to be.
- No travel time across Belmont Shore, Bixby Knolls, Downtown Long Beach
- Sessions fit into work-from-home schedules
- Privacy and discretion, with sessions from your own home
- Available evenings and select weekend hours
A relational, depth-oriented therapist serving California.
I'm Fanshen Thompson, a Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) based in California. I work with couples, individuals, and partnerships navigating intimacy, identity, and the slower work of becoming.
I am a certified Gottman trained couples therapist and draw from Emotionally Focused Therapy, Internal Family Systems, attachment theory, and somatic practices. But more than any single modality, I bring myself: a real human who has done, and continues to do, this work.
My practice is online and serves clients across California. The work is honest, grounded, and paced to what you can actually carry.
Frequently asked questions
How do online sessions work?
We meet over a secure, HIPAA-compliant video platform. You'll receive a link before each session and join from a private space at home. No app downloads or special equipment beyond a device with a camera and a stable internet connection.
Do I need a special app or platform?
No. The video platform runs in your browser. I'll send a link a few minutes before our session. You click, and we begin.
Is this covered by insurance?
I'm an out-of-network provider. I can provide a superbill you can submit to your insurance for potential out-of-network reimbursement. I'd encourage you to call your insurance and ask about your out-of-network mental health benefits.
How long does it take to see results?
Most people begin to feel something shift within the first several weeks. A little more clarity, a little less alone in it. Real, lasting change is a longer arc, often months of consistent weekly work. I'll be honest with you about what I see along the way.
What is your cancellation policy?
My cancellation policy is 24 hours. Sessions cancelled with less than 24 hours' notice are charged in full.
Can you see clients in Long Beach?
One partner is on a port shift while the other is home in Alamitos Beach; on secure video they can still meet weekly, together on one screen, with neither fighting the 405 or the 710 to reach an office across town. My California license follows you, so the work in Long Beach happens online from wherever you happen to be. Couples and individuals come to me from Belmont Shore and Naples to Bixby Knolls, Cal Heights, Downtown, the East Village, and out toward the port. Your neighborhood has no say in whether care reaches you.
Ready to start? Let's talk.
Book a free 20-minute consultation. We'll talk about what's going on and whether working together feels right. No pressure, no commitment.