Couples Therapy in Los Angeles
Reconnect, repair, and grow together — without leaving home.
Weekly 50, 75, or 90-minute sessions · Secure video sessions · Serving Los Angeles residents and clients across California
Couples therapy that meets Los Angeles where it lives.
Los Angeles is one of the few cities in America where two people who live thirty minutes apart can effectively be in a long-distance relationship. A West LA partner and a Silver Lake partner share a zip-code area on paper and a calendar on the fridge — and almost no overlap in the actual week. The city's geography isn't a backdrop here; it's a third party in the relationship, and it has opinions. Couples in Los Angeles aren't usually struggling because they don't love each other. They're struggling because they haven't been in the same room, awake and undefended, for longer than a 20-minute decompression in weeks.
Los Angeles couples don't fight about traffic — they live inside it. The 405 at 6 p.m., the Westside-to-Pasadena dinner that becomes 90 minutes each way, the gym across town you stopped going to, the friends in Highland Park you used to see every weekend — geography is a third partner in every LA relationship, and it gets a vote in how often you actually touch each other's lives. Add the industry pressures specific to this city — entertainment cycles, freelance instability, agency timelines, tech-south growth, creative subsidiaries that ask for nights and weekends — and what shows up at home is a couple who haven't been in the same room, undefended, for more than dinner-and-decompression in weeks. The demographics matter too. LA is a city of transplants and second-generation Angelenos, of bicultural and bilingual couples, of partnerships built across class lines that don't always have language for what's actually pulling at them. Silver Lake creatives partnered with West LA professionals. Echo Park artists holding household stability for partners in TV writers' rooms. Santa Monica tech couples managing burnout while raising kids in a city built for cars. Pasadena families balancing academic-track parenting with two demanding careers. The work I do meets that LA reality — not the version of it that wishes the city were smaller and the days were longer.
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.
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 — 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 — parenthood, career shifts, blending families
- —Trust ruptures, including affairs and betrayals
- —Resentment, distance, and the feeling of being roommates
- —Differences in sex drive, desire, or sexual expression
- —Entertainment, creative, or tech-south industry pressure on the relationship — long shoots, contract cycles, on-call demands, and the way the city's work culture quietly takes the partnership's time first
Weekly 50, 75, or 90-minute sessions
- All sessions held online via secure HIPAA-compliant video
- Cancellation policy: 24 hours
- Currently accepting new Los Angeles clients
Why online sessions are a good fit for Los Angeles
Online sessions are the format that actually keeps the appointment in Los Angeles. The single biggest reason couples and individuals drop out of in-person therapy here is the drive — a 50-minute session that becomes a three-hour evening once you factor in the 405, the 101 at the Cahuenga Pass, or crossing the basin from Pasadena to Santa Monica at rush hour. By the time you've parked, sat in the waiting room, done the session, and crawled home, you've spent half a workday on therapy that was supposed to take an hour. People stop showing up. The work stops working. Online sessions remove the geography variable entirely. You log in from your home in Silver Lake, your office in Century City, your kitchen in Studio City after the kids are in bed, or your car parked in a quiet spot before pickup at school. For couples in LA, the format also removes the logistical impossibility of getting two people across the city to the same room on the same night — a problem that has quietly ended many in-person couples therapies in this city. The work stays weekly, it stays consistent, and weekly consistency is what actual change requires.
- No travel time across Silver Lake, Echo Park, West LA
- Sessions fit into work-from-home schedules
- Privacy and discretion — 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 Los Angeles?
Yes. I work with Los Angeles couples and individuals across the basin and the valleys — Silver Lake, Echo Park, Los Feliz, Highland Park, West LA, Santa Monica, Venice, Culver City, Mid-City, Pasadena, Eagle Rock, Studio City, Sherman Oaks, and the broader Westside and Eastside. Because everything happens over secure video, your neighborhood doesn't change access to the work — a couple where one partner is in Pasadena and the other is in Santa Monica can both join from home on the same night without anyone driving across the city, which in LA is usually the deciding factor in whether therapy actually happens week after week.
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.