Jessica Santoro
Specialities: Relationship Dysfunction, Attachment Issues, Chronic Pain, Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI) and Eating Disorders
Jessica is a Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (#142669) practicing in Los Angeles, CA under the supervision of Kate Behzadi, LMFT (#97100). Jessica holds a Master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Antioch University and a Bachelor’s of Science in Sport and Exercise Science from the University of Northern Colorado. She completed her clinical training at the Children’s Institute, where she provided community-based mental health services to a diverse population of children, adolescents and their families. Her background in the medical field informs her specializations in chronic pain and traumatic brain injury, as well as her interest in nervous system regulation and eating disorder recovery. In addition to these areas, Jessica also specializes in supporting adult individuals and couples through relationship dysfunction and attachment issues.
About Me
I believe that everyone comes into therapy wanting something to feel different – to be different in their lives. Often the desire to seek therapy comes from the overwhelming uncertainty of what that “something” even is. In this case, it is natural to feel stuck, disempowered by disorienting feelings and residue from the past that seem to control the way you move through life, holding you captive and threatening your sense of peace, wholeness, and capability.
While therapy cannot change what has happened to you, through our work together, I aim to help you grow in your ability to move through the discomforts from your past, and those which will continue to be inevitable in life.
My approach focuses on guiding clients toward gaining insight. From there, we can adjust how they relate to past events, allowing for the softening of emotional impacts on daily functioning. Crucial to the efficacy of my work, I assist clients in regulating their nervous systems, helping them gain realization of their own intrinsic power, so they no longer feel overtaken and controlled by their feelings. To accomplish this, I help clients practice safely tuning into their feelings, learning when and how to trust those feelings as meaningful information, and develop skills to create space between what is happening and how they choose to respond. In other words, rather than feeling powerless to the movements of their emotions, I help clients evolve toward feeling a sense of freedom within their own being.
