Andrea McLellan

Andrea McLellan is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) who blends practical, goal-focused methods with deeper exploration of life history. She prioritizes finding clear, realistic steps that reduce symptoms and help people move forward. Andrea speaks plainly and works to make therapy feel like useful work rather than abstract talk.

Andrea draws on 14 years of clinical experience and academic work to inform her practice. She also teaches psychology at a university and consults in forensic contexts related to sexual assault and child abuse. That background gives her familiarity with family systems, trauma, and the long-term effects of harm within families.

In sessions she uses solution-focused ideas and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to set specific, manageable goals. She also brings in Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, Narrative Therapy, and psychodynamic perspectives when they fit a person’s needs. The emphasis is on practical changes paired with understanding why patterns developed.

Andrea often helps people who are dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, relationship problems, parenting strain, grief, trauma, addiction, and issues around intimacy and self-esteem. She also addresses concerns such as body image, attachment and abandonment, and caregiver stress, among others.

She works from California and practices in English. Andrea is mindful of how family history shapes current struggles and aims to help people develop awareness, responsibility, and courage as they reclaim a more authentic life.

How Andrea’s Approaches Work Online

Andrea uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to identify unhelpful thoughts and habits and replace them with more effective behaviors; this approach is useful for anxiety, depression, and practical symptom relief. Dialectical Behavior Therapy offers skills for managing intense emotions, improving distress tolerance, and strengthening interpersonal effectiveness in everyday life. Motivational Interviewing helps people clarify their own goals and strengthen motivation for change, which can be helpful for addiction, procrastination, or shifting health behaviors.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. Andrea will work with each person to figure out which combination of methods fits their goals and preferences. She aims to balance concrete skill-building with understanding the origins of difficult patterns so clients can both feel better and learn why things developed.

Session formats are not specified here, so please confirm current session options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy schedule, shorten travel time, and allow brief check-ins when a quick follow-up is needed. It can also let people attend from a quieter setting or avoid lengthy commutes. Talk with the therapist about scheduling and the session structure that best fits your life.