Martha Garcia

Martha Garcia, LCSW, is a compassionate Licensed Clinical Social Worker with more than a decade of experience helping children, adolescents, young adults, and families navigate anxiety, depression, trauma, emotional challenges, and major life stressors. She provides a safe, supportive, and collaborative environment where clients can feel heard, understood, and encouraged as they work toward healing and meaningful change.

Martha understands that young people often carry difficult emotions that can be hard to express, including fear of failure, anxiety, anger, sadness, frustration, low self-esteem, and overwhelm. She works closely with clients to help them better understand what they are feeling, develop healthier ways to cope, and build greater confidence in themselves and their ability to manage life’s challenges.

Her areas of focus include generalized anxiety, depression, childhood trauma, emotional regulation, school-related stress, behavioral concerns, self-esteem, and family challenges. With extensive experience working with children and adolescents, particularly those between the ages of 6 and 18, Martha understands how emotional and behavioral concerns can affect school, relationships, family life, and a young person’s overall sense of well-being.

Martha incorporates a variety of evidence-based therapeutic approaches based on each client’s individual needs, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Mindfulness, Play Therapy, and Sandplay Therapy. Her flexible approach allows her to meet children, teens, and young adults where they are developmentally and emotionally.

For clients who have experienced trauma, Martha uses trauma-informed therapy and EMDR to help them safely process difficult experiences, reduce emotional distress, and develop a greater sense of stability and control. When working with younger children, she may incorporate play therapy and sandplay therapy to provide developmentally appropriate ways to communicate emotions and experiences that may be difficult to express with words alone.

Martha believes therapy works best when clients feel respected, supported, and comfortable being themselves. She takes time to build strong therapeutic relationships and works collaboratively with clients and, when appropriate, their families to identify goals, strengthen coping skills, and support lasting emotional growth.

As a bilingual therapist providing therapy in both English and Spanish, Martha is committed to making mental health care feel accessible and welcoming for individuals and families from diverse backgrounds. She recognizes the importance of culture, family relationships, and language in the therapeutic process and strives to create a space where clients can communicate in the language that feels most natural to them.

Martha earned her Master of Social Work from California State University, Long Beach and brings both extensive clinical experience and genuine compassion to her work. Her goal is to help each client feel more confident, resilient, and equipped to navigate difficult emotions, relationships, and life experiences.

Whether your child or teen is struggling with anxiety, depression, trauma, school stress, anger, emotional regulation, or other challenges, Martha provides a supportive place to better understand what is happening, develop practical coping skills, and move toward greater emotional well-being.