Hi! I’m Reesa (she/her)

My Goal is to Work Myself Out of a Job

Here’s how:

If you're looking for a magical elixir made in somebody's basement, I'm not the therapist for you. I work from a modality that is based on more than 4 decades of science and research. The goal will be to learn how to communicate better as parents and how to improve your relationship after kids. We'll focus on actual solutions like:
- Tackling the root of your fight patterns and finding ways to compromise.
- How to bring up an emotional topic without starting a fight.
- How to apologize after a fight.
- How to help your partner feel seen and heard.
- Finding adjustments that need to be made in the relationship, so it lasts a lifetime.
I won’t be afraid to tell you my perspective or to compassionately call you out when needed. I'm not going to be mean about it. But I am going to be real with you. Let's call it like it is - this is not a one-party issue. If you are looking for someone who is just going to take your side, I'm not your therapist. My client is the relationship because it needs an ally!
Guaranteed to be a safe space that is free from Judge Judy up in here telling you all the ways that you are "failing" - you are already likely too good at being your own worst critic - the shame and guilt piling stops here! Please see the coat check at the front door. Our time will be free of pot-stirring, culturally mindful, LGBTQIA+ affirming, and sex positive.

The Mission

I am not interested in keeping you in couples counseling for years.

Frankly … we’ll get sick of each other. No one wants that. The dream is to help you create lasting and thriving relationships with your partner(s) for the sake of your wellbeing and your family’s. My hope for you is that you can learn these skills so that you can support and model health and wellbeing to your children and other family members, creating future generations that are well-adjusted and stable so that you don’t need my services - breaking generational trauma together. Are you ready to accept the challenge?

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In a Nutshell

My name is Reesa Morala, MA, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (aka LMFT CA 104709). I have a bachelor's in fine arts in Musical Theatre (surprise!) and a master’s in Marital and Family Therapy from the University of San Diego (Go Toreros).

Having grown up in my own chaotic home system, I know firsthand how generational trauma can impact your own health and relationships. And then talk about it being triggered by those little humans that you are trying to raise, whether you are trying to break those patterns and don’t know how or you feel like you’re fumbling and instinctually go with what you have seen modeled. No one knows how to push your buttons like your partner and your children. As a parent myself, I came to directly find out about the amount of parent guilt and shame that is out there when you try to take time for yourself or your relationship and the complete lack of resources to support a thriving relationship with yourself and your partner. Through all my personal and professional work, I quickly realized the best preventative care is providing parents like you, couples therapy to break that awful myth that you are selfish for taking time for yourself or your relationship and be that support us parents deserve. In fact, getting support for your mental wellness and your relationship satisfaction is what will actually set you up for being the best parent you can be and here is why:

There is loads of research supporting the impact that your relationship satisfaction has on your mental health stability, your job success, and the passing down of behaviors to your children. As parents, when our relationship is rocky, it means we have less joy and happiness, it is easier to slip into a critical, negative mindset, less capacity and energy to take care of your own needs, and it significantly decreases our availability to show up for your children and other loved family members. Cue my passion for supporting parents and providing relationship counseling for parents. Providing couples counseling in Murrieta, CA. Virtual couples therapy for parents in California. Couples workshops and parenting workshops virtually worldwide!

When You Work With Me:

Your experience will be client centered. Whether it is with couples counseling, couples therapy intensives, couples workshops or parenting workshops - you and your relationship is at the center of it.
- You and your partner(s) are experts on the inner workings of your relationship, and this is your treatment - not mine.
- I’m not going to dictate how often, when, or for how long you need to be in treatment. I’m going to collaborate with you to find what fits your needs best.
- For couples therapy and intensives, I do thorough assessments because I want to understand the relationship patterns first, discover where you are getting stuck, and finding a tailored plan for your relationship that is focused on getting you skills to take into the future.
- I want to collaborate with you on goals for care. I believe that by setting goals, we’ll all know when we’ve completed them and are ready to cut the cord. No shady business here of keeping you on to bleed your bank dry.
- I love to incorporate humor as a tool to get us unstuck. If you take yourself too seriously for all that, I'm not your therapist.
- Safety is a big deal to me. After all, I’m a stranger asking you to tell me about the parts of you and your relationship that you may not be most proud of. If I cannot show up for you in that way, I have no business in trying to ask you to get real or take responsibility with me.

Why I Can Relate:

With my partner of 16 years, we are raising 2 human children and 2 Great Danes.
I’ve had to grow, heal, learn how to be in a healthy relationship and raise well-adjusted children without a handbook or a model for that having grown up with emotionally immature parents and generational trauma.
I’ve had to journey through a high medical needs child and directly experienced the toll that takes on your mental wellbeing and your relationship.