You Don’t Have to Figure This Out Alone

Whether you’re navigating a divorce, raising a teenager who’s struggling, carrying the weight of old trauma, or simply feeling like the life you’ve built has stopped fitting — you’ve come to the right place.

I’m Barbara Townsend, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) based in California. I work with individuals, teens, couples, and families — in person and virtually throughout California. My specialties include collaborative divorce, adolescent and family crisis, trauma, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

I didn’t choose this specialty. It chose me.

But before I tell you what I do, I want to tell you how I got here.

I’ve experienced divorce from every angle — as a child who lived through her parents’ separation, as an adult who navigated her own, and as a clinician who has spent over a decade accompanying families through it.

I’ve also walked away from a twenty-year career in broadcast news and Hollywood visual effects to start over completely in my forties. That’s a lot of upheaval. And what carried me through every time wasn’t willpower or insight alone. It was relationship. The right people, at the right moments, who made it safe enough to fall apart and put myself back together.

That belief sits at the center of everything I do. Human beings heal in connection with other human beings. Not through technique alone. Not through insight alone. Through relationship.

My approach is trauma-informed at its core.

I draw on Family Systems, Attachment Theory, EMDR, Relational Somatic Healing, and narrative therapy. I have advanced training in couples therapy through The Couples Institute, and I specialize in collaborative divorce — helping families navigate separation in ways that preserve connection where it matters most, especially for children.

I also have a deep love for working with teenagers and families in crisis — young people are more resilient than they feel, and one safe relationship can change everything.

I’m not a blank-slate therapist. I bring my whole self to this work — my training, my experience, my failures, and my genuine belief that healing is possible for anyone willing to do it in relationship with someone they trust.

If you’re looking for a therapist who gets it from the inside out, I’d love to connect.

I am a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (#109771) with the State of California and a certified Mediator with the SF Bar.