About Holly
Holly Starr is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 25 years of clinical experience in California. She writes and talks with people who are facing stress, anxiety, depression, grief, relationship strain, and struggles with self-esteem or intimacy.
Background and approach
Her style is calm and observant, and she encourages curiosity about feelings and behavior. Holly moves easily between live talk therapy and written online work.
She draws on a long history of helping people through life transitions and loss, including earlier roles in suicide hotline counseling and grief supervision. That background shapes how she responds to strong emotions and moments of crisis.
In sessions she listens for patterns in relationships and for the stories people tell themselves. She helps people notice how thoughts affect choices and mood, then tries small, practical changes together.
Conversations are meant to clarify what feels stuck and what might be possible next. Holly pays attention to issues such as attachment, caregiver stress, codependency, dissociation, and feelings of emptiness or shame.
She also supports concerns tied to aging, fertility, postpartum depression, and midlife adjustments. Her aim is steady, compassionate work that fits each person’s situation.
People who choose her can expect a thoughtful, patient approach and a mix of talk and reflective exercises. She guides clients toward clearer understanding and manageable steps forward.
Therapeutic approaches and online care
Attachment-based work focuses on how early relationship patterns shape current connections and emotional responses, helping people understand trust, closeness, and repeating cycles. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at how thoughts influence emotions and behavior and teaches practical tools to change unhelpful patterns. Psychodynamic and Jungian ideas explore deeper stories and meanings that show up in feelings and dreams, which can help when people feel stuck or empty.Finding the right approach is part of the process. The therapist will work collaboratively to match methods to each person’s needs, goals, and preferences. Together they can try an approach, notice what helps, and adjust the plan over time.
Online therapy offers flexible ways to connect through video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging. Video is useful for full conversation when a visual connection matters. Phone calls can be easier when bandwidth is limited or during a short break. Live chat and text-based messaging fit people who prefer writing to speak or want brief check-ins between sessions. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into busy or changing schedules.
Frequently asked questions
What issues does Holly focus on?
What is her therapeutic style like?
How much clinical experience does she have?
What are her credentials and where is she based?
Can sessions be conducted in languages other than English?
What session formats are offered?
How are fees and cancellations handled?
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also works with
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Attachment issues
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Dissociation
- Emptiness
- Family of origin issues
- Fertility issues
- Guilt and shame
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Postpartum depression
- Self esteem
- Trauma and abuse
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 25 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English