About Jessica
Jessica Criner uses relationship-focused and evidence-informed approaches to help people manage stress, anxiety, trauma, and relationship conflict. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) practicing in California.
Background and approach
Her style is down-to-earth and direct, aimed at helping people find relief and practical steps forward. Jessica draws on methods that attend to feelings, thoughts, and behavior.
She helps clients name what is happening and then tries out new ways of responding. Sessions are conversational and goal-oriented, with attention to how past hurts shape present reactions.
She has seven years of clinical experience working with issues such as trauma and abuse, self-esteem, family problems, and relationship struggles. Jessica also addresses concerns like attachment wounds, codependency, infidelity, and postpartum depression.
Her background includes supporting people facing multicultural and immigration-related challenges. Her approach often blends acceptance-based strategies, cognitive work, and emotion-focused techniques.
That mix helps people tolerate strong feelings, shift unhelpful thinking, and rebuild connection where it matters. She emphasizes practical skills you can use between sessions.
Clients can expect a respectful, nonjudgmental environment. Jessica aims to honor each person’s story while helping them strengthen coping skills and improve important relationships.
She works with a variety of life-stage stressors and transitions, including hospice and end-of-life concerns and issues tied to family blending and foster-care experiences.
Approaches that guide online sessions
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, or ACT, helps people notice painful thoughts and feelings without getting stuck in them, and then choose actions that match their values. It can be useful for anxiety, stress, and life transitions. Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on how early relationships shape current connection patterns and helps people build safer, more responsive bonds in their close relationships. Client-Centered Therapy emphasizes listening closely and offering empathy so clients can explore their experience and find their own solutions.Choosing an approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will talk with each person about their goals, symptoms, and preferences, and then suggest which methods to try first. Plans are adjusted over time based on what helps most, and clients are invited to give feedback about pacing and focus.
Online sessions are offered by video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different routines. Video is helpful for full conversations and reading nonverbal cues. Phone sessions can work when bandwidth is limited or for a shorter check-in. Messaging and live chat suit quick updates, progress notes, or when frequent brief contact is helpful. These options make it easier to schedule therapy around work, family, or caregiving commitments.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Blended family issues
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Domestic violence
- Family problems
- Forgiveness
- Guilt and shame
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Multicultural concerns
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Trauma and abuse
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 7 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English