I want to understand the whole story, not only what is showing up today.
MEET YOUR THERAPIST
I am Aurelie Zephir, a licensed marriage and family therapist serving women in California and Texas. My work is centered on helping women understand themselves more deeply, especially when anxiety, depression, painful experiences, or patterns in their relationships have left them feeling stuck or disconnected from themselves.
When we work together, I am interested in more than what is happening in the moment. I want us to understand what has shaped you, what you learned about yourself and other people, and what you may have had to do to keep going. That understanding gives us a place to begin creating something different.
How I Work
I believe coping skills are useful, but they are only part of the work. When something keeps coming back, I want us to understand why. We look at the thoughts, beliefs, relationships, experiences, and patterns that may be connected to what you are feeling now. We also pay attention to how your body responds, what you have learned to do to protect yourself, and whether those responses are still helping you today.
My role is not to tell you who to become or make decisions for you. I am here to help you become more aware of what is happening within you, understand yourself with more compassion, and practice responding in ways that feel healthier and more aligned with who you are. Over time, I want you to feel more confident noticing your own patterns, working through what comes up, and trusting yourself without needing me to point everything out for you.
My work goes deeper than helping you manage the moment.
✦Emotional regulation and nervous system responses
✦Guilt, shame, self criticism, and the pressure to get everything right
✦Your values and what actually matters to you
✦Healthier ways of responding when you feel triggered
✦Patterns that keep repeating in your relationships
✦The beliefs you have developed about yourself and others
✦Difficulty trusting yourself or your decisions
✦How past experiences may be affecting you today
What we may explore together
The tools matter, but awareness comes first.
I use evidence based approaches, including trauma informed CBT, DBT skills, mindfulness, grounding, and nervous system regulation. I also incorporate values work, inner child reflection, and exploration of the different parts of yourself that may have developed to protect you.
I do not believe in using a technique just because it is part of a treatment model. I want to understand what is happening for you first. From there, we can decide what tools actually make sense for what you are experiencing. That can mean looking at a thought pattern, learning how to regulate when your body feels overwhelmed, understanding where a belief about yourself came from, or becoming curious about a part of you that reacts strongly when something feels familiar.
My areas of focus include anxiety, depression, trauma, difficult family relationships, self trust, emotional regulation, relationship patterns, and the ways childhood and past experiences can continue to affect how you see yourself and move through the world today.
Therapy with me is not about giving you a list of coping skills and sending you on your way. The goal is for the tools to make sense because you understand yourself better, not because someone simply told you what you should do.
Education, Licensure, and Experience
My approach is shaped by seven years of clinical experience working with adults navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship patterns, and the impact of past experiences. Along with my formal education and licensure, I continue to build on my training so I can bring both evidence based tools and a deeper understanding of the person sitting in front of me.
Licensure
✦ Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, California
✦ Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Texas
Education
✦ Master of Arts in Counseling psychology Specialization in Marriage and Family Therapy
National University
✦ Bachelor of Arts Psychology
California State University, Los Angeles
Training and Clinical Approaches
✦ Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
✦ Dialectical Behavior Therapy skills
✦ Trauma informed therapy
✦ Mindfulness and grounding practices
✦ Nervous system education and regulation
✦ Inner child and parts informed reflection