Serving Aptos · telehealth across California
Therapy for Aptos, by secure video
I am Laurie, LMFT, licensed in California, and grief is the center of my practice. I have lived and practiced in this area for decades and now work entirely by secure video, which means an Aptos client can meet from the chair they already sit in.
Telehealth only, by secure video or audio, for people physically located in California. Laurie, LMFT.
The losses that arrive in the second half of life
Aptos is a quieter stretch of coast, and the people I see from here are often further along the road than the county average. The concerns they bring are not vague. A husband died in March. A retirement that was supposed to feel like freedom turned out to feel like being unemployed. A diagnosis changed what next year can contain. A daughter lives three states away and calls on Sundays.
Retirement itself is a loss as often as it is a reward. Work carried structure, standing, colleagues and a reason to be dressed by eight. When it stops, the calendar empties in a way nobody warned you about, and the people around you keep congratulating you. Saying out loud that you are not enjoying it can feel ungrateful. It is not; it is grief for a role, and it has a place here.
Caregiving is the other thread. Many Aptos clients are looking after a spouse or a parent — managing medications, appointments, moods, and a slow arithmetic of what is coming. That is anticipatory grief: mourning someone who is still in the next room, while being expected to stay competent all day. The guilt that comes with it is almost universal and rarely spoken.
And then bereavement itself. An empty house has a particular sound. Meals become strange. Mornings are often the hardest hour. If that is where you are, my grief work goes into it rather than around it — you can read how I think about grief on the grief page.
Grief is not a disease. Grief is a sign of life and love.
If grief is what brought you here, you may want to read how I work with grief and loss.
What Aptos clients most often bring
The death of a spouse
Bereavement with all its practical wreckage — paperwork, meals, an empty side of the bed. Somewhere to say his or her name without managing anyone's discomfort.
Retirement that landed oddly
You have the time you wanted and less of yourself than you expected. We take the loss seriously instead of scheduling hobbies over it.
Caring for a partner or parent
Long days, medical logistics, and grief for someone still living. Including the resentment and guilt that ride along with love.
A change in health
A diagnosis or a body that no longer does what it did. Grief for plans and capacities, not only for people.
A house that went quiet
Children gone, a partner gone, friends moving or dying. Loneliness in later life is common and it is not a weakness.
Old grief resurfacing
A loss from decades ago that has come back up now that there is finally room for it. That timing is normal.
How we would begin
There is a free 20-minute consult first, by phone if that is easier than video. You tell me what happened and what you are hoping for; I tell you honestly whether I am the right person. No pressure, and nothing owed afterward.
If we go ahead, we usually meet weekly at first, by secure video. Grief and loss are my primary focus; I also work with emotional and mental patterns that will not shift, with trauma, PTSD and complex trauma, and with anxiety. I am EMDR certified and a certified hypnotherapist, and I use Internal Family Systems and somatic work where they fit.
Two straightforward things: I do not treat bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, and I am out of network, providing superbills rather than billing insurance or Medicare. The fees page lays out the rate and the cancellation policy.
I want to be plain about location, since these pages can mislead. I have no office in Aptos and see no one in person. Sessions are by secure video, for people located in California — your living room, your porch, or a parked car by the beach if the house is busy.
- Bereavement, including recent loss
- Anticipatory grief and caregiver strain
- Retirement and identity transitions
- Seniors, adults, couples and families
- Phone consult available if video is new to you
- Telehealth only, by secure video or audio, for people physically located in California. Laurie, LMFT.
Questions from Aptos
- I'm not sure therapy is for someone my age
- A good share of my practice is people in the second half of life, and they are often the ones who use the hour best. You know yourself. You are not trying to find out who you are; you are dealing with something specific — a death, a retirement, a diagnosis, a house that has gone quiet, a body that has changed the terms. Nothing about this work requires you to reinterpret your childhood or adopt a new vocabulary. We talk about what is actually in front of you, and I listen carefully.
- Is this covered by Medicare?
- I am out of network, which means I do not bill Medicare or insurance directly. I provide a superbill — an itemized receipt — that you can submit to your plan yourself, and whether any of it comes back to you depends entirely on your own coverage and your plan's rules for out-of-network mental health care. I cannot promise reimbursement and I will not imply that Medicare covers my sessions. If it would help, call the number on your card and ask specifically about out-of-network outpatient psychotherapy before we begin. The rate and policies are on the fees page.
- My spouse died — how soon is too soon?
- There is no too soon and no too late. Some people want to talk in the first weeks, when the house is still full of casseroles and the paperwork is relentless. Others come a year or two on, when everyone else has moved along and the quiet has settled in — and that later grief is just as real. I will not put your loss on a schedule or tell you what stage you are in. We start where you are, at the pace you set.
- I'm not very technical — is video hard?
- It is one tap. I send you a link by text or email; you tap it at the appointed time and I am there. There is nothing to download and no account to make. If you would like, we can do a five-minute practice run before the first real session so nothing is unfamiliar. And if the connection ever misbehaves, we simply switch to the phone and keep going rather than losing your hour.
You are welcome to bring this here
Book a free consult, or send a text and we will find a time to talk. Sessions are by secure video for people located anywhere in California.