Couples Therapy in Encinitas and Online throughout California

Helping couples create relationships rooted in connection, integrity and partnership.

Many couples go through periods of conflict, tension, and disconnection. Couples therapy invites you to understand your relationship, yourself, and your partner more deeply and transform the patterns that keep you stuck.

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Does This Sound Familiar?

  • Do you find yourselves caught in the same arguments, despite your best efforts to communicate clearly?

  • Do disagreements frequently leave you feeling ignored, misunderstood, defensive, or hurt?

  • Do you feel more like roommates than lovers and long for greater affection, connection, and intimacy?

  • Do you love each other but sense that something deeper is missing from your relationship?

  • Have past experiences or unresolved relational wounds made it difficult to feel close?

  • Has infidelity rocked the foundation of your relationship and you want to know if healing is possible?

  • Are you on the brink of divorce and wondering if your relationship and love can be restored?

Smiling woman sitting in an armchair during a counseling session, surrounded by houseplants and a bookshelf.

Meet Cristina Trette, LMFT

Hi, I am Cristina Trette. I have dedicated my career to helping couples renew their love, communicate more effectively, and cultivate greater intimacy. At the heart of my work is the belief that meaningful change is possible, even after years of disconnection, betrayal, or significant hurt.

My approach is based on Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, Relational Life Therapy, and attachment science, which offer powerful ways of understanding adult love relationships and marriage. In my work with couples, we go beyond surface-level problems to shift the underlying patterns that create conflict and distance.

I believe couples therapy should be active, direct, and highly engaged. I don't sit back and let couples fight, spend months rehashing the past, or simply listen and validate. Ultimately, my goal is to help people heal what has been painful and build relationships marked by greater love, integrity, intimacy and partnership.

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Focus Areas

  • Communication

    I help couples communicate clearly, so each person feels heard and understood, rather than getting pulled into patterns of fighting or avoiding conflict.

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  • Love & Intimacy

    I support couples to cultivate emotional and sexual connection and revitalize their love through honest dialogue and engaged conversations.

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  • Parenting and Family

    I help couples strengthen their partnership and work as a team as they navigate parenting, family, and building a home together.

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  • Relational Trauma

    I help couples recognize how past trauma shows up in their relationship, and support them to shift protective patterns, and respond with care.

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  • Infidelity

    I help couples process emotional pain, cultivate security, and rebuild trust and integrity, whether they stay together or part ways.

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  • Brink of Divorce

    I guide couples to slow down, regulate emotions, and create the space for thoughtful conversations and decisions surrounding their marriage.

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You have options when it comes to couples therapy. Here is why my approach is different.

Couples and Relationships Are My Specialty

Many therapists see some couples; I work exclusively with couples. I am deeply experienced in the common challenges couples face, from parenting, communication, and division of household duties, to sexless marriages, and deeply entrenched patterns of conflict. I am also well versed in relationship crises such as infidelity or facing the brink of divorce.

Extensive and Ongoing Training

I hold a Masters Degree in Marital and Family Therapy from the University of San Diego and am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. I have extensive training in Emotionally Focused Couples Therapy, an evidence-based approach to relationship healing, and am currently training in Relational Life Therapy. The therapy you receive will be current and effective.

Professionalism and Maturity

I bring clinical depth, stated observations, and life experience (including parenthood, marriage, and divorce) to help you understand the patterns and behaviors that keep you stuck, and guide you towards positive, meaningful, and lasting change.

Warm and Personal Care

Operating a boutique solo practice enables me to be accessible, responsive, and engaged with my clients. I also coordinate care with individual therapists, family therapists, and psychiatrists to ensure my clients have a team of support when indicated. In addition, I have a network of professionals I regularly refer my clients to including financial advisors, mediators, and lawyers when requested.

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