Couples Therapy in Encinitas and Online Throughout California

Helping couples create relationships rooted in love, integrity, intimacy and partnership.

Many couples go through periods of conflict, tension, and disconnection. Therapy invites you to understand yourself, your partner, and your relationship 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 differently?

  • Do disagreements frequently leave you feeling dropped, misunderstood, defensive, or withdrawn?

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

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

  • Have past experiences or unresolved emotional wounds made it difficult to feel safe and connected?

  • Has infidelity or betrayal damaged trust, leaving you questioning whether your relationship can be restored?

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

Meet 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. I help people learn more about themselves and each other, share from a space of clarity and love, and create new ways of interacting in the room. Ultimately, my goal is to help couples not only heal what has been painful, but build a relationship marked by greater love and trust.

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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.

  • Intimacy

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

  • 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.

  • Infidelity and Betrayal

    I help couples process emotional pain, engage in honest conversations, rebuild trust, and move forward, whether they stay together or part ways.

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

Couples and Relationships Are My Specialty

I am deeply experienced in the common challenges couples face from difficulties with communication and division of household duties, to sexless marriages, and entrenched patterns of conflict. I am also well versed in relationship crises such as infidelity or facing the brink of divorce. If couples therapy is not appropriate in your situation, I can work with you individually from a relational lens.

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, one of the most researched and effective approaches 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 life experience, clinical depth, and direct guidance to help you understand the patterns and behaviors that keep you stuck, and guide you towards positive, meaningful, and lasting change.

Warm, Personal, and Engaged Care

Operating a solo boutique 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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