About Caitlin R. Burgess, JD, MA, LMFT
I am both a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Florida, New York, Texas, and Washington and an attorney licensed to practice in California and Washington. I maintain a private practice in counseling psychology, law, and forensics, providing services throughout the country with offices in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and the Pacific Northwest. I specialize in Court-involved therapy, family systems therapy when a child is resisting and/or refusing contact with a parent, child custody evaluations, expert witness services, parenting coaching, parenting coordination, and mediation. I provide services via Telehealth (typically using Zoom), in-person at one of my offices, or on location (such as providing a therapeutic retreat during a multi-day intervention).
Prior to starting my private practice, I worked exclusively as a lawyer for almost two decades representing clients in family and business law throughout Silicon Valley, including high-technology start-ups in transactional law and litigation. My current practice is interdisciplinary, drawing from my training in law and counseling psychology, utilizing an evidence-based approach. I use Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Family Systems Therapy to address issues such as substance abuse, anxiety, depression, disruptive behaviors in children, parenting concerns, separation/divorce, domestic violence, life transitions, and cases where a child is resisting and/or refusing contact with a parent or caregiver post-divorce/separation in family law.
I am passionate about working with children, adolescents, adults, co-parents, and families. I provide play therapy for children, co-parenting and parallel parenting counseling, and counseling for teens, adults, and families. I treat many clients touched by trauma, abuse, and neglect, including working with children in the foster care system, the Family Courts including with overlapping involvement in the Criminal Justice System, and Juvenile Dependency Courts. I have worked with children and adolescents in incarceration facilities, schools, residential treatment centers, and their own homes. I provide counseling services to individuals referred by the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office Victim of Crimes program.
I have helped teens form positive peer relations, deal with school pressures, blended families, and body image. I have worked with women who have been victims of intimate partner violence, helping them break free from the abuse cycle to lead healthier, happier, more productive lives.
A strong therapeutic alliance between the therapist and the client is critical to effective treatment, and central to building and maintaining that alliance is trust. Paramount to my practice is creating a space where clients can feel safe.