Christie Carol Spahr, LMFT

Christie Carol Spahr is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) practicing in California with 26 years of professional experience. She helps individuals and couples strengthen self-knowledge and self-compassion while building tolerance, trust, and confidence to better manage stress, anxiety, depression, relationship challenges, and life transitions. Christie blends humanistic, existential, person-centered, motivational, and narrative approaches to create an open-hearted, open-minded space where thoughts, emotions, and experiences can be explored without judgment.

Christie earned a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from the University of Oregon with emphasis on cultural, sociological, indigenous, and philosophical worldviews, and later completed a Master of Arts in Psychology with a specialty in Marriage and Family Therapy. Before graduate school she worked in sports marketing and studied Indigenous cultures in Australia and the United States, experiences that inform her respectful and culturally aware approach to therapy. A lifelong runner who has completed marathons around the world, she brings dedication, perseverance, and a belief in steady progress to her clinical work.

Christie focuses on practical strategies for coping with life changes, building healthier relationships, addressing attachment and abandonment concerns, improving communication, and managing panic, trauma, and issues of self-esteem and body image. She welcomes clients seeking compassionate, thoughtful support to move toward a more fulfilling and resilient life.

Therapeutic approaches adapted for online care

Christie integrates person-centered and motivational approaches into online therapy in ways that prioritize the client experience. Person-centered work focuses on creating a respectful, nonjudgmental environment that helps people explore identity, values, and relationships and supports goals like improving self-esteem, managing attachment concerns, and navigating life changes. Motivational techniques help clients clarify their own reasons for change, strengthen commitment, and tackle patterns such as avoidance, impulsivity, or difficulty with coping during stressful moments.

These approaches are applied collaboratively. Christie works with clients to identify which methods fit their needs, goals, and preferences, adjusting pacing and techniques as the therapeutic relationship develops. The process is framed as a partnership in which the therapist and client evaluate what helps most and refine the plan over time.

Online therapy offers practical benefits for this kind of work. Video calls allow for face-to-face interaction and observation of emotional cues, while phone sessions can provide a simpler option when schedules or privacy concerns make video difficult. Live chat and text-based messaging support ongoing reflection and check-ins between sessions. Together these options increase flexibility and accessibility so therapy can fit real-life routines and supports steady progress with licensed professionals and therapists.