Gia Castiglia Schwarzer, LMFT

Gia Castiglia Schwarzer is a California licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) with seven years of professional experience supporting individuals, couples, and families through life transitions. She specializes in stress and anxiety, relationship and parenting concerns, grief, self esteem, addictions, trauma and abuse, intimacy-related issues, anger, depression, family dynamics, and challenges common to young adults. She approaches therapy from a strengths-based, collaborative perspective, believing that each person already holds many resources that can be activated to address current struggles.

Gia earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and Political Science from the University of California, Irvine, and a Master of Arts in Psychology from Chapman University in Orange, California. After establishing her clinical work she paused to start a family and later returned to counseling, bringing both professional and lived experience to her practice. Her background includes work in private practice and school settings, offering familiarity with diverse client needs and developmental stages.

She is dually certified with the Equine Assisted Growth and Learning Association - EAGALA - as both a Mental Health Practitioner and an Equine Specialist, which reflects training in therapeutic activities that involve horses. As a therapist she emphasizes guiding clients to uncover practical solutions that feel natural and sustainable, and she integrates Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and interpersonal therapy resources to help identify patterns and build new coping strategies. Gia aims to make the first step into therapy feel manageable and affirming for each person who reaches out.