Individual Therapy for Palos Verdes | Regina Abayev, JD, LMFT
← INDIVIDUAL THERAPY

PALOS VERDES · REGINA ABAYEV, JD, LMFT

Individual therapy
for Palos Verdes

The office is about 20 to 25 minutes from the Peninsula, down Palos Verdes Boulevard and onto Pacific Coast Highway. On the way in there is time to work out what you actually want to talk about, and on the way home the session tends to settle.

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The Practice

This practice is for people who are exceptionally capable in most areas of life but find themselves privately struggling in others, and who are ready for more than temporary symptom relief. I work with individuals navigating complex transitions, relationships in crisis, and the reflexive patterns that are often hardest to recognize because they are so close to you.

Whatever you are navigating, I bring clinical insight and directness, without judgment, to help you understand the core drivers behind how you are reacting and making decisions. We look at the decisions and relationships that got you here to understand what is currently helping you and what is keeping you stuck.

What we work on

Often people come wanting to work on anxiety, or on relationship dynamics that have grown complicated, at home or at work. Sometimes it is a sense of overwhelm, or an emptiness that is hard to explain. Sometimes it is burnout, or ways of coping that have started to get in the way of living.

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High-Functioning Anxiety
Anxiety that fuels performance is still anxiety. It keeps you sharp and prepared, but it also makes it nearly impossible to stop, rest, or feel settled when the work is actually done. We work on building a nervous system that can tolerate intensity without staying locked in emergency mode indefinitely. The goal is to keep the drive without the cost it is currently extracting.
Career Stress and Identity Beyond Achievement
When self-worth and output are deeply tangled, any shift in professional momentum registers as a threat to who you are. Career transitions, the aftermath of a major achievement that did not land the way you expected, or the recognition that the next milestone is not going to fix the underlying problem all belong here. We work toward a sense of self that holds regardless of your title, your last deal, or what comes next.
Success and Isolation
A certain level of professional success can leave you as the person everyone else relies on, with very few places left where you can be honest without also having to perform. That gap has a cost. We work to close it, so that your personal relationships feel like something real rather than another set of responsibilities you are managing from a distance.
Coping Mechanisms That Have Stopped Working
In high-pressure environments, the line between coping and numbing shifts gradually. Working late when you do not need to. Drinking more than you used to. Compulsive behaviors that restore a sense of control when everything else feels uncertain. I approach these patterns with curiosity about what they are solving, not judgment about what they say about you. We find ways to manage the underlying pressure that do not cost you your health or your relationships.
Grief and Loss
The end of a marriage. The loss of a parent. A professional failure that cost more than money. A quiet grief about the life that did not unfold the way you imagined. These deserve more than coping strategies. We make space for them, work through them at the pace they require, and treat them with the seriousness they deserve.
The Patterns You Inherited
The ability to stay steady under pressure, read a room, and manage other people's emotional states are often skills built in childhood environments that required them. They served a purpose then. But running on that same fuel in your adult life is exhausting, and it tends to show up most clearly in your closest relationships. We look at where those patterns came from, not to dwell on the past but to stop your history from quietly running your present.
From Thinking to Feeling
Most high-achievers have spent their lives being rewarded for thinking clearly, analyzing fast, and staying rational under pressure. Emotional experience is a different domain entirely, and for many intelligent people it is genuinely unfamiliar territory. Learning to access what you actually feel, not just what you think about what you feel, is where the most significant shifts tend to happen. It does not make you less analytical. It makes the analysis more accurate.
Parenting
Parenting is hard under any circumstances. When you are raising a high-needs child, navigating volatile dynamics at home, or trying to stay connected while managing everything else your life demands, the daily strain has a way of leaving little room for the parent you actually want to be. We work on the relationship you want to have with your children, not just the problems in front of you. That means building the steadiness and clarity to show up the way you want to, fostering genuine resilience in your kids, and holding the tension between guiding them and letting them find their own way.
Making Decisions with Confidence
Good decision-making is a skill, and like any skill it can be developed. Many people arrive at major life decisions carrying a backlog of unexamined assumptions, competing pressures, and reflexive patterns that cloud what they actually want and value. We work to build genuine clarity about who you are, what matters to you, and how you make choices under pressure. The goal is not just to resolve the decision in front of you but to develop the kind of self-knowledge that makes the next one easier to trust.

How I Work

I share what I observe, offer perspective you may not have access to on your own, and help you see the patterns that have been driving your decisions and your relationships. I do not sit back and wait for you to figure it out on your own.

Before clinical practice, I spent 19 years as an investment banker, attorney, and technology executive, leading teams, raising capital, and navigating the decisions that come with high-stakes environments. I understand the world my clients operate in because I have lived in it, and that creates a different level of trust and clarity from the very first conversation.

Sessions

Sessions run 50 minutes. When weekly does not fit your schedule, or you want to work on something in a longer block, intensives run 90 minutes, three hours, or six. Formats are on the couples therapy intensives page, and current rates are listed under fees on the FAQ page. All of the services offered at the office are also available virtually.

Practical details

EMAIL TO BOOK
01
2309 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 202, Hermosa Beach. There is a parking lot for clients and street parking along PCH.
02
Sessions are private pay.
03
If you are looking for couples therapy in Palos Verdes, that is a separate page.