Online Therapy in California | Regina Abayev, JD, LMFT
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REGINA ABAYEV, JD, LMFT

Online therapy
across California

Some clients prefer meeting online. Others need to, given where they live or what their week looks like. Every service offered at the Hermosa Beach office is also available virtually, for couples and for individuals, anywhere in California.

Let’s Begin
Regina Abayev at her desk during a virtual therapy session

Is online therapy as effective as meeting in person?

Meeting in person can sometimes allow for more points of contact. I see more of you, and with a couple I take in more of how the two of you are with each other in the same space.

Online is convenient, and for some people it is what makes the work possible at all. Clients anywhere in California who cannot make the drive meet with me the same way clients down the street do, and co-parents in separate houses or partners living in two different cities can sit in one session from wherever each of them is that week.

The research on this is consistent. A randomized trial comparing couples therapy delivered by video against the same work delivered in person found no significant difference in relationship satisfaction, in symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress, or in the strength of the therapeutic relationship, with the gains still holding three months later (Kysely et al., Frontiers in Psychology, 2022).

Clients who live further out sometimes prefer to alternate, coming in for a longer session and meeting online in between.

Online Services

What we work on
online

Let’s Begin
Couples therapy
The core of this practice. We work on what is driving the pattern between the two of you rather than refereeing the argument on the surface. Video suits this well, since I can see both of you at once and partners in two different homes can still be in the same session.
Communication and conflict
You keep having the same argument and nothing resolves. The cycle shows up within minutes on video the same way it does in the office, and we slow it down there.
Emotional intimacy
The closeness between you has faded and neither of you can say exactly when. This work runs on conversation and history, and almost nothing about it is lost to a screen.
Physical intimacy and desire
Mismatched desire, faded intimacy, and the distance that follows are among the most common and least discussed reasons couples come in. Some people find it easier to raise this from their own home than in an office.
Trust and repair after betrayal
Discovery, disclosure, and the slow work of deciding what repair can realistically look like. Sessions in the first months are often frequent and hard to fit around work, and meeting online is usually what makes that pace possible.
Discernment counseling
For when one of you is leaning out of the relationship and the other is leaning in. The format includes separate time with each partner inside the same session, which is straightforward to run over video.
Premarital counseling
Every person brings history, habits, and expectations into a marriage. Engaged couples are often in two different cities in the year before the wedding, so this is one of the services requested online most often.
High-conflict dynamics
When the relationship has become defined by escalation, the pattern itself is the problem. Video adds a little structure to the room, and some couples find it easier to interrupt the escalation there.
Co-parenting
The romantic relationship has changed and the responsibility to your children has not. Parents in separate homes rarely want to share a waiting room, and this work often goes better when neither of you had to drive to it.
Life transitions
A new baby, a move, a job that has taken over, blended families, aging parents. These are also the stretches when a couple has the least ability to get anywhere on a Tuesday evening, and online is what keeps the work from stopping.
Money and financial conflict
Money is rarely just about money. Statements, spreadsheets, and actual numbers are easy to bring into a virtual session, which sometimes makes the conversation more concrete than it would be in the office.
Individual therapy
For people who are capable in most areas of life and privately struggling in others. Most of my individual clients meet online at least part of the time, and many of them exclusively.
Intensives
Ninety minutes, three hours, or a full day. Longer formats run online with scheduled breaks, and they are often the right fit for couples who cannot make a weekly hour work. Formats are on the couples intensives page and rates are under fees on the FAQ page.

What makes an online session work

An online session needs a room with a door. If someone’s in the next room and you’re worried about being overheard, you’ll spend the hour editing yourself, and it usually shows. If there’s nowhere at home that works, tell me and we’ll meet at the office.

A parked car or your office after everyone’s gone works fine, if that’s the private spot you’ve got. Not while you’re driving, though. I know it looks like found time on a long drive, but I won’t run a session with someone behind the wheel.

Online works especially well when your schedule moves around. If you travel two weeks out of the month, you can keep the same hour every week instead of dropping the work and picking it back up later. Parents of young kids tend to like it for the same reason, and so do couples going through a stretch where one of you is living somewhere else.

Practical details

Schedule Here
01
Sessions are private pay. Current rates are listed under fees on the FAQ page.
02
A link is sent out fifteen minutes before each session. On a computer it opens in your browser. On a phone or tablet you’ll need the free Telehealth by SimplePractice app.
03
I am licensed in California and can meet with you when you are physically in California at the time of the session. If you are traveling out of state, tell me in advance so I can check that state's rules before we schedule.
04
All of the services offered at the Hermosa Beach office are available online. Clients who live further out sometimes prefer to alternate, coming in for a longer session and meeting online in between.
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The office is at 2309 Pacific Coast Highway, Suite 202, in Hermosa Beach, whenever coming in works for you.