Ana Montenegro

Ana Montenegro is a California-licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with ten years of clinical experience working in outpatient settings. She provides individual, marital, pre-marital and group therapy both in-office and online for people facing depression, anxiety, relationship and parenting challenges, teen concerns, grief and loss, self-esteem struggles, trauma and abuse, changes in the home, co-parenting difficulties, military life issues, and other life adjustments or crises.

Her work is grounded primarily in cognitive behavioral therapy, applied in a collaborative way so clients and therapist work together to identify thinking patterns that affect emotions and behavior. She routinely incorporates psychoeducation, periodic check-ins about the therapeutic relationship, and optional homework to reinforce progress. Her approach is often time-limited and focused on a structured target problem, while also integrating solution-focused and client-centered techniques to address both short-term and longer-term goals.

Ana aims to create a welcoming, inviting atmosphere where clients can develop self-awareness and take an active role in change inside and outside sessions. She helps people build practical strategies to reach the behavior changes they want and meets each person where they are rather than rushing the process. She also offers Christian counseling as a spiritual framework to support clients seeking peace and guidance from a faith perspective.

She holds a master of arts in psychology through the Marriage and Family Therapy program at Phillips Graduate University and is licensed by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences as a Marriage and Family Therapist (license CA LMFT 50293). Ana is certified in evidence-based practices including Managing and Adaptive Practices (MAP), Seeking Safety, and Multi-Systemic Therapy (MST).

Ana values continual professional growth and stays current by reading relevant literature, following ethical and legal guidelines in the field, reviewing the latest research, and attending conferences and trainings. She considers it an honor to accompany people through their personal stories and to help them find hope, peace, and renewed freedom from pain.