Our team · Online in California
Lauren Goldstein, LCSW: Psychodynamic Therapy for Anxiety, Identity and Relationships, Online in California
Long-term therapy for adults rethinking who they are and how they love, and ready to change patterns that have run for years.
LCSW · Licensed Clinical Social Worker, California #24555 · Psychodynamic and integrative
Lauren Goldstein, LCSW, is a psychodynamic psychotherapist at Lisa Chen & Associates Therapy. She sees adults and couples online anywhere in California for anxiety, perfectionism, overthinking, repeating relationship patterns, and questions of identity and sexuality, including LGBTQ+ clients and people coming out or questioning later in life. Her work is long-term and integrative, with attention to emotion, relationships and the body.
Online across California · Individuals and couples · LGBTQ+ affirming
Why people come to Lauren
Seeing your parents' marriage in your own·A relationship that works on paper and feels far away·Realizing in your 40s, 50s or later that you may be gay, bi or queer·A mind that won't switch off at night·Wanting closeness, then pulling back when it arrives·A body, and a relationship, changed by midlife
If one of these sounds like you, Lauren is a good place to start. Many of her clients have tried shorter-term therapy and now want to understand where a pattern comes from.
Identity, sexuality and relationships
For the questions that come up later than expected
Much of Lauren's work is with adults reconsidering things they once took as settled: who they're drawn to, what they want from a partner, and how they learned to love in the first place. She works with LGBTQ+ individuals and couples, bisexual clients and their partners, people coming out or questioning their identity in midlife, and couples whose relationship has shifted with menopause or years of parenting.
Her training includes AASECT certification, so intimacy can be talked about plainly when it's part of the picture. Most of the time, the work is on anxiety, self-criticism and the patterns that make closeness hard.
Training · Two-year postgraduate training in psychodynamic psychotherapy, Los Angeles · Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT): externship and Core Skills · Hakomi, Level 1 · Relational Life Therapy, Level 1 · Couples and sex therapy training, UCLA · Sex therapy certificate, University of Michigan
In her words
The protective patterns you built made sense when you built them.
I'm active in sessions, direct with my feedback, and I use humor when it helps. Most of what people bring in isn't one clean feeling but a tangle of contradictory ones. We stay with that complexity long enough to understand what's really happening.
My roots are psychodynamic: I want to know where a pattern started, not only how to cope with it. From there I work integratively, drawing on EFT and Hakomi, a mindful, body-centered approach, to pay attention to emotion and to what's happening in the body. I enjoy working with people who don't fit neatly into categories. I'm proudly LGBTQ+ affirmative, and every letter of the alphabet is welcome here.
Working with Lauren
What the work looks like, and what it aims for
A free 20-minute call with our team to talk through what's going on. If Lauren is the right fit, we'll schedule your first session with her.
Time to understand what brought you in and the patterns that keep repeating. You'll leave with a clearer picture, not a worksheet.
Weekly sessions online, at a pace that leaves room for depth. The aim is to notice the pattern while it's happening, respond differently, and feel more at home in yourself and your relationships.
Licensed Clinical Social Worker, California #24555
AASECT Certified Sex Therapist
Psychodynamic and integrative, for individuals and couples
Vassar College · Graduate social work study, The University of Texas at Austin
Individual sessions $300 per 50 minutes · Couples sessions $325 · Weekday daytime appointments · Out of network, with a superbill provided. Fees and FAQs
Ready to talk it through?
The first step is a free 20-minute consultation, with no commitment. Tell us what's going on, and we'll confirm whether Lauren is the right match. If she isn't, we'll help you find who is.