About Darlene
Dr. Darlene Viggiano is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 18 years of experience. She helps people who are struggling with ADHD, anxiety, depression, relationship and intimacy problems, grief, addiction, and stress.
Parents reading on a phone will find clear, practical language and a calm approach in sessions. She brings a mix of hands-on clinical work and teaching to her practice. Over her career she has served in intensive outpatient programs, worked as a case manager, and supervised clinical teams.
Background and approach
She has also led trainings for paraprofessionals and students on working with abuse and addiction. Her background includes a Doctor of Philosophy in Psychology from Saybrook University and a Master’s in Psychology from National University. She holds a California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist credential, abbreviated as LMFT.
In sessions she uses several practical approaches. She draws on attachment-based ideas to look at how past relationships shape present patterns. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps her clients spot unhelpful thoughts and test new behaviors.
Emotionally-Focused Therapy helps couples and individuals name and respond to core emotions. She has delivered workshops on Jungian and transpersonal themes, authored two books, and has a history of work with issues such as perinatal substance use, anger management, and dual diagnosis. That variety informs a flexible, individualized way of working.
Her practice is located in California and she offers sessions in English. Parents and adults can expect clear guidance, practical tools, and collaborative planning for next steps.
How her approaches work online
Attachment-Based Therapy looks at how early relationships shape present behavior and emotional responses. Online work can help people recognize these patterns and practice different ways of connecting with partners or caregivers in real time.Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and trying new actions to change mood and behavior. In virtual sessions she can teach practical CBT skills, set small experiments between sessions, and review results together.
Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will discuss goals, try methods that match those goals, and adjust the plan as needed. Clients and the therapist decide together which tools feel most useful.
Online formats offer flexibility and different ways to engage. Video calls let people read facial cues and practice conversation skills. Phone sessions can be easier when bandwidth is limited or a shorter check-in is needed. Live chat and text-based messaging work well for brief updates, tracking progress, and keeping momentum between longer sessions.
These options make it easier to fit therapy into a busy life while using attachment, CBT, and emotionally-focused techniques in ways that match each person's needs.
Questions people ask
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- Relationship issues
- Family conflicts
- Trauma and abuse
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Anger management
- Bipolar disorder
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Family of origin issues
- Grief
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Multicultural concerns
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Parenting issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Self esteem
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sleeping disorders
- Smoking / vaping cessation
- Stress, Anxiety
- Women's issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Hypnotherapy
- Imago Relationship Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 18 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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