About Stephen
Dr. Stephen Lovato greets people with a calm, practical style. He is a licensed marriage and family therapist with decades of experience who focuses on helping people facing mood, relationship, and life challenges.
He keeps explanations simple and aims to make the first steps feel manageable for someone who may be nervous about therapy. He works with concerns such as depression, anxiety, bipolar mood concerns, and ADHD. He also helps people with relationship strains, intimacy questions, grief, and stress related to caregiving or life transitions.
Background and approach
Conversations are adjusted to each person's situation rather than following a one-size-fits-all script. Dr. Lovato draws on client-centered methods to build a respectful space where people can talk through what matters most to them.
He pairs that with cognitive behavioral techniques when practical, such as identifying unhelpful thinking patterns and testing small behavior changes. He also uses psychodynamic ideas to look at longer-standing patterns that keep repeating in relationships. Across 45 years of practice in California he has supported people from many backgrounds.
Sessions are offered in English and can take place by video call, phone, live chat, or text messaging. Fees vary by location and follow a subscription model that can be canceled at any time. To begin, a person selects the Start Therapy button, completes a short matching questionnaire, and schedules sessions based on the therapist's availability.
Dr. Lovato aims to work collaboratively and respectfully as people find practical ways to feel better.
Approaches and online care that fit your life
Client-centered work focuses on listening and responding to what the person says matters most, creating a respectful space for straightforward talk about feelings and challenges. It helps when someone wants to be heard and guided at their own pace.Cognitive behavioral therapy, or CBT, looks at the links between thoughts, feelings, and actions and uses small experiments to test new ways of thinking and behaving. It is often useful for anxiety, depression, and managing stress or sleep difficulties.
Psychodynamic work pays attention to patterns that repeat across time, helping people see how past experiences shape current relationships and reactions. This approach can be helpful for longer-standing relational or self-esteem issues.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will talk with each person about goals and preferences, and then choose or combine methods together in a collaborative way so treatment matches what the person needs.
Online therapy offers practical flexibility. Video calls let the conversation feel similar to an in-person session. Phone sessions are useful when bandwidth is limited or a person prefers not to be on camera. Live chat or text messaging can make brief check-ins and homework support easier to fit into a busy day. These options help people work therapy into real life on their schedule.
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What this therapist works with
Most often
- LGBT
- Relationship issues
- Parenting issues
Also listed
- Addictions
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- BDSM, kink, and alternative sex culture
- Bipolar disorder
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- HIV / AIDS
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Impulsivity
- Infidelity
- Intellectual disability
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- Life purpose
- Men's issues
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Paranoia
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Stress, Anxiety
- Trauma and abuse
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 45 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
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