About Alexandra Gaty, LCSW – Anxiety & Couples Therapist
Therapist in South Pasadena, CA, offering in-person sessions and online therapy throughout California
Feeling caught in familiar reactions or unsure how to move forward can leave you questioning yourself. I help you understand what is contributing to these struggles and build greater self-trust.
Many of the people I see are navigating anxiety, trauma, relationship challenges, creative blocks, or pivotal moments of personal transformation, all of which can quietly or loudly reshape who we are. I especially enjoy working with artists and creatives, exploring the vulnerability, uncertainty, and self-doubt that can accompany the creative process. I also provide perinatal support through pregnancy, postpartum, and matrescence, the identity transition of becoming a parent.
I offer in-person therapy in South Pasadena, with an office accessible from nearby communities including Pasadena, Highland Park, Eagle Rock, Atwater Village, Silver Lake, and Echo Park, as well as online therapy throughout California.
My Approach as an Anxiety and Couples Therapist in South Pasadena, CA
Curiosity and attention to the whole person are central to my approach. I offer integrative therapy that draws from psychodynamic principles and mindfulness, exploring emotional and relational experiences while considering the patterns, expectations, and meanings that may be shaping what you are going through.
My background in the arts, philosophy, and meditation is woven into the way I listen and connect. It informs how I sit with nuance, ask questions, and invite you to find your own language for what you are moving through.
In sessions, I often look for the tensions that do not fit neatly together: wanting closeness while also needing distance, knowing something intellectually while feeling something different, or holding more than one truth at once. I may return to a small detail or contradiction that seems significant. Rather than rushing toward an answer, I want to give these moments enough time to see where they lead.
Between sessions, I might suggest something to notice or try. I see these as invitations rather than assignments, and as another way to deepen awareness of what is unfolding.
My Values
I value depth in therapy and see insight as a path toward change. Tracing the origins of a response can be important, as can finding greater freedom to live in a way that feels aligned with who you are.
I believe therapy should support a stronger relationship with yourself, including greater trust in your own perceptions, needs, and choices. There does not have to be one right way to navigate a decision, relationship, or period of change.
My work is trauma-informed, LGBTQIA+ affirming, and neurodivergence-affirming. I take a holistic perspective that considers the mind, body, and inner life, with respect for the ways identity, history, relationships, and lived experience shape how we move through the world.
I believe the therapeutic relationship can be an important part of the work itself. Feeling understood, respected, and able to be honest in the room can create space for new ways of relating to yourself and to others.
Collaboration matters to me as well. I want therapy to feel like a process we are shaping together, with room for your feedback and for the work to evolve as you do.
Therapeutic Approaches
Psychodynamic & Depth-Oriented Therapy
I use psychodynamic and depth-oriented approaches to explore patterns, relationships, past experiences, and underlying meanings that may be influencing how you feel and respond in the present.
Relational Therapy
Relational therapy considers how patterns of connection, trust, conflict, and closeness show up both inside and outside of therapy. I pay attention to relationships as an important part of understanding your experience.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the relationship between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. I may use CBT strategies to help identify unhelpful thinking patterns, consider alternative perspectives, and experiment with different responses.
Mindfulness-Based Therapy
Mindfulness can help bring attention to thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations with more awareness and less automatic reactivity. I may incorporate grounding, noticing, or other present-focused practices when they feel useful.
Trauma-Informed Therapy
A trauma-informed approach means working with attention to safety, choice, pacing, and the ways past experiences may continue to affect the mind and body. I aim to explore difficult material without forcing the process.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
DBT offers practical tools for emotion regulation, tolerating distress, communicating more effectively, and responding with greater intention. I draw from DBT skills when concrete strategies may be helpful.
Education & Experience
I hold a Master’s in Social Work from California State University, Los Angeles, and a Bachelor of Arts in Philosophy from Bard College in New York. My professional background includes private practice, community mental health, clinical settings serving people impacted by the criminal justice system, and the arts.
Before becoming a therapist, I spent several years working in nonprofit and for-profit arts organizations, collaborating with artists, curators, and other arts professionals on exhibitions and projects across a range of disciplines. That experience gives me a particular appreciation for creativity, identity, ambition, uncertainty, and the ways professional and personal lives can become closely connected.
I have supported adults and couples navigating anxiety, depression, trauma and complex trauma, relationship difficulties, pregnancy and postpartum concerns, life transitions, identity questions, and creative challenges. Moving between community-based and private settings has deepened my understanding of the many ways emotional distress can show up from one person or couple to another, and why therapy may need to take a different shape for each.
Ready to Connect?
I offer a free 15-minute phone consultation to hear a little about what you’re looking for, answer any questions, and see if we might be a good fit.