Trauma focused, relational therapy.

Disability, gender, grief, and family therapy online in San Diego.

Image of Callista, a white person with green eyes and curly shoulder length brown hair.

I believe relational therapy is the key to change.

I believe it because I have lived it. I have been in harmful and helpful therapeutic relationships in hospitals and treatment centers. My work is guided by my lived experience and the research of attachment and family systems theorists.

Relational therapy means that no matter how much we know about what’s wrong or what happened, what is most important is how you feel about what is happening within the therapy hour. Change often happens when we can make sense of things together, through a supportive, understanding relationship. Together we can understand what led to panic and overwhelm and use therapeutic methods to work our way out of there.

Safe relationships are a place to ask for a second chance, for accountability, to set limits, and to connect. We might experience temporary disconnection or misunderstandings within the therapeutic relationship, just as we do in every other relationship. Know that this is common, and provides a place to heal. I will not abandon or criticize you. We will work together to repair, a practice that we are not often given the tools or space to do.

Relational therapy also leads to you taking what we do together into your other relationships: setting limits, building connections, and inviting change. You may see a change in the way you interact within your community as our time together makes an impact in how you see yourself.

Callista

Cox,

FT

they/them

AM

Callista is sitting in front of a tree with purple flowers. They have long brown and green hair with brown glasses.

You can call me Cal or Callista

I’m a therapist, artist, and person with lived experience of grief, disability, late-in-life coming out, and late-diagnosed AuDHD & OCD. I am COVID conscious, do not use AI, and am committed to anti-oppressive practices.

My clients have described me as down to earth, quick witted, and honest.

I am guided by my values of congruence, joy, connection, safety, and comfort.

I love to kayak in local rivers, play games, cuddle with my cats, make collages, and attempt to quilt.

Callista is holding a tortoiseshell cat in the center of the image. In the image are their other three cats, a brown cat in the bottom left, and two cats cuddling, a grey and a tabby cat.

Cats from left to right: Birdie, Temple, Kagu, & Pigeon