Cristi Leyva, MA, LPC-Associate, is a pluralistic therapist and mindset and relationship coach committed to helping teens, adults, and couples create deeper emotional understanding, healthier relationship patterns, and a more grounded sense of self.
Cristi brings warmth, clarity, and authenticity into the therapy room, offering clients both emotional safety and practical support. Cristi practices from a trauma-informed lens and deeply values inner child work, attachment exploration, and understanding how early relational experiences shape present-day thoughts, reactions, and partnerships. She helps clients identify long-standing emotional patterns, process old wounds, and build new ways of relating to themselves and others.
As a pluralistic clinician, Cristi customizes treatment based on each client’s needs, drawing from multiple evidence-based approaches including,
- Relationship Counseling
- Teen Counseling
- Trauma Therapy
- PTSD
- Couples Counseling
- Self-Esteem
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy DBT
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy CBT
- Gottman Method strategies for couples
- Existential and meaning-centered work
- Reconsolidation of Traumatic Memories RTM
- Strengths-based and insight-oriented approaches
Her work is relational, collaborative, and flexible, incorporating systems thinking and family-of-origin exploration when helpful.
Cristi believes therapy should adapt to the client’s identity, culture, history, and goals rather than asking the client to adapt to a rigid model. Alongside clinical therapy, Cristi serves as a mindset and relationship coach, helping clients build emotional regulation skills, cultivate self-trust, strengthen communication, navigate relational transitions, and reconnect with their intuitive sense of worth. Cristi proudly offers therapy in both English and Spanish and is passionate about serving bilingual, multicultural, and first-generation communities.
Educational Background
Cristi earned her Master of Arts in Clinical Mental Health Counseling and is currently a Doctoral Candidate in Clinical Psychology PsyD, deepening her training in trauma treatment, psychological assessment, and integrated care. Whether supporting trauma survivors, adolescents finding their voice, or couples rebuilding connection, Cristi is committed to walking alongside clients as they heal, grow, and become the most grounded and empowered version of themselves.
Cristi is supervised by Michael Contreras, PhD, LP, LPC-S.
