Justin Sundgot-Smith

I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in California and the owner of a private practice in the Santa Barbara area. My background has given me the opportunity to work with a wide range of concerns, but I’ve developed a particular interest in helping adults and young adults struggling with anxiety, OCD, trauma, perfectionism, self-esteem, relationship difficulties, major life transitions, and .

I especially enjoy working with people who are highly thoughtful, sensitive, creative, or introspective—and who may find themselves overthinking, putting significant pressure on themselves, or feeling disconnected from what they actually want. I also work with clients navigating identity, sexuality, relationships, career and performance pressures, and patterns of people-pleasing or self-criticism.

My approach draws from IFS, ACT, CBT/ERP, mindfulness, and somatic and relational approaches. Rather than seeing symptoms as something that simply need to be eliminated or fixed, I’m interested in helping my clients understand what their symptoms may be signaling.

More than anything, it’s important to me that during our first session you feel heard and understood. I want to make space for whatever parts of your story feel most important for me to know, without feeling like you have to fit everything into a particular framework. From there, my intention is to begin getting a sense of what approach to treatment might work best for you. Together, we’ll collaboratively develop a game plan that feels meaningful, realistic, and tailored to what you’re hoping to get out of therapy.