Relationship Counseling for Adults Across California
You have been having the same argument for months. Or maybe the arguments stopped, and that silence feels worse. Something that used to feel easy between you now takes effort, and you are not sure when that changed or how to change it back.
Power Talk Therapy offers online couples counseling to adults anywhere in California, including Irvine, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and beyond. Sessions support couples working through conflict, communication breakdown, trust repair, infidelity, life transitions, and intimacy struggles. I, Maya Attia, am LGBTQIA+ affirming, welcome all relationship structures, and I hold active California licensure as LMFT #139693. A free consultation is available to get started.
What brings couples to therapy
Clients often come in at a turning point. A breach of trust. A season of life that pulled you in opposite directions. A pattern of conflict that keeps cycling without resolution. Or simply a feeling that you have grown distant and do not know how to close that gap.
You do not need to be in crisis to come to couples therapy. Plenty of couples come in wanting to strengthen something that is already good, or to get ahead of a transition before it becomes a fracture. The work is the same either way: understanding each other more clearly, communicating with less damage, and building something you both actually want.
How online couples therapy works
Sessions begin with both partners present. Over time, individual sessions may be added alongside the joint work, depending on what is most useful for your situation.
My training includes the Gottman method, Imago therapy, internal family systems (IFS), cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), emotion-focused therapy (EFT), and gestalt. The approach follows the couple, not a fixed protocol.
Before becoming a therapist, I was a voice teacher, and I noticed early that people wanted more than instruction. They wanted a space to actually be heard. That is what I bring to couples work: a genuinely open room, and a willingness to follow where the real conversation goes.
Sessions are available in English and conducted through a HIPAA-compliant telehealth platform. You and your partner join from wherever you are in California, no commute required.
Who I work with
I work with couples across a wide range of relationship structures, including those where one partner is on the spectrum. My focus in those relationships is on improving communication, managing sensory and expectation differences, and helping both partners see each other more clearly.
If you are looking for LGBTQ+ couples therapy, that work happens here with the same depth and care as any other couples engagement. I am sex-positive, kink-allied, and gender-affirming. For couples navigating polyamory, open relationships, or other non-traditional structures, ethical non-monogamy counseling addresses the specific communication and boundary challenges those dynamics tend to surface.
What changes and what stays the same
Therapy does not fix a relationship. It gives you a space where both of you are actually heard, by each other and by someone who is not taking sides.
What tends to shift over time: you start catching a pattern before it escalates. You learn what your partner actually needs instead of assuming. You stop repeating the same fight and start having the real conversation underneath it.
Communication tends to be where the damage is most visible. Patterns like stonewalling, criticism, and talking past each other are worth understanding before they calcify, and how to fix communication issues with your partner gets into the specific dynamics that make those patterns hard to break on your own.
If at some point you and your partner decide ending the relationship is the right move, that conversation can happen in therapy too. The goal is clarity and care, wherever that leads.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is online couples therapy actually effective, or is in-person better?
Yes, online couples therapy is effective. Outcomes are comparable to in-person work for most couples, and for many people across California, the online format removes the biggest barrier to showing up consistently. The platform is HIPAA-compliant and secure. What matters most is that both partners are present, in a quiet space, and willing to engage.
What if my partner doesn’t want to come to therapy?
Reluctance is common, and it does not have to be the end of the conversation. Some partners are skeptical of therapy in general, some are nervous about what might get said, and some simply do not think it will help. A free consultation can be a lower-stakes starting point, with no commitment required.
Do we have to be married or in a serious relationship to come to couples therapy?
No. Sessions are appropriate for any romantic partnership, regardless of stage. Dating, engaged, married, long-term, separated, or navigating a non-traditional structure. The only requirement is that both people are willing to show up.
What happens in the first session?
The first session is an assessment. The focus is on understanding what brought you in, how each of you experiences the relationship, and what you are hoping for from the process. You will not be pushed to disclose more than you are ready to share. By the end of that session, we will have a clearer picture of what the work looks like and a treatment plan built around your specific goals.
Taking the next step
You do not have to have it figured out before you reach out. The first step is a conversation. You can book a free consultation to ask questions, get a feel for the fit, and decide together whether to move forward.