Lesley Schwam, LMFT

Lesley Schwam is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) based in California. She focuses on clear, practical steps people can take when life feels overwhelming. Lesley emphasizes goal-setting, coping skills, and everyday changes that add up over time.

Lesley draws on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Solution-Focused Therapy to help people change unhelpful behaviors and find workable solutions. She uses simple tools to manage anxiety, panic, depression, grief, and trauma symptoms. Sessions often include learning new coping strategies and setting short-term, achievable goals.

Her background includes helping clients navigate career shifts, retirement transitions, and changes in family roles. She also addresses struggles with addiction, body image, chronic pain and illness, and caregiver stress. Lesley helps people improve communication, set boundaries, and reduce anger or relationship conflict.

Therapy with her begins by building basic self-care and coping skills. She then works on communication techniques and boundary-setting to support longer-term progress. The focus remains practical - small steps that lead to clearer direction.

With 12 years of experience, Lesley aims to create a straightforward path forward for people coping with life changes and health-related challenges. She guides clients toward goals so they can see measurable progress and feel more in control of day-to-day life.

How Lesley’s approaches translate to online therapy

Lesley uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to help people notice and adjust unhelpful thought and behavior patterns. CBT emphasizes practical exercises and small experiments people can try between sessions to reduce anxiety, panic, and depressive symptoms.

She also uses Solution-Focused Therapy, which concentrates on identifying strengths and building short-term goals. This approach looks for what is already working and expands those steps to move clients toward clearer outcomes and improved coping.

Finding the right approach is a collaborative process. The therapist will work with each person to match goals and preferences to specific techniques. Together they review what helps and adjust the plan as needed so sessions feel purposeful and relevant.

The therapist's biography does not list specific session formats, so confirm current online options before booking. Online work can make it easier to fit therapy into a busy week, reduce travel time, and allow shorter check-ins when a full appointment is not possible. It can also let someone use different tools between meetings, like worksheets and brief behavioral tasks, to practice skills in everyday life.