Dr. Lita Carvalho, LMFT
Somatic-informed therapist for life transitions
About Lita
Dr. Lita Carvalho helps people facing stress, anxiety, depression, trauma, addictions, grief, parenting strain, and many other life challenges. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT 113252) based in California with 20 years of clinical experience.
Dr. Carvalho writes plainly and meets people where they are, offering steady support when things feel overwhelming. Her style is conversational and practical.
Sessions focus on what the person wants to change and on small, useful steps toward those goals.
Background and approach
She blends body-focused somatic work with evidence-based therapies to help people notice how emotions show up in the body and learn manageable ways to respond. Dr. Carvalho uses Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy to clarify values, shift unhelpful thoughts, and build coping skills.
Attachment-based and client-centered principles shape how she listens and responds, making room for each person's history and needs. She brings two decades of experience into every conversation. People come to her for a wide range of concerns, including relationship difficulties, intimacy issues, eating and sleeping problems, ADHD, compassion fatigue, and career or life transitions.
She also addresses more specific focuses such as abandonment, attachment issues, caregiver stress, and body image challenges. Sessions are offered in English and are delivered online through video calls, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging. Dr.
Carvalho asks new clients to complete a short questionnaire to help match goals and schedule sessions that fit their lives.
How somatic and evidence-based approaches work online
Dr. Carvalho combines somatic work and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help people notice how emotions show up in the body and then choose values-based actions. Somatic techniques help people track physical sensations and release held tension, which can ease reactivity and support emotion regulation. ACT focuses on clarifying what matters and taking small, meaningful steps toward those values while accepting difficult feelings.She also uses elements of Attachment-Based Therapy to explore patterns in relationships and how early connections affect current reactions. That approach helps people understand relational triggers and practice safer ways of relating. Finding the right mix of methods is part of the work - the therapist and client decide together which approaches fit the client's needs, goals, and personal preferences.
Online therapy offers flexibility for those juggling work, family, or health needs. Video calls let the therapist and client read facial cues and body language, while phone sessions can feel more personal for some people. Live chat and text-based messaging support shorter check-ins and ongoing reflection between sessions. These options make it easier to keep momentum and fit therapy into a busy life.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Addictions
- Relationship issues
Also works with
- Abandonment
- ADHD
- Adoption and foster care
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Antisocial personality
- Attachment issues
- Autism and Asperger Syndrome
- Avoidant personality
- Bipolar disorder
- Blended family issues
- Body image
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Co-morbidity
- Coaching
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Control issues
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Dependent personality
- Depression
- Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder (DMDD)
- Dissociation
- Divorce and separation
- Domestic violence
- Drug and alcohol addiction
- Eating and food-related issues
- Eating disorders
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fatherhood issues
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Gender dysphoria
- Grief
- Guilt and shame
- Hearing impaired
- Hoarding
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Immigration issues
- Impulsivity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Jealousy
- LGBT
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Mood disorders
- Multicultural concerns
- Narcissism
- Obsessions, compulsions, and OCD
- Panic disorder and panic attacks
- Paranoia
- Parenting issues
- Personality disorders
- Phobias
- Polyamory / non-monogamous relationships
- Post-traumatic stress
- Postpartum depression
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Prejudice and discrimination
- Process addiction (porn, exercise, gambling)
- Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
- Self esteem
- Self-harm
- Self-love
- Sex addiction
- Sexual assault and abuse
- Sexuality
- Sleeping disorders
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Somatization
- Trauma and abuse
- Trichotillomania
- Veteran and Armed Forces Issues
- Visually impaired
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Attachment-Based Therapy
- Client-Centered Therapy
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)
- Emotionally-Focused Therapy (EFT)
- Existential Therapy
- Gottman Method
- Imago Relationship Therapy
- Jungian Therapy
- Mindfulness Therapy
- Motivational Interviewing
- Narrative Therapy
- Psychodynamic Therapy
- Solution-Focused Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Trauma-Focused Therapy
- Internal Family Systems
- Experience
- 20 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English