Hello and welcome! I’m so glad you’re here. Whether you are just beginning your therapy journey, or you have been on this path for some time, I acknowledge the courage that it takes both to begin, or to continue this work with someone new. I’m honored that you would consider entrusting me with your story.

My Story

I’m Erin Paima, a licensed marriage and family therapist with over fifteen years of experience in the field, and a passion for helping people find freedom from the life-controlling behaviors and self-limiting thoughts that have defined them in the past. Although my therapy career began a little over 15 years ago, my journey truly began much earlier with my own hard-fought battle for freedom and healing. Trust me when I say that I know what it feels like to be on both sides of ‘the couch’! The redemption and meaning in my own story became clear when God nudged my heart to pursue a career through which I could help to facilitate a safe space for others to pursue their own healing and personal freedom. And while faith is important to me, and I personally feel that it makes this journey so much easier, please know that you are welcome and respected here just as you are.

My Approach

Research consistently shows that the main predictive factor of positive therapeutic outcomes is the quality of the relationship between client and therapist. Given this fact, my main concern as a therapist, outside of the safety of my clients, is that my clients feels truly heard, seen and understood by me. I believe significant healing occurs when clients are able to engage in an authentic relationship with their therapist that, instead of confirming vulnerability fears or replicating relationship wounds and unhealthy patterns of the past, allows them to feel safe, attached, empowered, respectfully challenged and validated. In short, the therapy relationship becomes a laboratory of sorts in which clients are encouraged to ‘try out’ new ways of thinking, behaving and relating in a safe and accepting environment, which in time can be externalized to other relationships and settings, creating greater freedom, autonomy and overall healthier relationships in their everyday lives. Each person is an individual and their therapeutic needs differ according to a complex mix of factors including personality, life experience, learning style, attachment style, therapeutic goals and much more. As such, I offer a collaborative, client-tailored approach to treatment that is as unique as the individuals I am privileged to serve.

The Details

Erin graduated with a Masters of Science in Counseling Psychology and an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy from California State University Northridge in 2007. She has been licensed with the California Board of Behavioral Sciences as a Marriage and Family Therapist since 2014 (LMFT 78379). Erin has a wide breadth of clinical experience, spanning all levels of care (inpatient and residential hospitalization, partial hospitalization, intensive outpatient treatment and outpatient counseling) and has worked for both the public and private sectors, including multiple private eating disorder treatment centers, Ventura County Behavioral Health and Dependency Drug Court, Casa Pacifica’s Center for Children and Families and as a behavioral health care utilization manager for Anthem Blue Cross . She has extensive experience in the treatment of eating disorders, body dysmorphia, trauma and childhood sexual abuse, and women’s issues-including intimate partner betrayal, as well as experience treating mood disorders, self-harm, and mood, behavior and attachment disorders in young children through parent coaching. Erin has experience and training in the use of dialectical behavioral therapy (DBT), cognitive behavioral therapy for depression and anxiety (CBT), parent-child interaction therapy (PCIT), Triple P Parenting and Seeking Safety.