Our Team
Jake Voogd, LMFT (he/him)
Jake received his Master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Southern California in 2012. He has a passion for helping others and believes in the importance of building upon one’s already existing strengths while also acknowledging success. Jake has extensive experience working with special needs populations, including individuals and families, to help facilitate systematic growth.
He has also found success working with anxiety, depression, marital conflict, anger, conflict resolution, parenting, and self-acceptance. Jacob uses the authenticity of his therapeutic relationships to engage his clients and develop the trust and rapport necessary to help individuals, couples, and families meet their goals. Oh, and if you’re curious, Voogd is pronounced “Vogue,” like the magazine.
PRACTICE FOUNDER; THERAPY, COACHING, & CONSULTING
-
Meet Joy, a bilingual Filipino American AMFT (English/Tagalog) providing therapy for individuals, couples, teens, and families in California. As a 1.5-generation immigrant and attorney who spent over 20 years in international law firms and the entertainment and technology industries, she understands straddling worlds, carrying cultural expectations, and navigating high-pressure environments while seeking authentic identity. Her unique background as a lawyer turned therapist has trained her to hold complexity, distill clarity, and read emotional undercurrents -- her lived experience deepening the empathy she brings to therapy.
Joy specializes in therapy for women in midlife—particularly BIPOC women and first-generation professionals—navigating career demands, aging parents, raising children, perimenopause/menopause, and changing romantic partnerships. Many clients arrive exhausted from code-switching, carrying intergenerational trauma, or searching for their authentic selves beneath the roles they hold. She creates a culturally informed space for those experiencing burnout, anxiety, or disconnection. She also provides couples counseling and family therapy to rebuild connection when distance, miscommunication, or cultural differences create strain. For teens (ages 13-18) and transitional adults (19-25), she offers support for anxiety, depression, and burnout while helping them discover career paths and identities that honor their authentic strengths and values.
Joy believes it is important to tailor therapy to each client so it integrates deep insight with practical strategies. She uses an attachment-based lens and integrates psychodynamic, family systems, Internal Family Systems (IFS), Schema Therapy, CBT, DBT, ACT, narrative, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and the Gottman Method (Level 1). Most importantly, Joy believes healing happens through connection—when clients feel truly seen, heard, and understood.
Carl Jung said, 'The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.' Real transformation invites us to set down the masks we've been wearing and make space for the healing we've needed—because the parts of ourselves we haven't yet tended to become the invisible limits of our lives. It's an honor to help you move from performance to presence, from expectation to authenticity, from proving yourself to being yourself."
--Joy
-
Meet Dani, an associate marriage and family therapist whose approach provides empathetic, personalized therapy designed to meet you where you are and support meaningful, lasting change. Dani works with individuals, including both adults and teens. She specializes in helping couples navigate challenges such as emotional distress, anxiety, communication issues, past trauma, and the complexities of modern relationships.
Dani understands how profoundly intersectionality, or the overlapping of cultural, gender, and societal expectations, can influence your mental health, self-worth, and relationships. That’s why she’s committed to creating a compassionate and inclusive space where you feel truly seen, heard, and supported. Whether you're facing anxiety, depression, PTSD, relationship strain, emotional disconnect, unresolved trauma, or difficulty managing emotions and boundaries, therapy can be a powerful step toward healing. Together, you and Dani can explore the root causes of your struggles and work to break free from unhelpful patterns.
Drawing from evidence-based modalities such as Internal Family Systems (IFS), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Person-Centered Therapy, Somatic Therapy, Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), and the Gottman Method for couples, Dani tailors each session to your unique needs. These approaches help you reconnect with your inner strengths, build emotional resilience, and foster deeper, more authentic relationships with yourself and with others.
“You don’t have to face this alone. If you’re ready to take the first step toward healing, I’m here to walk with you.”
-Dani
-
Meet Natalie, an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist, and a 2025 graduate from USC with a Master of Science in Marriage and Family Therapy. Her therapeutic approach is eclectic, relational, and person-centered, and draws on multicultural and ecological perspectives to meet clients' unique needs and create an empathetic space where they can feel comfortable, safe, and accepted.
During her graduate program, she completed practicum training as a Marriage and Family Therapy Trainee at Pelican Cove Counseling Centers. There, she practiced person-centered, psychodynamic psychotherapy and play therapy under the supervision of a licensed psychologist. At Pelican Cove, Natalie provided sliding-scale therapy services to children, teens, young adults, and adults from diverse multicultural backgrounds and intersecting identities. Before becoming a therapist, she earned a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology with a minor in Child and Adolescent Development at California State University, Fullerton, and also volunteered at a mental health nonprofit promoting youth mental health awareness and providing mental health resources to the community.
Natalie is very passionate about social justice and cultural humility, and is deeply committed to providing culturally competent services and creating an affirming and inclusive space for all clients. She’s interested in working with LGBTQIA+ clients and those dealing with anxiety, depression, grief and loss, trauma, family dynamics, interpersonal relationships and patterns, identity exploration, and life transitions. The therapeutic process can feel overwhelming, but it offers a supportive space to reflect, process emotions, and gain insight.
“Vulnerability is the birthplace of love, belonging, joy, courage, empathy, and creativity. It is the source of hope, empathy, accountability, and authenticity. If we want greater clarity in our purpose or deeper and more meaningful spiritual lives, vulnerability is the path.” ― Brené Brown
-
Meet Nicole, an associate marriage and family therapist who enjoys working with teens and adults navigating ADHD, complex trauma, anxiety and depression, substance abuse, codependency, and relationship challenges. Her approach is rooted in strengthening the inner child within you, the part of yourself the world has stifled and suppressed, whose voice may have gone unheard or whose needs may have been unmet as a child.
Fostering client autonomy and empowerment is of utmost importance to her, whether it is processing complex trauma (sexual, emotional, or childhood), helping clients re-author their experiences to better align with their identity, or finding their meaning and purpose in life apart from societal or familial expectations. Nicole likes to incorporate creative expression in my therapeutic work as a way of processing difficult life experiences and as a means of personal empowerment. Nicole’s therapeutic work is also guided by respect for one’s cultural background and values, as well as gender identity, sexual orientation, and racial identity, particularly for those from marginalized groups.
Her passion lies in helping clients reclaim their power and deconstruct the ways in which their close relationships and systemic experiences have negatively shaped them. She believes what is vital to the healing journey is realigning with your own purpose in life, not what others have decided on your behalf. This begins with building self-compassion, identifying barriers to self-worth and self-efficacy, and normalizing the truth that being different doesn't make you any less human.
When Nicole’s not in the therapist role, she enjoys immersing in creative writing as a means of expression, connecting with her community, and processing life experiences. She also enjoy crocheting, hiking in nature, reading philosophy, and spending time with my cat.
“Just when the caterpillar thought the world was over, it became a butterfly.”This quote helped me realize that, despite growing up different, my struggles have led me to a greater purpose, one that is mine alone to claim. It reminds me that suffering does not hold power over my purpose in life; instead, it guides my growth and my healing.”
-Nicole
