Leonel Gonzalez, MS, AMFT

Bilingual Spanish Therapist in Encino, CA

EMDR Trained | DBT Skills | Trauma, Grief, & Family Systems

In our families, love runs deep, but we also carry heavy expectations, buried secrets, and quiet grief.

You might be the person who holds everything together, takes care of everyone else, and keeps quiet about what really happens at home. Or maybe you landed here looking for someone else: a partner who shuts down, a child or teen who explodes easily, or a family dynamic where everyone feels on edge and arguments happen on repeat. Whether you are reaching out for yourself or someone you love, asking for help does not mean your family is broken. It just means the way things have been handled is not working anymore.

I provide therapy through a private group practice in Encino, California (serving the San Fernando Valley and all of California online). Sessions move fluidly in English, Spanish, or Spanglish. You do not have to translate your culture, filter your reality, or protect your therapist from how heavy things actually are. Together, we look at your unique blueprint, your attachment style, and the whole system around you so you can understand yourself deeply instead of constantly judging your reactions.

Who This Space Is For

• Looking for Yourself: Uncovering your personal blueprint and attachment patterns, processing past trauma, domestic violence or sexual assault recovery, painful breakups, family secrets, and learning how to set boundaries without feeling like you are betraying your family.
• Looking for Someone Else (Partner, Child, or Family Member): When tensions at home are high and communication has broken down. Instead of pointing fingers or making one person feel broken, we look at how the entire household system interacts to explore new ways to reduce conflict.
• Working Through Grief & Loss: Navigating the death of a loved one, a painful divorce, major life transitions, or the quiet grief of the childhood, support, and life you deserved but did not get.
• Parents with Children or Teens: Understanding what is driving meltdowns, emotional overwhelm, school stress, and daily routines by looking at the child’s nervous system and the whole home dynamic rather than relying on yelling or harsh punishments.
• Adult Children & Their Parents: Untangling years of conflict, understanding generational attachment styles, and learning how to communicate as adults with respect and healthy boundaries.

How We Work Together (Practical & Direct)

I do not offer passive talk therapy where you just sit and vent. My approach is active, collaborative, and grounded in real world crisis intervention, family advocacy, and behavioral support. Here is how we use these tools:

• Your Personal Blueprint & Attachment Styles: We explore how your early environment shaped the way you connect, defend, and survive in relationships today. Looking at your attachment style helps you understand why you shut down, overfunction, or react strongly, shifting the focus from self blame to self awareness.
• Looking at the Whole System: Whether in individual or family therapy, we look at the bigger picture including unspoken rules, family roles, and repetitive reaction cycles to see how each person influences the room and how you can interact differently.
• EMDR Therapy: When painful memories or trauma feel unresolved, your body can react as if that past distress is still happening right now. We use EMDR protocols to support your nervous system in processing those memories at your own pace, working toward lowering the physical and emotional distress attached to them.
• DBT Skills: We focus on practical, step by step tools you can practice between sessions to better understand emotional triggers, navigate intense emotional crises safely, and communicate your needs during disagreements without automatically shutting down or lashing out.
• Neurodiversity Support (ADHD & Autism): Rather than trying to force your brain into a neurotypical mold, we explore realistic daily routines, strategies for executive functioning challenges, and ways to minimize sensory overload and masking fatigue.

Reach out to schedule a brief consultation to explore if working together is the right fit.

Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #143816 | Employed by Real Honest Therapy | Supervised by Curt Widhalm, LMFT #47333