Dr. Estella Lerlo, LMFT
Calm, body-aware therapy for relationship and trauma concerns
About Estella
Dr. Estella Lerlo is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 14 years of practice in California. She focuses on helping people manage stress, anxiety, relationship struggles, trauma and intimacy-related concerns.
Dr. Lerlo aims to create a calm space where people can say what they feel and start to make sense of it. She uses somatic work to help clients notice how emotions show up in the body and to build simple ways to feel more grounded.
Background and approach
Attachment-based methods guide conversations about early bonds and how those patterns affect current relationships. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy offers tools to spot unhelpful thoughts and try different behaviors. Sessions are practical and conversational.
Dr. Lerlo works with clients to set short-term goals and small steps to practice between meetings. She keeps language straightforward and focuses on what someone can do today to feel a little steadier.
Her experience includes helping people with abandonment and attachment worries, communication and commitment issues, codependency, and recovery after trauma or disaster. She also supports people facing loneliness, midlife shifts, money stress, and questions about life purpose. People who prefer clear tools and a body-aware approach may find this style helpful.
Dr. Lerlo offers video, phone, live chat, and text-based messaging as ways to connect for care.
How somatic and relational approaches work online
Somatic work helps people notice physical signals like tightness, breath, or tension and learn simple ways to calm the body. Online sessions can guide clients to try grounding practices and tune into bodily sensations while talking about what’s happening.Attachment-Based Therapy explores how early relationships shape current patterns. In teletherapy this looks like noticing how people relate in the moment, naming those patterns, and practicing new ways of connecting or setting boundaries during sessions.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, focuses on identifying unhelpful thoughts and testing new behaviors. It translates well to video or phone work because homework, thought records, and small experiments can be assigned and reviewed together.
Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose methods that match their needs, goals, and comfort level. That process may blend somatic noticing, attachment questions, and CBT tools over time.
Online formats offer flexibility for busy schedules and different comfort needs. Video calls allow face-to-face connection, phone sessions reduce camera pressure, and live chat or text messaging can provide brief check-ins or follow-up between meetings. These options make it easier to keep consistent progress without long commutes.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Trauma and abuse
Also works with
- Abandonment
- Attachment issues
- Blended family issues
- Codependency
- Commitment issues
- Communication problems
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- First responder issues
- Forgiveness
- Infidelity
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Money and financial issues
- Post-traumatic stress
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Self-love
- Women's issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 14 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English