Therapy on Fig

We believe therapy should be highly tailored to you. It’s our job to stay curious, open, and compassionate.

Our approach is trauma informed, culturally inclusive, and identity affirming.

12/29/2025

Many families manage conflict indirectly, often without realizing it. Over time, this can pull certain people into roles they never chose.

This week, Janelle explains triangulation, a dynamic where distress between two people is routed through a third. This pattern can turn someone into the messenger or mediator and slowly deepen resentment and disconnection within families.

The blog explores why triangulation feels easier than direct communication, how it can contribute to estrangement, and what it looks like to step out of the middle with compassion and boundaries.

Read the full blog or schedule a free 15 minute consultation by clicking the link in our bio.

12/22/2025

For many adult children of immigrant parents, the holidays bring a complicated mix of love, obligation, grief, and longing. You may feel yourself slipping back into old roles or patterns the moment you return home.

This week, Rachel explores this experience with warmth and cultural sensitivity. Using Internal Family Systems, she names the different parts that often emerge during holiday visits and reminds us that these responses are not failures. They are protective strategies shaped by family roles, culture, and survival.

This blog offers a gentle holiday game plan focused on tending to your own parts, setting realistic boundaries, and prioritizing after care once gatherings end. It is an invitation to move through the season with more intention and self compassion.

Read the full blog or schedule a free 15 minute consultation by clicking the link in our bio.

12/15/2025

Wanting closeness while also fearing it is more common than many people realize.

In this week’s blog, Marina explores why intimacy can feel so threatening, especially for those who experienced attachment wounds earlier in life. She outlines common fears around opening up, such as fear of rejection, abandonment, losing control, or being hurt, and explains how these fears often function as protective strategies.

Using Internal Family Systems, Marina encourages readers to approach these fears with curiosity and care. When we understand what they are protecting, we can begin to open to connection in ways that feel safer and more grounded.

Read the full blog or schedule a free 15 minute consultation by clicking the link in our bio.

12/08/2025

In this week’s blog, Gabriella offers a compassionate look at how body shame often develops from early relational wounds rather than vanity.

Using Internal Family Systems (IFS), she explains how many of us learned that our worth depended on how we looked or behaved. Over time, the body became a place where fear of rejection and longing for connection lived. The parts that now criticize or monitor the body are usually trying to protect younger parts who still carry the belief, “I have to be perfect to be loved.”

IFS teaches us that healing happens not by silencing these protectors, but by understanding them and allowing Self energy to lead with compassion.

Read the full blog or schedule a free 15 minute consultation by clicking the link in our bio.

12/05/2025

Suicidal thoughts are deeply human, yet too often met with misunderstanding. Many people hide these experiences because they fear being judged or dismissed.

In this week’s blog, Michael offers a compassionate and trauma informed perspective. He explains why suicidal thoughts can come from parts of us that are overwhelmed, tired, or longing for relief. He uses two approaches to help us understand this more deeply:

𝗜𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗿𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗙𝗮𝗺𝗶𝗹𝘆 𝗦𝘆𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗺𝘀 (𝗜𝗙𝗦): sees the mind as made up of parts. Suicidal thoughts often come from protective parts trying to help us survive pain.

𝗡𝗲𝘂𝗿𝗼 𝗔𝗳𝗳𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝗥𝗲𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹 𝗠𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹 (𝗡𝗔𝗥𝗠): focuses on complex trauma and how early survival responses continue to shape adult feelings and impulses.

Michael reminds us that these experiences deserve care, connection, and understanding. There is nothing shameful about needing support.

Read the full blog or schedule a free 15 minute consultation with Michael by clicking the link in our bio.

12/03/2025

slow sundays —— start off 2026 with presence, intention, and a like-minded community of women 💗

this is an eight week program for LA locals with two in-person gatherings for nature therapy, sound healing and tea.

together, we’ll reflect on 2025, explore our values, orient toward presence, create rituals, practice listening to our bodies, get clear on what we want, remember what it feels like to relax, and connect deeply with ourselves, each other, and the natural world.

January 4, 11, 18 — virtual, 6-7:15pm
January 25 — in person, 12-2pm
February 1, 8, 15 — virtual, 6-7:15pm
February 22 — in person, 12-2pm

+ therapyonfig.com/group-therapy for more information
+ marina@therapyonfig.com for questions/consultation

🌸🌱✨

12/01/2025

My clients share that they want to:
-Break free from old patterns of self-criticism, shame, and avoidance so they can live with more ease and self-acceptance.
-They understand themselves more deeply—through their histories, identities, and emotional worlds—to move through life with greater clarity and agency.
-Heal long-held grief and anxiety stored in the body, rebuilding a sense of safety and trust within themselves.
-Cultivate a more compassionate relationship with their bodies, food, and movement.
-Reconnect with creativity, purpose, and authenticity in a way that feels sustainable and life-giving.

I am an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #154058, supervised by Phillip Chang, LCSW #92156. Trained in Internal Family Systems (Level 1) and modalities rooted in a somatically-based trauma-informed approach, such as Neuroaffective Relational Model (Level 2), Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO), and Gottman Method.

11/25/2025

The number one reason couples seek therapy is communication, but the deeper issue is why communication feels so difficult.

In this week’s blog, Grace explains how couples communicate constantly, even in silence, and how struggles often arise from protective parts that react automatically. Using Internal Family Systems (IFS), she helps couples understand why they repeat the same arguments and how turning inward before reacting can create real change.

Read the full blog or schedule a free 15 minute consultation by clicking the link in our bio.

11/18/2025

Before therapy, there was cultural coping.

In this week’s blog, Rachel reflects on the lessons, traditions, and resilience that shaped many immigrant and first-generation families. She shares how spirituality, endurance, and holistic practices like hanbang (Eastern medicine) sustained emotional health before psychotherapy was even accessible, and how these cultural strengths can still inform healing today.

Rachel reminds us that processing generational trauma also means celebrating generational strength. True healing can honor both where we come from and where we’re going.

Read the full blog or schedule a free 15-minute consultation by clicking the link in our bio.

11/10/2025

Affirmations are everywhere, from social media mantras to morning routines. But what happens when they don’t work?

In this week’s blog, The Limitations of Affirmations, Sabrina explores why positive self-talk can sometimes create inner conflict instead of peace. Through Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, she offers a deeper understanding of the protective parts that resist positivity and the importance of compassionately listening to them.

Healing isn’t about forcing optimism, it’s about creating space for every part of you to be seen and understood. Only then can affirmations feel authentic and healing.

Read the full blog or schedule a free 15-minute consultation by clicking the link in our bio.

11/03/2025

Families are complicated, and sometimes, the healthiest choice is distance.

In this week’s blog, Janelle explores what familial estrangement really means. It’s not just a falling out, but a deep rupture in a relationship that can bring grief, guilt, and even relief. Janelle walks readers through what estrangement can look like, why it happens, and how to find healing, whether that’s through feeling your emotions, creating chosen family, or remaining open to change when it feels safe.

Read more here: https://therapyonfig.com/blog/2025/11/1/when-family-ties-unravel-navigating-familial-estrangement-with-compassion-and-clarity

10/29/2025

Many 20-somethings I work with describe feeling lost, drained, or unsure why they’re not happier. You might find yourself saying yes to everything; trying to please others, avoid feeling stuck, or figure out what actually matters to you, but ending up exhausted. You might think, “I have a good life, I should be happy,” only to feel guilty or broken for not being content. Then the overthinking begins, spiraling through every possible path until you feel paralyzed, wishing someone would tell you what to do.

If this sounds familiar, nothing is wrong with you. Feeling uncertain in your 20s isn’t a flaw; it’s part of the process of becoming. This chapter isn’t about having all the answers; it’s about noticing what feels true for you, learning what drains you, and allowing clarity to come with time.

Awareness, not perfection, is where healing begins.

Read more here: https://therapyonfig.com/blog/2025/10/25/feeling-lost-in-your-20s

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5619 North Figueroa Street
Highland Park, CA
90042

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http://www.therapyonfig.com/

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