Dating and Relationship Therapy in Los Angeles, CA | David Strah, Licensed Therapist
Most people don’t come to relationship therapy because everything is fine. They come because something keeps going wrong. Maybe it’s the same argument on repeat. Maybe it’s dating that feels more exhausting than exciting. Maybe you’ve found a good relationship and you’re quietly terrified of ruining it.
Whatever brought you here, David Strah offers relationship therapy and dating counseling in Los Angeles, CA for people who are ready to actually figure it out. Not just vent about it, not just read another book about attachment styles. Actually work on it.
Sessions are available in-person in Los Angeles and via telehealth throughout California, so whether you’re in West Hollywood, Silver Lake, Santa Monica, Pasadena, or anywhere else across the city, support is accessible.
What Relationship Therapy Actually Is (and Isn’t)
Here’s something most people get wrong: relationship therapy isn’t only for couples on the verge of a breakup. And it’s not just for people who are already in relationships at all.
Plenty of people come in as single adults who are tired of the same dating patterns. Others are in solid relationships and want to keep them that way. Some are recovering from a breakup that hit harder than expected. Others are navigating something specific, like rebuilding trust after infidelity, figuring out a non-monogamous relationship structure, or just trying to communicate better without every conversation turning into a fight.
Relationship therapy, at its core, is about understanding why you do what you do in relationships, and changing what isn’t working.
David Strah works with individuals and couples across Los Angeles. His practice is fully affirming of LGBTQ+ clients, all relationship structures, and all backgrounds. You don’t need to fit into a specific box to get something real out of this work.
Why Choosing the Right Therapist Matters
There’s no shortage of therapists in Los Angeles. What’s harder to find is one who specializes in relationship work specifically, who’s genuinely affirming of LGBTQ+ clients and non-traditional relationship structures, and who can hold space for the complexity that real relationships carry.
A lot of relationship therapy in LA is good at validation but thin on actual skill-building. The goal in working with David isn’t just to feel heard. It’s to understand yourself better, change what isn’t working, and build something more stable.
David Strah is a [LMFT / LCSW / LPCC, insert applicable license] licensed by the California Board of Behavioral Sciences. He brings years of clinical experience with a focus on dating, relationship, and couples work. Training includes, and his practice is listed on Psychology Today, TherapyDen, and Inclusive Therapists.
Signs You Might Benefit From Relationship Therapy
You don’t have to be in crisis to come to therapy. But these patterns often show up with clients:
- You keep dating people who aren’t available emotionally, and you’re not sure why
- You and your partner have the same argument over and over, and nothing changes
- Trust was broken in your relationship and you don’t know how to rebuild it
- You’re dating again after a divorce or hard breakup and it feels harder than it should
- You shut down or get defensive in conflict instead of being able to talk things through
- You want intimacy but feel scared of it at the same time
- You’re newly in love but anxious that your old patterns are going to mess it up
- Your relationship feels more like a roommate situation than a partnership
- You’re in a non-traditional relationship structure and need a therapist who actually understands it
Sound familiar? That’s where this work starts.
Common Issues Addressed in Sessions
Dating anxiety and patterns
Dating in Los Angeles is its own particular experience. The apps, the options, the ghosting, the situationships. It’s a lot. For many people, dating triggers anxiety, low self-worth, and behaviors that push away the kind of connection they actually want. Therapy helps you understand what’s driving those patterns, not just what’s happening on the surface.
Attachment styles and how they affect your relationships
Your attachment style, whether anxious, avoidant, or fearful-avoidant, shapes almost everything about how you show up in relationships. Anxious attachment might look like constantly seeking reassurance or panicking when your partner pulls back. Avoidant attachment might look like needing space so much that closeness starts to feel threatening. Fearful-avoidant is often the most painful: wanting connection deeply but feeling unsafe getting it.
None of these are permanent. With the right approach, attachment patterns can shift. That’s a big part of what this work is about.
Couples therapy and communication
Most couples don’t fight about what they think they’re fighting about. The argument about who forgot to call the plumber is usually about feeling unheard, disrespected, or alone in the relationship. Couples therapy helps you see what’s actually driving the conflict and gives you real tools to change how you communicate, not just scripts to follow.
Infidelity and trust repair
This is one of the hardest things a relationship can go through. Whether you’re the person who was hurt or the person who caused the hurt, there’s a path through it, but it requires real work on both sides. Sessions are honest, direct, and don’t involve taking sides. The goal is to help both people understand what happened and decide, together, what comes next.
Breakup recovery and divorce grief
A breakup can wreck you even when it was the right call. That grief is real. Post-breakup or post-divorce therapy gives you a space to process what happened, understand your role in it, and figure out what you actually want going forward, so you’re not just carrying the same wounds into the next relationship.
Codependency
If your emotional state is completely dependent on how your partner is feeling, that’s exhausting for both of you. Codependency often comes from early experiences and can be hard to see clearly when you’re in it. Therapy helps you build a stronger sense of your own identity inside a relationship, so love doesn’t have to mean losing yourself.
Non-monogamy and ENM counseling
Ethical non-monogamy, polyamory, and open relationships come with their own specific challenges: jealousy, communication structures, time management, navigating different attachment needs across multiple relationships. Most therapists aren’t equipped to work on this without judgment or misunderstanding. This practice is not one of them. All relationship structures are welcome, and sessions are practical, not prescriptive.
LGBTQ+ couples counseling
LGBTQ+ couples face many of the same dynamics as any couple, plus some that are specific to their experience: different stages of outness, navigating families who aren’t fully accepting, minority stress that bleeds into the relationship, and sometimes, the lack of relationship role models who look like them. David’s affirmative background means this work happens without the need to explain or justify your relationship.
Premarital counseling
This is consistently underused and consistently useful. Couples who do premarital counseling before they need couples therapy are in a much stronger position. It’s not about planning the wedding. It’s about getting aligned on the things that actually break couples apart: finances, conflict styles, family dynamics, expectations about sex and intimacy, and how you want to handle the hard stuff when it comes.
Intimacy and sexual concerns
Feeling disconnected from your partner physically, mismatched in desire, or carrying shame around sex are things that rarely resolve on their own. These topics can be addressed directly in sessions. For concerns that require a sex therapist specifically, referrals to trusted colleagues are available.
The Therapeutic Approaches Used
David draws on several evidence-based frameworks and adapts them to what actually fits you:
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is one of the most research-supported approaches for couples. It helps identify the negative cycle you’re stuck in, the pursuer-withdrawer pattern, the distance that builds over time, and works at the emotional level underneath the surface arguments.
The Gottman Method gives couples concrete tools based on decades of research: how to have conflict without it becoming corrosive, how to maintain friendship and admiration in long-term relationships, and how to repair after a rupture.
Attachment-based therapy helps you understand where your relational patterns come from and how to shift them. It’s especially useful for people who’ve noticed the same dynamic showing up in relationship after relationship.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is practical and structured. It’s useful for dating anxiety, catastrophizing, and the thought patterns that drive self-sabotage in relationships.
Psychodynamic therapy goes deeper into the past. Especially useful when there’s something from early family dynamics that keeps showing up in adult relationships.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) helps you stop trying to control your anxiety or fear in relationships and start moving toward what actually matters to you.
Internal Family Systems (IFS) works with different parts of yourself, the part that wants intimacy and the part that’s terrified of it, and helps them stop fighting each other.
Serving All of Greater Los Angeles
David’s practice is conveniently located in Los Angeles and serves clients from across the city, including West Hollywood, Silver Lake, Echo Park, Los Feliz, Koreatown, Mid-City, Hollywood, Downtown Los Angeles, Culver City, Santa Monica, Atwater Village, Burbank, Glendale, Pasadena, and Long Beach.
Can’t make it in person? Telehealth sessions are available throughout California and work just as well for most individual therapy and many couples sessions.
What to Expect
Starting therapy, especially around relationships, can feel vulnerable. Here’s how it works:
Free initial consultation: A brief call to ask questions, talk through what you’re dealing with, and see whether this feels like a good fit. No commitment required.
First session: A real conversation about what’s brought you in, what you’re hoping for, and what the work might look like. You won’t be handed a worksheet on day one.
Ongoing sessions: Most clients meet weekly. Frequency is flexible and adjusts as things progress. Couples sessions typically run 50 to 80 minutes.
Sessions are fully confidential. Insurance is accepted, and sliding scale fees are available for those who need them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do we need to be in a crisis to start couples therapy?
Not at all. In fact, couples who come in before things are at a breaking point tend to do better work. If you’re noticing patterns you don’t like, feeling more distant than you used to, or just want to build stronger communication before life gets harder, those are all good reasons to start.
I’m not in a relationship right now. Can individual therapy still help my dating life?
Yes, and honestly it’s some of the most effective work. A lot of what drives frustrating patterns in dating, who you’re drawn to, how you handle rejection, what happens when things get serious, comes from patterns that formed long before you started dating. Individual therapy is a great place to work on all of that.
What if my partner is resistant to therapy?
That’s common. The good news is that individual therapy can shift relationship dynamics even when only one person is doing the work. You can’t change your partner’s behavior directly, but changes in how you show up almost always affect how the relationship functions. Many people start individually and their partner comes in later once they see the results.
Do you work with non-monogamous or polyamorous relationships?
Yes. All relationship structures are welcome here, including open relationships, polyamory, and other ethically non-monogamous arrangements. Sessions are practical and focused on whatever you actually need, whether that’s communication between partners, processing jealousy, or navigating a specific situation that’s come up.
How long does relationship therapy usually take?
It varies a lot depending on what you’re working on. Some people come in with a specific goal and feel solid after a few months. Others are working on deeper patterns and stay longer. Most couples see meaningful progress within 8 to 16 sessions, though some continue beyond that. The timeline is something you’ll talk through as you go.
Is what I say in sessions completely private?
Yes. Confidentiality is taken seriously, and sessions are fully private. There are a small number of legal exceptions (situations involving imminent danger to yourself or others, or mandatory reporting), but those come up rarely and would be explained clearly upfront.
How is relationship therapy different from just talking to a close friend?
A good friend listens and cares. A therapist does that too, but also brings clinical training, pattern recognition across hundreds of cases, and the ability to challenge you without it feeling like an attack. Therapists also don’t have a stake in the outcome, which means they can give you honest feedback that friends often can’t.
Ready to Start?
If you’re in Los Angeles and looking for relationship therapy that’s direct, affirming, and actually useful, David Strah’s practice is worth reaching out to.
Schedule a free consultation and take the first step at your own pace.
