Cynthia Cunningham
Compassionate therapist with lived recovery insight
LMFT California
- Experience
- 27 years in practice
- Focus areas
- Addictions, Relationship, Family
- Approaches
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Languages
- English
About Cynthia
Cynthia Cunningham is a California licensed marriage and family therapist (LMFT) with 27 years of clinical experience. She draws on a long personal recovery journey, including 35 years of sobriety and work in recovery from co-dependency and love addiction, to inform a compassionate, practical approach to therapy.
Background and approach
Her background gives her particular insight into addiction-related struggles, patterns of attachment, and difficulties saying no or setting boundaries. Cynthia uses a blend of evidence-informed methods including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) alongside attachment-focused and client-centered perspectives to help clients clarify values, shift unhelpful patterns, and build new skills.
She works with concerns such as anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, grief, stress, self-esteem, intimacy and relationship problems, eating and sleeping issues, career transitions, and ADHD, as well as a range of related personality and communication challenges. Sessions emphasize collaboration and client control over goals and pace, with practical strategies for changing behaviors and strengthening self-compassion.
She frames therapy as a guided partnership, offering steady support to people ready to take an initial step toward change and greater self-care.
Online approaches that combine skills and attachment work
Many of Cynthia's sessions draw on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thoughts and behaviors to reduce symptoms like anxiety, depression, and panic. CBT offers concrete tools for managing worry, improving sleep, and shifting patterns that maintain distress.She also integrates Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), a values-oriented approach that helps people accept difficult feelings while committing to actions aligned with what matters most, which can be useful for coping with life changes, stress, and persistent emotional pain. Attachment-Based Therapy is used to explore relational patterns and attachment needs, helping clients improve communication, set boundaries, and create healthier connections with others.
Choosing the right approach is a collaborative process; Cynthia will work with each person to assess needs, goals, and preferences and adjust methods over time. She emphasizes client control of therapy goals and pace so the work fits the individual.
Online formats include video calls, phone sessions, live chat, and text-based messaging, offering greater flexibility for scheduling and ongoing support between in-person visits. These options make it easier to maintain continuity of care, fit sessions into a busy life, and access therapy from different locations while working with a licensed professional.
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Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
27+ years
Licensed
California
Languages
English