Online Therapy in California

Real therapy, from wherever you are — Redding to San Diego. I'm Colt Gordon, LCSW, licensed in California, and I work with clients across the state through secure video sessions.

Licensed in California, Available Everywhere in It

If you live anywhere in California, we can work together. My license covers the whole state, and because every session is online, "finding a therapist near me" stops being about geography and starts being about fit. You don't need to live near an office. You need someone whose approach actually works for you. I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and a member of the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers (MINT). My practice is built on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), supported by EMDR, Bowen Family Systems work, DBT and CBT skills, and Exposure Therapy — whichever combination your situation calls for.

How Online Sessions Work

Sessions happen over secure, HIPAA-compliant video — you need a private space, a decent connection, and a device with a camera. That's it. No commute, no waiting room, no rearranging your day around a drive. We start with a free 15-minute consultation. You tell me what's going on, I tell you honestly whether I'm the right person for it, and you decide whether we're a fit. If we are, sessions are $185 and mine is a private-pay practice — I don't bill insurance, which keeps your records between us and keeps treatment decisions between us too.

What I Work With

Anxiety and panic attacks. Depression. Trauma and PTSD. Phobias. OCD. Chronic pain and chronic illness. Family-of-origin patterns — enmeshment, emotional cutoff, the roles you learned in the house you grew up in. If you want the specifics of how I approach each, every one of these goes deeper:

The Approach: A Process, Not Just a Conversation

Everything I do is organized around The Six Pillars of Making a Life That Works — my ACT-based framework: Contacting the Present Moment (Be Here Now) · Defusion (Watch Your Thinking) · Acceptance (Open Up) · Self-as-Context (Balancing Self-Identity) · Values (Know What Matters) · Committed Action (Do What It Takes). Do you have a process for change? I do, and I can teach it to you. See The Process.

Serving All of California

My California clients connect from Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Sacramento, Fresno, Bakersfield, Modesto, Redding, Lancaster, Escondido — and from small towns no directory has heard of. If you're in California, you're in range.

Start with a Conversation

Schedule your free 15-minute consultation. Fifteen minutes to find out whether this is the right fit — no forms marathon, no commitment, no pressure.

Did you Know?

A few things people often get wrong about therapy and how it works.
A smiling Colt Gordon with curly hair and a beard is wearing a white shirt, standing in front of a colorful landscape background and a bookshelf.

The Misconception

A free consultation is just a sales pitch.

The Reality

A real consultation is mutual screening. In fifteen minutes you learn how the therapist thinks, and an honest therapist will tell you if they’re the wrong fit — and point you somewhere better.

The Misconception

A therapist has to be in your town to help you.

The Reality

A therapist has to be licensed in your state and right for your situation. Online sessions mean you choose from every therapist in your state instead of whoever happens to have an office within driving distance.

The Misconception

EMDR can’t be done over video.

The Reality

EMDR adapts fully to telehealth using on-screen and self-administered bilateral stimulation, and has been delivered this way at scale since 2020, with the same preparation and safety protocols as in-person sessions.

The Misconception

If your family never changes, you can’t get better.

The Reality

You can change your part in any relationship system without anyone else’s cooperation. When you stop playing your assigned role, the whole pattern has to reorganize around the new you.

The Misconception

Needing therapy means something is wrong with me.

The Reality

Anxiety, grief, and burnout are human responses to real pressures, not defects. Most people in therapy are ordinary people who decided to stop white-knuckling it alone.

The Misconception

Not using insurance means overpaying for therapy.

The Reality

Private-pay therapy buys things insurance can’t: no diagnosis required for treatment, no records in insurance databases, no claims reviewer deciding how many sessions you need. You and your therapist set the course — nobody else.

The Misconception

Online sessions aren’t private enough for therapy.

The Reality

Sessions run on secure, HIPAA-compliant video — and skipping the shared waiting room means nobody sees you walk in. For many clients, online is the more private option, not less.

The Misconception

Online therapy is a watered-down version of “real” therapy.

The Reality

Video-based therapy produces outcomes comparable to in-person treatment for anxiety, depression, trauma, and most other concerns. The method of change is the relationship and the work — not the furniture.

The Misconception

Therapy means years of weekly sessions talking about your childhood.

The Reality

Structured, process-driven therapy targets specific changes with specific tools. We revisit your history where it explains your patterns — then spend our time changing them.

The Misconception

You have to feel every painful feeling fully before you can heal.

The Reality

Feelings are wonderful servants but terrible masters. Sometimes the skill is opening up to an emotion; sometimes it’s noticing it without letting it run the show. Good therapy teaches you which move the moment calls for.

    FAQ

    Real questions deserve straight answers — about money, medication, how this works, and whether it's worth it. No sales pitch, no jargon. If your question isn't here, the free 15-minute consultation exists for exactly that.

    Let's Talk

    Set up a 15-minute free consultation.
    The hardest part is reaching out — so we keep it small. Fifteen minutes, no paperwork, no pressure. If I'm not the right fit, I'll say so and point you to someone who is. Either way, you leave with a next step.
    Request Appointment