Cynthia Cunningham
Practical guidance from long-term recovery
LMFT California
- Experience
- 27 years in practice
- Focus areas
- Addictions, Relationship, Family
- Approaches
- Gottman Method, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
- Languages
- English
About Cynthia
Cynthia Cunningham is a California licensed marriage and family therapist with 27 years of clinical experience. She draws on long personal recovery to guide people through addiction, codependency, and difficult relationship patterns.
Background and approach
Cynthia speaks plainly in sessions and focuses on skills people can use right away. She helps people stop chasing relationships that hurt and learn to set kind, firm boundaries.
Cynthia also works with anxiety, panic, depression, bipolar mood issues, and trouble sleeping or eating. Practical strategies from cognitive behavioral therapy are combined with attention to attachment and relationship dynamics.
Her approach keeps the person in charge of therapy. Clients choose goals and pace, and she tailors tools to individual needs.
Sessions emphasize short-term coping skills and deeper changes that support long-term sobriety and healthier relationships. Cynthia offers support for people coping with major life changes, grief, caregiver stress, and career strain.
She also addresses identity and self-esteem concerns, body image, and communication problems that get in the way of daily life. She draws on decades of experience to help people spot unhelpful patterns and practice new ways of relating.
She believes in beginning where a person is and walking alongside them as they build new habits. Cynthia invites people ready for change to take a first step and try a different way of handling old problems.
How online approaches and relationship work come together
Cynthia integrates the Gottman Method with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy to focus on relationship patterns and personal values. The Gottman Method looks at how partners communicate and manage conflict, helping people recognize destructive cycles and practice different interaction skills. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy helps people clarify what matters to them and take committed action, which can reduce avoidance and increase meaningful steps forward.She also uses Attachment-Based Therapy to look at how early bonds shape current ways of relating. That approach helps people notice patterns of closeness and distance and try new responses that build more stable connections. Together these approaches help with relationship challenges, intimacy-related issues, and coping with emotional triggers. Cynthia treats finding the right approach as a collaborative process. She will work with each person to choose methods that fit their goals and comfort level, and she adjusts tools as progress and needs change.
Online therapy offers several practical benefits for her work. Video calls allow face-to-face interaction for communication practice, phone sessions are useful when bandwidth is limited, live chat supports quick check-ins, and text-based messaging can help with brief updates or homework between sessions. These formats make it easier to maintain consistency and fit therapy into a busy life.
Frequently asked questions
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Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Also works with
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
27+ years
Licensed in
California
Languages
English