PuttingFamilyFirst

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DK Portrait of Devorah Knaff
Online therapist

Devorah Knaff

Grounded support for family and identity concerns

Book with Devorah
Credentials
LMFT
Experience
11 years
Licensed in
California
Languages
English
Format
Online sessions

About Devorah

Devorah Knaff is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 11 years of clinical experience in California. She focuses on family and parenting concerns along with relationship and identity matters. Her style is straightforward and respectful, and she aims to make the first steps feel manageable for worried parents.

Devorah believes people know a lot about their own lives and brings that perspective into sessions. She listens closely and helps clients name strengths they can use right away.

Background and approach

That practical focus helps people move past stuck patterns and find clearer next steps. Her work covers a range of concerns including grief, anxiety, trauma, and parenting challenges. She also supports people facing identity and intimacy questions, fertility and fatherhood issues, and problems tied to family history or blended households.

Devorah is familiar with stress that comes from chronic illness, adoption and foster care situations, and experiences of abandonment. Therapeutically she draws on client-centered approaches that prioritize each persons perspective. She also uses narrative and Jungian ideas to look at life stories and deeper patterns.

Motivational interviewing helps when someone needs support making a change. Sessions are aimed at clear, usable steps rather than jargon. Devorah encourages parents to try practical strategies between meetings and to track what helps.

She acknowledges that starting therapy takes courage and works to make the process steady and understandable.

Therapeutic approaches and online options that fit family life

Client-centered therapy puts the client's perspective first and focuses on listening and responding to what matters most. It helps people feel heard and identify practical next steps they can try at home. Narrative therapy looks at the stories people tell about themselves and their families, and helps rewrite those stories so they support healthier choices and relationships. Jungian therapy explores recurring patterns and symbols in a person's life to reveal deeper sources of conflict and meaning, which can be helpful when family roles or long-standing dynamics feel stuck.

Finding the right approach is part of the work. The therapist will collaborate with each person to choose or combine methods based on goals, needs, and preferences. That shared process makes it easier to test out techniques and adjust the plan when something is not helping.

Online sessions offer flexibility for busy parents and caregivers. Video calls and phone sessions allow face-to-face conversation without travel, while live chat and text-based messaging let people check in between meetings or use shorter touchpoints. These options make it simpler to fit therapy into a changing schedule and to maintain continuity during stressful times.

Client-Centered Therapy

The direction comes from you rather than from a set programme. The therapist offers a warm, non-judgemental space to think out loud and work at your own pace. Online, this rests on the relationship rather than on being in the same room.

Existential Therapy

Takes the larger questions seriously: meaning, choice, mortality, responsibility. Suited to periods when the difficulty is less a symptom than a sense that something has to change.

Motivational Interviewing

A way of working through mixed feelings about change without being pushed. The therapist helps you weigh things up and find your own reasons, which often makes a difficult decision feel less stuck.

Frequently asked questions

What kinds of problems can be addressed here?
Work can focus on family and parenting issues, relationship and intimacy struggles, and identity related concerns such as LGBT matters. Other areas include trauma, grief, anxiety, stress, and life changes.
How would you describe the therapy style?
The approach is empathetic and down-to-earth, centering the client's own experience. Sessions focus on listening, identifying strengths, and trying practical steps between meetings.
What background and experience does the therapist have?
The therapist has 11 years of professional experience working with a range of family, relationship, and identity concerns. She brings clinical experience across grief, trauma, and parenting contexts.
What are the therapist's credentials and where are they based?
The clinician holds the credential LMFT, licensed in California as CA LMFT 53641, and practices from California.
Are sessions offered in other languages or internationally?
Sessions are offered in English. International clients are not currently accepted.
What formats are available for sessions?
Sessions can be held by video calls, phone sessions, live chat, or text-based messaging to fit different schedules and needs.
How does cost work for therapy here?
Cost varies with location and therapist availability; sessions use a subscription model that can be canceled at any time.
How do I begin if I want to work together?
To start, select the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and schedule according to therapist availability.

Specialties and expertise

Top specialties

  • LGBT
  • Relationship issues
  • Family conflicts

Also works with

Therapeutic approaches

Experience
11 years
Licensed
California
Languages
English

Next step

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