Dr. Gail Masterson
Experienced therapist for families and life transitions
- Credentials
- LMFT
- Experience
- 28 years
- Licensed in
- California
- Languages
- English
- Format
- Online sessions
About Gail
Dr. Gail Masterson brings nearly three decades of clinical experience to her practice. She is a licensed marriage and family therapist - LMFT - practicing in California.
Gail writes plainly and listens closely, helping clients talk through stress, relationship struggles, parenting concerns, grief, and life transitions. She mixes practical coaching with thoughtful psychotherapy. Sessions often focus on clear steps a person or couple can try between meetings.
Gail encourages small experiments that can ease anxiety, improve communication, or restore a sense of purpose.
Background and approach
Her background includes a PhD in Psychology and a Master of Arts in Marriage Family Therapy. She also trained in both brief, solution-oriented approaches and longer term psychotherapy. That range shapes a flexible style tailored to what each person needs.
Gail uses several approaches, including client-centered listening, cognitive behavioral techniques, mindfulness practices, existential questions, and motivational interviewing. She frames therapy as a collaborative process and helps people choose strategies that fit their goals and daily life. Many clients work on relationship issues, parenting difficulties, career or midlife shifts, and coping with loss or caregiving stress.
Gail draws on years of work with adults and families to offer straightforward guidance, support, and gentle challenge when needed.
Approaches that guide online sessions
Gail commonly uses client-centered therapy, which begins by listening closely and following what matters most to the person. This approach helps people feel heard and lets the conversation shape the work that follows. She also uses cognitive behavioral therapy, a practical method that looks at thoughts and actions together and offers specific tools for anxiety, mood, and relationship strain.Finding the right approach is part of the process. Gail treats therapy as a collaboration and will discuss goals, needs, and preferences to identify which methods to try. She can combine listening, skills training, mindfulness practice, and motivational interviewing to match what a person hopes to accomplish.
Online sessions are offered by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging to make therapy fit into busy lives. These formats allow for flexible scheduling and steady contact when real-world constraints make in-person visits hard. The variety of options also makes it easier to keep working on parenting, caregiving, or career concerns without long commutes or time away from responsibilities.
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.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT looks at the link between what you think, how you feel, and what you do. You work on noticing unhelpful patterns and practising steadier responses. It suits online sessions well, because much of the work happens between appointments and can be talked through from anywhere.
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.
Frequently asked questions
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Specialties and expertise
Top specialties
- Stress, Anxiety
- Relationship issues
- Grief
Also works with
- ADHD
- Aging and geriatric issues
- Anger management
- Career difficulties
- Caregiver issues and stress
- Coaching
- Communication problems
- Compassion fatigue
- Coping with life changes
- Coping with natural or human-caused disaster
- Depression
- Divorce and separation
- Emptiness
- Family conflicts
- Family of origin issues
- Family problems
- Fertility issues
- Hospice and end-of-life counseling
- Intimacy-related issues
- Isolation / loneliness
- Life purpose
- Midlife crisis
- Parenting issues
- Pregnancy and childbirth
- Self esteem
- Social anxiety and phobia
- Women's issues
- Workplace issues
- Young adult issues
Therapeutic approaches
- Experience
- 28 years
- Licensed
- California
- Languages
- English
Next step
Talk to Gail
- Takes a few minutes
- Nothing to set up just to look
- Stop at any point