KRIS ALVARADO

Kris is a Licensed Marriage Family Therapist who is passionate about empowering her clients to face that which they fear most with grace, ease, and empathy.  As a fifth generation Mexican American herself, she can empathize with feelings of not-belonging and being othered and has dedicated herself to working with adults and teenagers who feel cast aside and silenced by society.  Kris enjoys helping others find their voice and breathe life into their authentic selves.  She helps her clients explore their roles in society, to see if these roles still serve them, and sheds light on all other options to find a better fit.  

Kris thrives in giving others the space to talk about that which has deeply hurt them at a pace that feels good for them.  She enjoys assisting people of color in shifting from seeing themselves as "selfish" to seeing themselves as "centered in self".  She is also passionate about assisting LGBTQ+ people in deepening their self-acceptance by releasing internalized shame that is holding them back.  As a recovering Catholic herself, Kris is also very familiar with taking in shame from religion.  She appreciates how challenging and rewarding the process of letting go of shame can be and she truly enjoys helping her clients do the same.  She also has a passion for helping other allies grow in their allyship as she loves discussing and exploring gender and sexuality. Kris sees herself as helping her clients to build a moat of protection and love around the castle of their beautiful authentic self, while also helping her clients get rid of that which no longer serves them.  She thrives on helping others out of the muck of what is expected of them so they can appreciate who they truly are and experience a higher degree of freedom.     

Kris completed her undergraduate degree in Religious Studies at California State University Northridge.  During her time at CSUN, she took a class called “Psychology and Religion”, and it was then that she realized she wanted to learn more about Psychology and Spirituality than religion.  Kris then attended the University of Santa Monica where she received a Master's in Spiritual Psychology and began to learn the basics of Psychology and therapy. She then attended Antioch University Los Angeles to get her Master's in Clinical Psychology and sought out to grow in her ally-ship through her studies in the LGBTQ+ Specialization.  She has a great enthusiasm for practicing Feminist Theory, LGBTQ+ Affirmative Psychology, Family Systems Theory and Psychodynamic Theory all through a Multicultural lens.  Her clinical approach is both gentle, yet direct and emotional, yet practical.  Her training and experience allows for her to assist with a myriad of issues, including anxiety, depression, and grief.