Lyl Starr

Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (CA #134630)

Bring your whole self—struggles and all. It’s welcome here.

When it comes down to it, you’re stuck. You feel caught in a loop of self-doubt, uncertainty, and anxiety—one that, despite your very best efforts, you can’t seem to break. And now it’s starting to impact more than just you. Your work, relationships, and wellbeing are caught up in it, too.

Maybe you’re sensing that the experiences you had years ago are actually showing up in how you do life today. Perhaps you’re realizing that the childhood you thought was “typical” was actually anything but, and you’re seeing the patterns showing up all over your life.

Maybe you’re walking a road through parenthood that you never expected to be on. That could look like infertility and pregnancy loss, or the supposedly “blissful” postpartum period full of anxiety or depression, instead. While you might have pushed it away for a while, you now can’t ignore the impacts of these experiences on your body, your partner, your child, and your mental health.

You’re looking for a place to set the weight of these heavy burdens down for a minute, to process what they’ve meant to you, and to figure out what you need in order to start feeling better. You’re ready to get curious about yourself and what’s going on under the surface.

  • Therapy with me is about carving out a space you can call your own. This starts by creating an environment where you feel safe expressing yourself, without fear of being judged, abandoned, and criticized. I’m here to help you understand where those things are coming from and what their purpose is.

    It’s also about connecting back to your body, rather than just staying in your mind, using methods like Brainspotting and EMDR. Your body holds your emotions and feelings, and when you can bring both body & brain on board, you can actually process difficult emotions more thoroughly and quickly.

    This also happens through getting into nature through walk and talk sessions. Connecting with our environment can help ground you and provide healing that an office setting cannot.

    I have a Bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of San Francisco and a Master's degree in Marriage and Family Therapy from Brandman University. I’m a Certified Brainspotting Practitioner, with specialty trainings in Expansion and Perinatal Trauma, have completed Intro to Therapeutic Nature-Based Interventions through Somatic Wilderness Therapy Institute, and am in training for Polyvagal EMDR.

    I am also a Certified Childbirth Educator, Lactation Educator and co-leader of ICAN of Sacramento, a support group for those who have had cesarean births. I have received continuing education in Birth Trauma and Evidence-Based Birth through Dancy Perinatal.

    • Trauma & PTSD

    • Postpartum, pregnancy, and infertility

    • Anxiety

    • LGBTQ+

    • Attachment wounds

    • Domestic violence

    • Relationship issues

    • Attachment Approach

    • Brainspotting

    • Therapeutic Nature-Based Interventions

    • Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

    • Polyvagal Approach

    • Walk & Talk Therapy

    • In-person Roseville, CA office

    • CA virtual sessions

    • $145 per 50-minute session

    • In-network with:

      • Aetna

      • Blue Shield of CA

      • CA Victims of Crime