3 Best Marriage Counselors in San Diego, CA

" Sarah Cook Ruggera is a licensed marriage and family therapist, affair recovery specialist, and certified neurodiverse couples counselor/coach. She focuses on innovative and hands-on tools for effective communication and personal relating. Sarah Ruggera has helped over two thousand couples become more relational rather than transactional, resulting in feeling more emotionally connected. She is direct yet sensitive. She focuses on achieving results, assisting individuals in acquiring practical tools, and learning an effective communication process. Sarah Cook Ruggera provides both in-office and online services to accommodate clients' preferences and needs. She is a results-oriented therapist who helps couples navigate their challenges. This process involves expressing thoughts and feelings, initiating conversations, and effectively asking for their needs and desires.

" Baya Mebarek, Psy.D., LMFT, is a licensed marriage and family therapist specializing in couples therapy and marriage counseling. With more than two decades of clinical experience, she helps couples understand the patterns that keep them stuck and develop healthier ways of communicating, resolving conflict, rebuilding trust, and reconnecting emotionally. Her work is research-based and grounded primarily in strategies informed by Gottman research and attachment theory, with Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) integrated when helpful. She works with couples facing communication difficulties, recurring conflict, emotional disconnection, affair and betrayal recovery, premarital concerns, intimacy challenges, and significant relationship transitions. Baya also has particular experience working with bicultural couples, helping partners understand how differences in culture, family expectations, values, communication styles, and relationship beliefs can affect their connection. Her approach combines clinical depth with practical relationship skills. Rather than focusing only on the argument in front of them, she helps couples understand the emotional patterns underneath recurring conflicts while learning concrete ways to listen, repair, communicate needs, and respond differently to one another. Baya Mebarek is fluent in English and French and provides couples therapy through San Diego Couples & Family Therapy, with in-office appointments in San Diego and online therapy available throughout California.

" Lori Underwood aims to help clients achieve greater success in life and relationships by fostering increased awareness, accountability, and a commitment to personal and professional growth. With a successful track record of delivering measurable results, she brings 25 years of experience as a senior business development leader, having worked with some of America’s most dynamic organizations. She has led and collaborated with diverse individuals and teams, spearheading large-scale initiatives that produced favorable, measurable results. She is also skilled at helping clients navigate and overcome situational issues often associated with depression, low self-esteem, anxiety, trauma, sadness, and isolation. Lori Underwood has the knowledge, experience, and skills to help others succeed at home, in their most important relationships, and in their careers.