According to Erica Spartos, LMFT (CA #81057), depression in young adults often goes unrecognized for months or years because it rarely looks the way people expect it to. In her 20 years of clinical experience working with teens and young adults in San Francisco, the most common presentation is not someone who can't get out of bed. It's someone who is functional, productive, and by most external measures doing fine, while quietly feeling disconnected, flat, and like nothing qu

If you have been considering trauma therapy but weekly 50-minute sessions feel too slow, too hard to schedule, or like they are not moving things forward fast enough, EMDR intensives may be worth understanding. According to Erica Spartos, LMFT (CA #81057), EMDR intensives compress what might otherwise take months of weekly sessions into a shorter, more focused period. They are not the right fit for everyone, but for specific situations and specific people, they can move traum

TL;DR: Most private practice therapists in San Francisco do not accept insurance directly. That does not mean insurance cannot help. If you have a PPO plan, you may be eligible to have 50 to 80 percent of session costs reimbursed through out-of-network billing. This post explains how that works, what to ask your insurer, and what the real number looks like once reimbursement is factored in. Erica Spartos, LMFT #81057, has maintained a private practice in San Francisco for nea

TL;DR: Finding the right therapist for your teen takes a different approach than finding one for yourself. The fit between a teen and their therapist matters more than almost any other factor, which means you need a therapist with genuine experience working with adolescents, not just one who accepts teens on their caseload. Erica Spartos, LMFT #81057, has worked with adolescents across nine San Francisco public schools and in private practice for over 20 years. Searching for