LICENSED MARRIAGE AND FAMILY THERAPIST | LMFT 157969 | SAN FRANCISCO & BERKELEY, CA | ONLINE ACROSS CALIFORNIA
Hello! I’m Courtney Quattrini,
I love understanding how storytelling helps or hinders human potential. The stories we tell about ourselves and about each other carry real impact. They shape how we see ourselves, how we move through relationships, and how we make sense of the beautiful, messy, complicated parts of being human.
Some of those stories keep us connected and known. Others keep us stuck in patterns that once protected us and no longer serve the life we want.
That second kind is where I come in.
I see clients in person in San Francisco, Berkeley and online throughout California.
How I Found My Way Here
Before I became a therapist, I spent twenty years in public communication and executive coaching.
I told stories for some of the best known brands in the world.
I taught executives how to listen better and communicate more clearly. That work gave me a real appreciation for communication, relational dynamics, and the ways people come to understand themselves and each other.
Then something shifted. My love of storytelling wasn't just about helping people speak more clearly - it was about helping them speak authentically.
And to do that, I realized I needed to help people listen more deeply.
To the stories that had been shaping their lives, often without their noticing. To themselves. To each other.
That is what led me to become a Marriage and Family Therapist. Now my work centers on helping couples, individuals, and teens understand their own life stories, especially the parts that feel messy, automatic, painful, or hard to explain.
The Stories We Tell Ourselves
Some stories help us feel connected, grounded, and known. Others keep us stuck in patterns that once kept us safe but no longer help us live the life we want.
Sometimes those stories show up in relationships. Sometimes they show up in the way we speak to ourselves. Sometimes they live in the body long before we have words for them.
In session, we start noticing them. With curiosity, not judgment. Not to erase them, but to understand how they shaped you, and where something new may be ready to begin.
You get to author the part that is still unwritten.
A Space to Feel Seen and Understood
My practice is built on a partnership: trust, compassion, and the basic human need to feel seen and understood. I believe therapy supports us in living the life story we want to tell. For many people, that path moves through three places.
Trust
We build a relationship where you can say the true thing out loud, including the parts of yourself you learned to hide or hold back.
Awareness
We name your skills, strengths, and superpowers, alongside the behaviors, patterns, and beliefs that may be keeping you stuck.
Action
You practice new ways of showing up for yourself and the people you love, and we figure out how to make those changes last.
I will accompany you and offer what I know. The work stays collaborative, and it draws on the wisdom and tools you already carry.
My Own Story
I've been studying relationships, and navigating the paradox of being myself while in proximity to another, since I was in the womb with my twin sister.
As an awkward fifth grader I gave daily news reports in my living room into a giant VHS camera. Then middle school brought bullying, and I stopped putting myself in front of the lens. I learned to hide. That instinct carried me into two decades of PR and corporate communications, scripting everyone else's story while wearing a mask of my own.
I've lived the exact chapters my clients bring into my office.
I was that teen trying to be real without being destroyed. I was that midlife adult asking who I actually wanted to be once the corporate performance stopped. I was that person who once lost hope of ever having the kind of deep, secure relationship I thought I deserved. These days I live in Oakland with my husband, two kids, and a dog who has not accepted that he is not a human baby.
I don't sit in the therapy room as an aloof, sterile blank slate. I map out the patterns you can't see, call out where you are self-abandoning, and help you hand the pen back to yourself.
You do not have to stay the character someone else wrote you to be.
Credentials & Training
✓ Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, California, LMFT 157969
✓ MA, Integral Counseling Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies
✓ BA, Public Communication, Buffalo State University
✓ Gottman Method Couples Therapy, trained through Level Three
✓ Prepare Enrich Facilitator
✓ Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO) Informed
✓ Attachment-based, somatic, and psychodynamic therapy
✓ Twenty years in communications, storytelling, executive coaching and leadership
What I Help With
✓ Couples stuck in the same argument
✓ Partners who are in the ‘roommate contract’
✓ Premarital and newly engaged couples
✓ Adults in midlife and career transitions
✓ High-achieving adults running on empty
✓ Teen girls and young women finding their footing
✓ Anxiety, self-doubt, and shame
✓ Healing from past pain and trauma
✓ Untangling family-of-origin scripts and inherited expectations
✓ Somatic tension, chronic exhaustion, and physical burnout
In San Francisco, Berkeley and Online Across California
I offer in-person sessions in San Francisco, Berkeley and online sessions throughout California.
In-person work can give you a consistent place to slow down, reflect, and focus on what needs attention.
Online sessions make support reachable from anywhere in the state without losing the depth and thoughtfulness of the work.
Frequently Asked Questions
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I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist practicing in San Francisco, California license number 157969. I work with couples, individuals, and teens, both in person in San Francisco, Berkeley and online throughout California. Before becoming a therapist I spent twenty years in public communication and executive coaching.
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An LMFT holds a master's degree in a clinical field, completes thousands of supervised clinical hours, and passes state licensing exams before practicing independently. In California, LMFTs are licensed by the Board of Behavioral Sciences. My MA in Integral Counseling Psychology is from the California Institute of Integral Studies.
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Integral Counseling Psychology is a graduate training approach that combines traditional clinical psychology with attention to the whole person, including body, relationships, and meaning. It draws on humanistic and depth traditions alongside evidence-based practice. I studied it at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.
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My approach is integrative, which means I draw from several methods depending on what you need. Those include Gottman Method Couples Therapy, Internal Family Systems, attachment-based therapy, somatic awareness, psychodynamic therapy, and cognitive behavioral tools. I completed Gottman training through Level Three.
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Both. I offer in-person sessions in San Francisco and Berkeley and online sessions for clients anywhere in California. Many clients choose online sessions for scheduling flexibility, and the depth of the work holds either way.
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Getting started begins with a consultation. You can reach me through the contact form or by phone at 415-710-7527, and I typically respond within 24 hours. We will talk about what brings you in and whether my practice is a good fit for what you need.
Stories We Tell Therapy • Courtney Quattrini, LMFT 157969
Let’s Turn a New
Page Together
If you are ready to understand your story, shift old patterns, and begin creating a different way forward, the first step is a consultation.