Bring calm and control back into your life & home.
Ashlyn O’Keefe, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist
Book your free free 20 minute consultation today
You remember a time when worry, fear, and feeling stuck weren’t the “norm” but those days feel like a distant memory. Don’t you wish you had the tools to change that?
You’ve come to the right place.
I’m Ashlyn, and I help adolescents, young adults, and parents just like you: ones that have it within them to understand their or their child’s feelings and behaviors, but just need the support to get there.
What’s it like to work with me?
Too often, teens and parents are offered quick solutions: reassurance that “this is normal” or a referral back to a doctor for more evaluations or medication adjustments.
While those supports can be helpful at times, they can also leave teens feeling misunderstood and parents feeling stuck, discouraged, or overly dependent on a system that doesn’t always address what’s happening day to day.
I believe your experience — whether you’re a teen trying to make sense of your emotions or a parent trying to support your child while managing your own stress — deserves more than a surface-level response. Your circumstances are unique.
Together, we focus on identifying and building on your strengths, as an individual teen and as a parent within your family system. We develop practical, personalized skills that address your specific challenges so you can feel more confident, capable, and less reliant on outside fixes.
In our work together:
we focus on identifying and building on your strengths — whether you’re a teen learning how to better understand your emotions, navigate relationships, and trust yourself, or a parent working to respond with clarity, confidence, and steadiness within your family.
Together, we develop practical, personalized skills that fit your specific challenges.
For teens or young adults, that might mean gaining tools to manage overwhelming thoughts and feelings, improve communication, and feel more in control. For parents, it often means learning strategies to support your child effectively, set healthy boundaries, and strengthen connection at home.
The goal is the same for both:
to help you feel more confident, more capable, and more empowered in your role — without feeling dependent on quick fixes or outside solutions.
We start by understanding what’s contributing to the challenges, like low self-esteem, school difficulties, and sleep problems. Next, we build the calming skills and strategies that fit your needs. By the end of our work together, you’ll both feel equipped, confident, and ready to reach your goals.
If you’re a parent
you want someone who understands how exhausting and emotional it can be to love your child deeply and still feel stuck, frustrated, or unsure what to do next.
If you’re a teen
you want someone who gets how overwhelming friendships, family expectations, school pressure, and your own thoughts can be.
I’ve dedicated my professional career to working with youth and within the family system because I genuinely care about both sides of the story. I know that feeling stuck in your thoughts, in your relationships, in your home, just plain sucks.
When we work together, you won’t just get a trained therapist. You’ll get someone who understands what you’re going through and will help you find a path forward that actually fits you and your family.
I’m passionate about helping people figure out what actually works for them.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, especially when you’re a teen trying to navigate growing up or a parent trying to support your child while keeping yourself afloat.
My training in working with adolescents, maturing adults, and parents gives me the experience and expertise to help you better understand and manage your thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. But credentials only go so far. What really matters is feeling like the person you’re sitting across from truly understands what this stage of life feels like.
Education
Master of Science in Counselor Education, California State University, Sacramento, 2022
emphasis in Marriage, Couple and Family Counseling
Bachelor of Science in Psychology, Presentation College, 2018
Modalities
I use an integrative approach, meaning I draw from different evidence-based practices to tailor interventions and skills that best fit you.
Some of the evidence-based practices that influence my work are:
Client-Centered
Trauma-informed
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) informed
Parent-Child Care (PC-CARE) informed: parent child relationship enhancement skills
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) informed
Solution-Focused informed
Motivational interviewing informed
Systemic informed
Humanistic informed
Trainings
What To Do with Big Feelings: Evidence-Based Strategies for Affect Regulation in Youth
When Love Feels Out of Reach: Helping Caregivers Reconnect with Children They Struggle to Like
Intergenerational Trauma: Trauma-Informed Care for Refugees, Immigrants, and New Arrivals
Transgender & Gender Expansive Identities: Advancing Affirming Practices
Cultural Humility and Implicit Bias in Behavioral Health
Preventing and De-escalating Crisis Situations
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
Motivational Interviewing
Eating Disorders and Disordered Eating
UCD SCIP-Step CBCM Training