6 Los Angeles Interracial Couples Therapists

Just because people are in love doesn't erase the cultures, histories, families, traditions, or identities they each bring to the relationship. You may care deeply for your partner and still feel exhausted explaining why a comment from their family hurts, disagree about what respect looks like, or discover that conversations around race and culture become arguments, silence, or defensiveness.

At Therapy on Fig, our Los Angeles interracial couples therapy creates space for all those layers. Our multicultural and culturally sensitive couples therapists help you understand one another more deeply without asking either partner to minimize who they are or where they come from.

Meet our Los Angeles couples counselors

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• Best for interracial couples navigating family expectations: Grace Chan

• Best for neurodiverse and multiracial relationships: Janelle Malak

• Best for bicultural couples working through trauma: Michael Hung

• Best for interracial and intercultural couples challenging inherited relationship rules: bert wright

• Best for couples navigating differences in identity and family systems: Emily Gaston

• Best for emotionally sensitive interracial couples: Bret Hansen

  If you’re unsure which of our Los Angeles interracial couples therapist is right for you, we invite you to reach out so we can thoughtfully match you with the provider who best fits your relationship.

Best for interracial couples navigating family expectations

As a Malaysian-Chinese first-generation immigrant, Third-Culture Adult, who grew up across countries and cities in Asia and the U.S., I know firsthand how culture, religion, immigration, and family roles can shape a relationship. I’m married to a Puerto Rican/Nicaraguan man who was raised Catholic across the East and West Coasts, and we’ve had to create a shared culture that makes room for both of our Asian and Latino family backgrounds, so I understand personally how multiple cultures can live inside one relationship.

I help couples explore differences in family expectations, faith, communication, cultural roles, and intergenerational patterns without deciding that one partner’s way is the “right” one. Couples choose me when they want a therapist who can hold the complexity of culture while helping them co-create something that feels authentically theirs.

• Credentials: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #142670

• Location: 5619 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90042

• Virtual Therapy: Yes, in addition to in-person

Best for neurodiverse and multiracial relationships

I’m white and neurotypical, and I’m married to a biracial North African and White man with ADHD whose experience as the child of an immigrant has deeply shaped our family. I was also raised Christian and now identify as secular and agnostic, giving me personal familiarity with the ways differences in culture, neurotype, religion, and family-of-origin experiences can coexist within one partnership, so I understand that seemingly small misunderstandings can have layers underneath them; that race, culture, nervous-system differences, family history, and attachment wounds can all be present at once. 

I help couples stop viewing each other as the problem and begin recognizing the patterns pulling them apart. Couples choose me for an affirming approach that blends lived experience with Emotionally Focused Therapy, Gottman Method couples therapy, IFS, and trauma-informed work.

• Credentials: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #144798

• Location: 5619 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90042

• Virtual Therapy: Yes, in addition to in-person

Good fit for interracial and intercultural couples challenging inherited relationship rules

I’m a white person with a Jewish background and have significant lived experience in an interracial, intercultural, and interreligious relationship. That experience informs my understanding that couples are rarely relating only as two individuals. We also bring inherited beliefs, identities, family histories, and larger social systems into the room.

I work from IFS, relational-cultural therapy, liberation psychology, narrative, somatic approaches, and Gottman Method couples therapy. Couples often choose me when they want a therapist who can explore race, culture, religion, queerness, gender, nontraditional relationship structures, and generational patterns without treating those identities as problems to solve.

• Credentials: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #164075

• Location: 5619 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90042

• Virtual Therapy: Yes, in addition to in-person

Best for bicultural couples working through trauma

As a Taiwanese American who understands the complexity of bicultural identity and intergenerational stories, I make room for the cultural experiences that can quietly shape how couples communicate, protect themselves, and seek connection. My work is especially helpful when trauma, shame, or old survival patterns are making it difficult to stay present with each other during conflict. Couples choose me for a body-aware, trauma-informed approach that combines IFS, Intimacy from the Inside Out, Gottman Method, and somatic work to help partners feel safer both within themselves and together.

• Credentials: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #154058

• Location: 5619 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90042

• Virtual Therapy: Yes, in addition to in-person

Best for couples navigating differences in identity, family systems, and belonging

I exist within the queer community and center chosen family in my own life, which shapes the way I understand relationships that don’t fit neatly into dominant cultural expectations. In my work with couples, I also pay close attention to how family histories, social systems, identity, and experiences of belonging or exclusion influence what happens between partners.

Couples choose me when they want to move beyond debating who is right and become more curious about the emotional experiences underneath their differences. My relational, depth-oriented, and IFS-informed approach is especially supportive for partners navigating complex family systems, trauma, grief, queer identity, polyamory, or ethically non-monogamous relationships.

• Credentials: Registered Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #155211, Registered Associate Professional Clinical Counselor #19502

• Location: 5619 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90042

• Virtual Therapy: Yes, in addition to in-person

Good fit for emotionally sensitive interracial couples

As a gay man who has been in a significant mixed-nationality and mixed-ethnicity relationship, I understand how culture, identity, and emotional sensitivity can shape closeness and conflict. I help couples slow down intense reactions and understand what is happening underneath them, especially when disagreements touch on belonging, family, or past hurt.

My approach draws from Emotionally Focused Therapy, IFS, Hakomi Mindful Somatic Psychotherapy, and psychodynamic therapy. Couples choose me when they want a therapist who can make room for strong emotions while helping both partners feel safer, more understood, and more connected.

• Credentials: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #155624, IFS Level I trained

• Location: 5619 N Figueroa St, Los Angeles, CA 90042

• Virtual Therapy: Yes, in addition to in-person

What sets our interracial couples therapy in Los Angeles apart

Our approach stands out because we don’t treat your culture like a footnote. We recognize that your identities, communities, families, histories, and experiences are already part of your relationship. Here’s what makes our approach to therapy for interracial couples different:

• Culturally attuned and identify-affirming care: Our BIPOC and culturally sensitive therapists bring personal understanding to the ways different cultures, identities, and life experiences can influence relationships.

• IFS-informed couples therapy: All of our Los Angeles interracial couples therapists are trained in, or deeply informed by, internal family systems, helping you look beneath reactions to understand how the protective parts of each of you drive the patterns.

• A non-pathologizing approach: Neither partner has to become “the problem.” We help you understand the cycle developing between you and what each person may be trying to protect.

• Attention to family and intergenerational patterns: We make room for inherited expectations, immigration experiences, collectivist and individualist values, religion, family loyalty, and generational trauma.

• Trauma-informed lens: We recognize how the experiences of racism, discrimination, exclusion, childhood trauma, and previous relationships can influence present-day connection.

• Multiple, research-backed couples therapy approaches: Beyond IFS, our therapists may integrate IFIO, Emotionally Focused Therapy, the Gottman Method, and other relational approaches depending on your needs.

• Lived experience in interracial, intercultural, and interfaith relationships: Along with our training in couples counseling modalities, many of our couples counselors bring their own lived experiences in mixed relationships.

We are less interested in teaching you to argue “correctly” than in helping both of you understand why certain conversations become so charged in the first place.

Common reasons why couples seek relationship therapy

• Different cultural expectations around marriage or partnership.

• Conflict about boundaries with parents or extended family.

• Racist, insensitive, or dismissive comments from relatives.

• Feeling that your partner doesn’t fully understand your experience of racism or discrimination.

• Defensiveness when conversations about race, privilege, or identity come up.

• Differences around religion, spirituality, or cultural traditions.

• Different beliefs about gender roles or household responsibilities.

• Disagreements about money, career, or what financial security means.

• Different communication styles or ways of expressing emotion.

• Questions about raising multiracial or multicultural children.

• Different opinions about how to raise children.

• Differences around discipline, education, language, or family involvement in parenting.

• Feeling like one partner is always explaining or translating their culture.

• Feeling caught between your romantic relationship and your family of origin.

• Navigating interracial dating as an LGBTQ+ couple.

  And sometimes, your racial or cultural differences aren't creating a problem at all. You might simply be a couple who happens to be interracial and needs help with sex, intimacy, trust, parenting, communication, grief, career changes, neurodivergence, or figuring out what comes next. Our Los Angeles interracial couples therapists understand both.

And sometimes, your racial or cultural differences aren't creating a problem at all. You might simply be a couple who happens to be interracial and needs help with sex, intimacy, trust, parenting, communication, grief, career changes, neurodivergence, or figuring out what comes next. Our Los Angeles interracial couples therapists understand both.

How interracial couples therapy can help

Interracial couples therapy gives you a dedicated space to explore the many layers that can affect interracial and intercultural relationships. Through a compassionate and culturally sensitive lens, our couples therapists can help you understand what’s happening beneath the recurring conflicts while honoring the histories and identities each of you brings to the relationship. 

With interracial couples counseling in Los Angeles, you can learn new ways of expressing needs, listening without defensiveness, and setting boundaries with each other or extended family. Rather than treating your differences as obstacles, we can explore how your cultural backgrounds, family-of-origin experiences, and individual identities can become a roadmap toward greater understanding, connection, and a shared relationship culture that feels authentic to both of you. 

Our approach to interracial couples counseling

Different couples need different ways into the work. Our therapists draw from several relationship therapy approaches based on what will best support you.

Intimacy from the Inside Out (IFIO)

When conflict happens, protective parts of us can take over quickly. One part may criticize. Another withdraws. Another explains endlessly. Another wants reassurance immediately. IFIO helps each partner make a “U-turn” inward and notice what’s happening inside before reacting automatically.

For an interracial couple, this can be especially powerful when a present disagreement touches upon family expectations, experiences of othering, cultural shame, pressure to assimilate, fear of disappointing family, or the need to feel understood. 

EFT (Emotionally Focused Therapy)

EFT helps couples identify the attachment patterns that perpetuate conflict and disconnection in your relationship. EFT helps you slow these patterns down and recognize the more vulnerable emotions underneath them, creating opportunities for responsiveness, repair, and a greater sense that you are on the same team.

Gottman Method Couples Therapy 

The Gottman Method gives couples practical tools for strengthening friendship, addressing conflict, repairing after hurt, and creating shared meaning, which is particularly relevant in interracial relationships. Shared meaning is intentionally deciding what your life together represents; the values you want your home to hold, the traditions you want to create, and the kind of partnership you want to protect.

FAQs about therapy for interracial couples

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Other Therapy Services Offered at Therapy on Fig in Highland Park, Los Angeles, and Throughout California

At Therapy on Fig, we offer therapy services that fit each couple's unique needs. In addition to Couples Therapy in Highland Park, we also offer Therapy for Empaths, Trauma Therapy, and Grief and Loss Therapy. We also address related issues such as anxiety, stress management, and relationship issues. Whether you're seeking support for a specific issue or looking to strengthen your relationship overall, our therapists are here to help. Contact us today to learn more about our services and how we can support you on your journey towards a healthier, happier relationship.