Couples therapists in San Diego, CA

My name is Joey Ritkes (he/him). I have been working as a mental health therapist for over five years. My practice has primarily been specialized in working with LGBTQ+ youth. However, I have worked with couples, families, emerging adults, and adults from all backgrounds. I am a client-centered therapist who enjoys working collaboratively with my clients to meet their goals.

I believe every person is unique with their own story to tell. Working with people is my passion and I bring every tool I have learned both professional and in my own life to meet a person's goals in therapy.

I run Unscripted Therapy, a practice focused on helping people break out of stuck patters.

I work with individuals who are tired of having the same conversations and somehow ending up right back where they started. Whether it’s anxiety, stress, or relationship patterns that keep repeating, something isn’t working and at this point, that’s pretty clear.

My approach is direct, collaborative, and focused on actually changing what’s not working. I’m not going to just sit there nodding while you vent and then ask how that made you feel for the tenth time. We’ll figure out what’s keeping you stuck and start doing something different about it.

Therapy with me is honest, practical, and yes, sometimes a little blunt. But it’s also real. If you’re looking for something that actually helps you move forward (not just talk about why you’re stuck), we’ll probably be a good fit.

Please note: Insurance is accepted for individual therapy only. Couples and family therapy are private pay and are not billed through insurance.

Chenda Dyck is a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She's in the final stretch of her PhD in Marital and Family Therapy, and she finished her master's at Fresno State back in 2016.

Chenda was born in Ratanakiri, in Cambodia's northern highlands. Families there hold together through a lot, and she watched how that works long before she had any language for it. She arrived in the U.S. in 2003, sponsored by an adoptive American family. What she learned in those years is the thing she still builds her practice on — that one safe relationship can redirect an entire life.

Her work centers on Emotionally Focused Family Therapy (EFFT), grounded in systemic and attachment theory and carried by a social-justice lens. Diverse, multiracial, and immigrant families are where she does her best work — families managing cultural pressure and emotional strain at once. In session and in supervision, she holds to the same standards: respect for culture, honesty about feelings, and the relationship kept at the center.

Welcome and congratulations on beginning your therapy journey! I'm here to support you as you take steps toward your goals and develop into your best possible self. I hope to create a safe space for you to find relief, healing, and develop meaningful insight to reach your fullest potential.

You’ve done the work. You’ve read the books, listened to the podcasts, gone to talk therapy before — and somehow you still feel overwhelmed, STUCK or rudderless. Nonetheless, you are SUCCESSFUL, high-functioning on the outside while struggling with holding everything together FOR everyone else inside ; or even feeling imposter syndrome.

Maybe it's stress and emotional exhaustion, trapped in unexplained patterns, or carrying trauma that still lives in your body no matter how much therapy you've done. Is passing the final exam talking it's toll?

Good news, I specialize in helping people who are tired of just talking about their pain. Whether you are navigating a painful divorce, or carrying deep childhood abuse, or paralyzed by an upcoming licensing exam, I provide a space to finally address and let's CHANGE the cycle.

My Focus is Anxiety: Licensing Exam/test, ADHD, divorce anxiety/trauma, Bipolar I/II, substance/addiction disorders, CPTSD, trauma, chronic pain/health, nightmares, phobias, childhood sexual/physical/emotional abuse, sexual trauma/rape & self identity.

I have EMDR certification work completed and pursuing next level training as an EMDR Consultant because I'm passionate about this work. The work you do today can impact not only your future, but the generations that come after you. We don’t just talk about trauma — we process it at the nervous system level so your brain and body can begin to heal. For EXAM anxiety, we dive quickly into EMDR to process.

I am a board certified, doctoral prepared PMHNP. I completed my post graduate at National University in Adult, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. I earned my DNP from Azusa Pacific University and graduated from CSUSB MSN program. I have been a faculty at CSUSB since 2014. Extensively trained and a certified Trauma-Informed specialist. I diagnose and treat mental disorders including medication-assisted treatment along with counseling for chemical dependency and substance use disorders.

I have been practicing for 40 + years, in the Southbay, Torrance area. I am a psychologist with a Ph.D. I specialize with young children, adolescence. I also work with couples, families and am practized in depression, anxiety, psychosis, and divorce. I utalize cognitive/behavioral and psychdynamic therapies. I match my approach to the personality and needs of thebpatient.

As a Christian therapist, I walk with clients to strengthen and support them in learning self compassion, understanding their worth, finding insight and living wisely. I have studied psychology and marriage and family therapy for over 13 years and have been in practice as a therapist for 7 of those years. I have intentionally learned and applied principles and practices which help clients sustain growth from hurts, unprocessed feelings and lack of direction toward more energy, enjoyment and purposefulness in life again.

I look forward to consulting with you to see if our therapeutic work would fit with you!