Finding a multi-state family therapist (NY, CA)

February 6, 2025 11:07 AM

Any tips on finding family therapists licensed to practice in both NY and CA? Psychology Today, web searches, and Reddit have not helped.

What I've tried:
- Psychology Today (doesn't have filters for state licensure, can't find a way to text-search results, e.g., by finding a list of CA therapists and looking for "NY license #")
- web searches (turns up one person in NYC who seems to be the only person advertising this kind of service, and many centers that offer virtual family therapy, but all are based in single states and require all participants to be in that single state to receive services)
- Reddit searches (advice to check out Psychology Today and the states in which one's therapist is licensed)
- I will be asking my individual therapist if they have any colleagues licensed in both states.

I do not imagine that there are many such people - maintaining multiple licenses is expensive, and can increase the likelihood that a therapist may be audited by a state licensure board (at least, that's what my former therapist told me when I moved states and she looked into getting a NewState license!). But if more than one such professional exists, I'd love to have options.

Do any MeFites know of other search strategies I might try, or have any personal recommendations? Thanks.

posted by rrrrrrrrrt to Human Relations (5 answers total)

I fear you may have an extra hard time with this because of NY and CA specifically. Talk about two states who like to do things their own way and tend to have different regulations than the rest....

I found two entities that are for helping therapists be licensed in multiple states, but NEITHER of them include NY or CA in their list of states. One is Psypact.gov and the other is CounselingCompact.gov. I'm sharing the links with you so that you can review and maybe pick up on some language that may aid your search, even though I looked and neither include NY or CA.

HOWEVER, the marriage and family psychologist whose website gave me the information about Psypact and CounselingCompact says she is a marriage and family therapist licensed in 35+ states, so perhaps NY and CA are on that list? I suspect not, because I suspect she uses one of the two licensing agencies she linked, but it is at least one lead.

She seems to take an active interest in multi-state licensing so perhaps, if she is not licensed in NY and CA, she could point you to someone who is.
posted by fennario at 12:50 PM on February 6 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I searched "bicoastal therapist" and found A Good Place which lists 5 people who are licensed in NY and CA. At least two of them specifically mention families in their bios.

I also found Maria Gray, an LMFT who is licensed in CA and NY.

Good luck!
posted by meemzi at 1:48 PM on February 6 [3 favorites]

Yeah there is not likely to be a big amount of people because California really likes to make people redo their practicum to be licenced there, if they didn't do their schooling in Ca. NY I have no idea about, but for me Ca isn't an option because I cant afford to forgo a normal pay rate for two years to get the Licensure I already have again and many people are like that.
posted by AlexiaSky at 4:19 PM on February 6 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Thanks to all of you! meemzi, you are a star - “bicoastal” is a fantastic search term.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 4:37 PM on February 6

I was looking for a therapist (not family) licensed bicoastally, and one of the things I did was email therapists whose web presence I liked with some broad themes of what I was looking for and asked if they knew anyone licensed in both places who would be a fit. I got about a 30% response rate and one of the therapists was extremely helpful and forwarded the request onto a therapist discord or message board to help me out.

You might also try “San Francisco / NYC” and “LA / NYC” in your searches because those are really the markets in which bicoastal professionals operate.
posted by A Blue Moon at 6:58 PM on February 6 [1 favorite]