Interracial Couples Therapy in Los Angeles, CA
Where your ancestral story is welcomed and your relationship is nurtured
When you’re in an interracial relationship, your partnership exists at a powerful intersection of love, history, and cultural identity. These relationships are rich, complex, and deeply meaningful, but they also come with challenges that other couples may never face, and mainstream therapy rarely addresses.
At Grazel Garcia Psychotherapy & Associates (GGPA), we understand how interracial relationships blend complex cultural legacies that have been shaped by society in different ways. We honor these differences without pathologizing them.
You might be facing moments of tension, communication breakdowns, or maybe you simply want to future-proof your relationship – our team offers a safe space where both of you can be fully seen.
You’re not imagining it, race can shape the way you’re heard
Interracial relationships don’t exist separate from larger societal structures. There are many things that can be influencing your relationship that you might be completely unaware of – things like historical legacies of colonization, power imbalances due to racial identity and society’s influence, or internalized messages about what is “normal” behavior or practise.
Partners from marginalized backgrounds often carry uneven emotional labor in their relationships, and historical trauma can show up many generations down the line.
All that is to say if you’re an interracial couple, you’ve likely experienced misunderstandings that feel like they go beyond the two of you.
Maybe a conversation about family or values suddenly feels emotionally loaded. Maybe you’ve felt isolated when friends or in-laws make comments that others write off as harmless. Or maybe you feel like your partner doesn’t quite get why a certain moment hurt as much as it did.
And it’s not because you don’t love each other.
It’s because identity doesn’t disappear in a relationship, it often shapes it.
You and your partner may have grown up with very different messages around trust, closeness, roles, or boundaries. You may interpret conflict, vulnerability, or respect through different cultural lenses. Many couples need help understanding where these patterns come from, and how to meet each other with more care and curiosity.
At GGPA, we don’t sidestep race. We honor it, talk about it, and help you learn how to stay connected, even when your experiences don’t match.
Cultural Knowledge is a Strength
Each of you will bring unique and valuable cultural wisdom about relationships, conflict resolution, community and healing. Those differences, when properly managed, can help you become stronger in your couple-ship.
Non-Western cultures often approach connection in beautiful ways. Cultural resilience, how you express love and care, and even community-centered relationship values (rather than a focus on the individual) may seem a little challenging to Western eyes, but there is no right way to do relationships. If you can accept and honor that, and find a middle ground, you will be brought closer than you ever imagined by forging a relationship that is uniquely ‘you’.
What Interracial Couples Often Bring to Therapy
Every couple is different, but many interracial partners come to therapy with some version of this story:
“I don’t feel understood when I talk about my race or identity.”
“We love each other, but we keep hitting the same wall when we talk about our families.”
“I’m scared to bring up something that might make my partner defensive.”
“I want to talk about how the world sees us without making it sound like I’m blaming them.”
“We’ve never talked deeply about race, and now we don’t know how to start.”
Therapy isn’t about deciding who’s right or wrong. It’s about helping both of you feel safe enough to share what’s really going on and making space for your differences without letting them divide you.
How Therapy Helps Interracial Couples Reconnect
When interracial couples start therapy at GGPA, they often describe a growing distance between them. Not always dramatic. Sometimes it’s a silence, or a misunderstanding that doesn’t get repaired, or a sense of being cautious with each other when you used to feel close.
Our work begins by slowing things down. We look at what happens in those moments of disconnect: not just the words you say, but what’s happening underneath. What emotions are driving the reactions? What stories or cultural experiences shape how each of you responds?
You can expect to develop skills to recognize when external systems of oppression are influencing your relationship dynamics, develop your ability to hold space for different cultural expressions of love and care, and find ways to support each other through experiences of racism or cultural erasure.
You’ll build relationship rituals that honor both heritages, strategies for dealing with unsupportive family or community and a relationship that challenges harmful power dynamics.
This isn’t about blaming your background.
It’s about recognizing how your lived experiences show up in the room, in the session as well as at home, and learning how to reach for each other anyway.
Our Approach: Decolonizing Couples Therapy
Meet Our Interracial Therapy Team
At GGPA, every one of our therapists are deeply committed to supporting interracial couples through a culturally responsive and emotionally attuned lens. Each therapist brings unique expertise in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), trauma-informed care, and intersectional identity work to help partners express their love across racial and cultural lines.
Grazel Garcia, LMFT
Grazel is a certified Emotionally Focused Couple Therapist and EFT Supervisor candidate with extensive experience working with diverse relationship structures, including monogamous, consensual non-monogamy, mono-polyamorous, and kink-BDSM couples. Her practice is rooted in LGBTQIA+ affirmation, neurodiverse-affirming approaches, and kink-BDSM awareness. Grazel specializes in grief and loss, addiction, domestic violence, and trauma treatment through modalities like Brainspotting.
Dr. Tyler Howard, PsyD
Dr. Howard is a clinical psychologist and the neuropsychological testing director at GGPA. She provides LGBTQIA+ and neurodiverse-affirmative psychotherapy to individuals and couples, focusing on gender and sexual identity, trauma, anxiety, and life transitions. Dr. Howard integrates psychodynamic and cognitive-behavioral approaches with a focus on social healing and conducts neuropsychological assessments across age groups.
Tiffany Cuevas, AMFT
Tiffany is an LGBTQIA+ and neurodiverse-affirming therapist specializing in Emotionally Focused Therapy. She works with individuals and couples, offering a compassionate, attachment-focused approach to relationship dynamics, premarital counseling, and emotional processing. Tiffany’s background in philosophy and theology informs her holistic perspective in therapy.
Arami James, AMFT
Arami offers LGBTQIA+ and neurodiverse-affirmative therapy for individuals, couples, and families. With a background in education and the arts, she integrates creativity, mindfulness, and somatic techniques into her practice. Arami provides specialized reproductive support and brings a multicultural perspective as a first-generation Paraguayan-American, aiding clients in navigating identity and life transitions.
Samantha Lam, AMFT
Samantha is a neurodiverse and LGBTQIA+ affirmative therapist trained in Emotionally Focused Therapy for Individuals (EFIT) and Couples (EFCT). She also utilizes Brainspotting and Havening techniques for trauma care. Samantha approaches therapy through a non-pathologizing attachment lens, fostering a space for clients to explore patterns and discover new possibilities for connection and growth.
Rachel Wiederhoeft, ASW
With lived experience navigating cultural complexity, Rachel Wiederhoeft offers a supportive, identity-affirming space for interracial couples. She helps partners explore how race, culture, and family histories shape their relationship, using somatic and relational tools to foster empathy, deepen connection, and build bridges of understanding across differences.
Why Couples Choose GGPA for Interracial Couples Therapy
Los Angeles is one of the most diverse cities in the country and we believe your therapy experience should reflect that. Our therapists are not only trained in EFT, but also deeply attuned to issues of race, power, privilege, and cultural identity. We have all received specialized education in culturally-grounded approaches to healing, and our team are multicultural themselves, so we’ve been where you are.
We don’t minimize the impact of microaggressions or racial trauma. We don’t expect you to explain everything. And we don’t try to make every issue “neutral.” Instead, we honor the specific context you bring and support you in building a relationship that works for both of you.
And we commit to ongoing learning about cultural humility and anti-oppressive practice, while recognizing that no therapist can be an expert in all cultural contexts. We maintain openness to learning from clients’ expertise about their own experiences.
Whether you’ve been together for two months or two decades, you’re welcome here.
Ready To Begin?
If you’re tired of feeling like you’re having the same argument (or no argument at all) and you want support from someone who gets it, we’d love to hear from you.
Sessions are available in-person in Los Angeles or online throughout California.