Kristy Long, LMFT 163942 · Licensed in California · Telehealth only — California residents only
Personal story
I bring my whole self to this work: a therapist who listens for what the body already knows, an artist who trusts images and imagination, and an athlete who understands that courage is often built one practice, one breath, and one beginning-again at a time.
In the therapy room, I offer a steady, human presence: attentive to language, sensation, silence, humor, and the small signals that say something important is trying to emerge. My approach is compassionate and body-centered, making room for resilience, creativity, connection, and the very real complexity of being a person.
Art has always given me a way to stay in conversation with experiences that do not arrive in neat sentences. It keeps me curious, playful, and honest about the many ways we make meaning. Creativity is not a detour from healing; it can be a doorway back to voice, choice, feeling, and possibility.
Pole vaulting taught me to meet fear with preparation, trust, and a willingness to keep practicing. There is a particular kind of courage in running toward something that asks a great deal of you, learning from each miss, and returning with more information about what your body, heart, and mind need next.
My path
Current practice
My work as an associate has strengthened my experience with complex cases and deepened my commitment to neurodivergence-affirming care, LGBTQIA+ allyship, trauma-sensitive processing, and somatic interventions. I care about making room for fun, emotional expression, and connection alongside the hard parts—not because healing must be cheerful, but because the nervous system also needs moments of ease, aliveness, and genuine belonging.
Graduate training
I completed my M.A. in Clinical Psychology at Antioch University Los Angeles in September 2021, with a specialization in Somatic Psychotherapy. The work invited me to study not only theories and techniques, but the living relationship between body, mind, memory, culture, and meaning. I also studied Applied Buddhism at Institut Vajra Yogini in France, an experience that strengthened my respect for presence, attention, and the quiet wisdom that can surface when we slow down enough to notice.
2018
Between master's program locations, I worked for a structural engineering firm in San Francisco's Financial District. It was a season of structure, adaptation, and learning how much energy it can take to keep performing a version of yourself that does not quite fit. That chapter strengthened my resilience and opened space to begin unmasking, listening more closely to myself, and understanding what I genuinely needed to thrive.
August 2015 - May 2016
As a caregiver and rehabilitation aide at Solutions, a Santa Barbara inpatient traumatic-brain-injury facility, I supported daily care, dietary-restricted meals, medication distribution, and confidential health information. The work taught me that recovery is rarely linear and that dignity lives in the details: being met with patience, being seen as more than a diagnosis, and having care that honors the whole person. Witnessing cognitive and physical changes in recovery continues to inform my respect for the relationship between the body, daily care, and healing.
Personal understanding
Learning about my own neurodivergence, including AuDHD, has been an ongoing process of self-understanding rather than a single moment of arrival. Resources such as Embrace Autism helped me find language for patterns I had felt long before I could name them. That ongoing learning continues to deepen my belief that people deserve care that is curious, practical, affirming, and free from the pressure to perform normalcy.
Foundational experience
Surviving significant trauma across my lifespan, including acute experiences, asked me to look closely at what I had lived through, work with it, and integrate it while deciding on my path and identity. This is not a story I use to compare pain or offer easy answers; it is part of why I respect the many ways people learn to protect themselves, survive, and eventually choose what comes next. I love nature and children, even as sound, texture, and temperature sensitivities shape how I move through the world. Those sensitivities keep reminding me that the body is always communicating, and that care begins with listening.
Looking ahead
I hope to keep learning about plant and other nonconventional medicines in support of my somatic practice and trauma healing. One day, I would love to build a self-sustaining farm with free-range chickens, alpacas, goats, and more, alongside a small tiny-house village for retreats and community gatherings in a large barn where harvests can be enjoyed by all.
A guided companion
Explore my 30-day guided imagery journal for trauma-aware healing.
Explore the book