Rated 5.0 stars out of 5, 25 ratings

Timea Tenkei

LMFT, 18 years of experience

Frequently rebooked

Intelligent
Authentic
Solution oriented

About me

I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and a Board Certified behavior Analyst. I have been working in the mental health field for 18 years. Most of these years I have helped children, adolescents, and adults who are neuro-divergent who have struggled with challenges in various areas of life. My job is to help my clients find ways for their environment better understand and accept them.

Get to know me

In our first session together, here's what you can expect

The first session starts with introductions to get to know each other. I like to explore personal strengths and challenges and talk about past trials at improvement. This is the session where we conceptualize goals for therapy. In my work, the therapeutic relationship is essential for establishing and reaching goals, and therefore building this will be the focus of the initial sessions. As my client progresses, I place great emphasis on collaboration and by utilizing a strength based approach.

The biggest strengths that I bring into our sessions

I believe that working collaboratively with clients takes a special level of attention and care. I combine my education and experience with understanding and compassion, which creates an ideal environment for my clients. They have taught me that transparency and honesty are key to be effective as a clinician. I

The clients I'm best positioned to serve

I enjoy working with clients who feel misunderstood, lost, and not supported but want change. I look to support them in finding ways to self-advocacy, improve coping skills, building more supportive relationships.

Specialties

Top specialties

Other specialties

Perinatal Mental HealthPost Partum

I identify as

Serves ages

Children (6 to 12)Teenagers (13 to 17)

My treatment methods

Acceptance and commitment (ACT)

ACT teaches people to be mindful and accept thoughts feelings without judgment. It teaches coping mechanisms specifically designed for your situation, which you can use throughout your life to handle challenging experiences. This methodology encourages you to build a new and more compassionate relationship with difficult experiences. Doing this can free you from obsessive negative thinking about trying to stop and control things. Acceptance. Start by accepting emotions and feelings that may feel like they're out of your control and mindfully accept the experience. Direction. Commit to a positive approach that will help push you forward while resisting the temptation to rehash the past. Action. Take charge and make a conscious decision to stick with the positive direction you chose. Stay resilient, no matter what life throws at you.

Cognitive Behavioral (CBT)

The idea here is to change unhelpful or unhealthy ways of thinking, feeling and behaving. CBT uses practical self-help strategies. These are designed to immediately improve the way you approach things in life. Learning to recognize one’s distortions in thinking that are creating problems, and then to reevaluate them in light of reality. Gaining a better understanding of the behavior and motivation of others. Using problem-solving skills to cope with difficult situations. Learning to develop a greater sense of confidence in one’s own abilities.

Structural Family Therapy

This approach focuses on the interactions between family members. Looking at the family as a system, structural family therapists work to improve communication between members of the family and encourage adjustments in the rules that govern how the family functions (its structure). The treatment’s distinctive features are the conception of the family as a structural system, and the active engagement of the therapist in the process of restructuring the way the system works in order to adjust elements that cause dysfunction. This restructuring can include family boundaries, hierarchies of power, and reactions by family members to major life changes. Structural Family Therapy allows everyone in the family to hear the viewpoint of the others, and allows the therapist to observe how the family interacts in real life, in contrast with individual therapies, where the therapist hears about family dynamics recounted by a single individual.

Location

Offers in-person in 850 3rd St, Santa Rosa, CA 95404Virtual

Licensed in

Rated 5.0 stars out of 5, 25 ratings

2 ratings with written reviews

August 14, 2025

Timea is fantastic. She is helping me navigate my life and mental/emotional challenges with much more direction and confidence. Her solutions, validation, knowledge, and ideas are spot on and very appreciated.

Verified client, age 45-54

Review shared after session 11 with Timea

April 4, 2025

The best therapist I've ever had.

Verified client, age 35-44

Review shared after session 5 with Timea