- Attachment-focused
- Practical tools
- Trauma aware
About Holly
Holly Starr is a licensed marriage and family therapist with 25 years of clinical experience in the San Francisco Bay Area. She helps people who are dealing with stress, anxiety, depression, grief, relationship struggles, and intimacy-related issues. Holly is attentive to problems like low self-esteem, shame, and the feelings that follow major life changes.
She trained with a BA in English Literature and a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology, and she has worked in residential programs and private practice. Early roles on a suicide prevention hotline and as a grief therapist and supervisor shaped her focus on bereavement and moving through loss. That background guides how she listens for what is most painful and immediate.
Holly pays close attention and asks clear questions to help people name what is happening inside. She uses attachment-based ideas to look at how early bonds affect current relationships. She also draws on psychodynamic and Jungian perspectives to notice patterns, and on CBT and solution-focused techniques to find practical shifts.
Sessions aim to make confusing or painful feelings easier to talk about. She helps clients see how thoughts influence behavior and where small changes might improve daily life. Work can include looking at family-of-origin patterns, codependency, dissociation, caregiver stress, or fertility and postpartum concerns when those issues are present.
Holly acknowledges how hard it can be to reach out for help. She meets people where they are and supports steady progress at a pace that feels manageable. If someone is ready to begin, she guides the first steps toward scheduling and matching goals.
How Holly’s approaches translate to online work
Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on how early relationships shape current patterns. It helps people understand why they react strongly in close relationships and supports building more secure ways of relating. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT, looks at the link between thoughts, feelings, and actions and offers straightforward exercises to change unhelpful thinking and behavior. Psychodynamic and Jungian perspectives pay attention to recurring themes and symbols in a person’s life, helping surface roots of long-standing patterns and inner conflicts.Finding the right approach is part of the work. Holly will collaborate with each person to match methods to their goals and preferences. That means trying ideas, checking what helps, and adjusting the plan so therapy feels relevant and practical.
Please confirm available session formats before booking, as specific online options are not listed in the biography. Online therapy can make it easier to fit visits into a busy week, allow shorter check-ins when needed, and reduce travel time. It can also let people use different communication styles as they prefer, such as more conversational sessions or focused skill practice, while still aiming for steady progress.
Areas of expertise
Primary focus
Additional focus areas
Therapeutic approaches
Experience
25+ years
Credentials
California
Languages
English
Frequently asked questions
What concerns does Holly commonly address?
She supports people facing stress, anxiety, depression, grief, relationship and intimacy-related concerns, and coping with life changes. Additional focus areas include codependency, caregiver stress, and mood or postpartum issues.
How would you describe her therapeutic style?
Holly listens closely and asks clear, curious questions. She blends reflective, insight-oriented work with practical strategies to help people make small, useful changes.
What is her clinical background?
She has 25 years of experience and worked in residential settings and private practice. Early experience includes a suicide prevention hotline and grief therapy supervision.
What credentials and location are listed?
Holly holds the credential LMFT, which is listed as CA LMFT, and she practices in California.
Which languages are sessions offered in?
Sessions are offered in English.
Can international clients work with her?
She is not currently accepting international clients.
How does billing and cost work?
Cost varies by location and therapist availability; sessions use a subscription that can be canceled at any time.
What steps are involved in getting started?
Use the Start Therapy button, complete a short matching questionnaire, and schedule according to therapist availability.
Profile details come from information the therapist supplied to BetterHelp. Credential and registration rules differ between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia.