Hello, and welcome to Better Help! My name is Octavia Fukino, and I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) as well as Licensed Clinical Psychologist(LPCC). I have over 7 years of experience doing counseling, four of them pre- license and four years after licensing. I completed my Bachelor’s degree at UCLA in 1990, and my Masters in Counseling Psychology at Argosy University in 2013. I specialize in treating Trauma as well as relationship issues, and also work with substance abuse clients. Before COVID-19, my focus was private practice and doing counseling in person. It is important to me to connect with clients and establish trust and warmth. Due to this pandemic, Telehealth Video has become more normal and I see that the relationship does not necessarily suffer from not being together in and office, and it can be more convenient for clients to not travel as much. My passion for counseling has always existed, but it was on hold when I raised my two adopted children. They are adults now and I am very proud of them. I was married for 25 years to their father, but that marriage ended in divorce due to very painful betrayal. After this I went back to school and focused on building a meaningful career. Given my personal experience, I focus on attachment issues, trauma, relationships, and grief/loss. Therapy and counseling were a key part of my own journey to healing, and I wanted to make sure to help others struggling like I did through pain and codependency. You have reached out and are thinking about getting help. It is wonderful and scary as well. Please know that change is possible. Healing is possible. You are a lot stronger and wiser than you may think. It would be wonderful to work with you and find YOU.