Hi, I'm Tony Chavira

and I help relationships deepen in intimacy, passion, and connection with one another.

My clients can expect a warm, honest, and completely open space of healing, with therapy centered on utterly limitless understanding and compassion.

As a therapist and ally, my role is to comfort and strengthen your intimate relationship as you find stable ground, work through real difficulties, build lasting support between one another, and ultimately grow in ways that may not have seemed possible before. I’ve helped couples to process hard transitions, navigate painful life conditions, recover from addiction, anxiety, trauma, and depression… and also just overcome feeling lost and disconnected, unsure how to move forward. Together we’ll sit in healing and understanding. We’ll think and feel and sense our way through. We’ll process your strengths and values together. And we’ll let go of what is oppression or expectations imposed by society, building even greater capacity for a loving future. I am your relationship therapist, but also your advocate, and I believe firmly that by healing together, we heal the world around us.

Always feel welcome to reach out, at any time, to schedule a session. I’m here for you.

Background and Orientation

I grew up in Monterey Park, CA—not far from here. I have three master's degrees—one in Clinical Psychology with a focus on Marriage and Family Therapy from Pepperdine University, one in globalization research from the London School of Economics, and one in global media criticism from the University of Southern California. Previously, I’ve supported spouses grieving the death of their partners at Our House Grief Support Center. I’ve aided and comforted those transitioning to death at Choice Comfort Hospice. I’ve supported and advocated for incarcerated men with psychotic conditions at Gateways Forensic Hospital. I’ve helped mothers of color/culture navigate the court system and reunite with their children. And I serve also as a therapist for children who’ve been sex trafficked at Humansave, as well as their families. I used to run a non-profit affordable housing/anti-homelessness advocacy, and have volunteered to help our unsheltered friends in LA since I was young. I’ve helped the World Foundation of Buddhists with their programming. I’ve undergone healing instruction by curanderos based in Mexico, Peru, and Brazil.

My therapeutic work incorporates a range of western and non-colonial frameworks. I’m well versed in Emotional Focused Therapy, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Couples, Imago Couples strategies, and Gottman relational psychounderstanding. I incorporate Attachment modalities, the tenants of Somatic/Body Processing, Narrative and Post-Modern modalities, Psychodynamic/Neo-Freudian practices, Family Systems frameworks, and interventions rooted in Somatic Abolition/Critical Race processing, Indigenous praxes, and the integration of intersectionality and ecology. Feel welcome to get a sense of my manner, outlook, and philosophies at my Instagram, @minefieldwonderland.

Beyond therapy, I conduct presentations for public mental health agencies on the issues of ableism, human trafficking, and self-care for clinicians. I undergo ongoing training in anti-whiteness/somatic abolition at Education for Racial Equity, was previously trained and supervised by the co-founder of LA CAMFT’s Diversity Board Janaki Neptune LMFT, and attend platicas conducted by the Institute of Chicano/a/x Psychology. I’m involved in the community alongside activists and allies for re-indigenization, ecopsychology, native landback, and black and indigenous liberation. I support those healing from the trauma of encouraging radical change in their loving relationships with warmth, understanding, and limitless compassion. I also write and develop cartoons, with a focus on providing Pre-K kids self-compassion no matter what—and have a fun time doing it!

I am an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #124668, and Associate Professional Clinical Counselor #9376- supervised by Erika Moreira, LMFT #101392