Nazzi Vazira-BhullarLMFT · Therapy for couples, family & cultural identity
Licensed online therapist in California for women and couples in their 20s and 30s, for relationships, family expectations, and cultural identity.
Is this you?
Relationships and emotions are complicated. I think we forget that, and then we're hard on ourselves for struggling with the hardest things there are.
Before anything else, I want you to feel comfortable. You can't do real work in a room where you're bracing to be judged.
A lot of what I do is help you tell the difference between what you actually want and what you've been told to want — by family, by culture, by the part of you that learned to keep the peace.
I work with a lot of women, and a lot of South Asian clients, on exactly this: the quiet cost of always being the one who adjusts.
We'll go gently, and we'll also get somewhere. I'm solution-focused — I don't want to keep you in therapy forever.
You're allowed to want a relationship — with others and with yourself — that actually serves you.
What the work can feel like.
Unhurried at first. Most people arrive braced for someone to take a side, so the early sessions are about making the room feel safe enough to talk honestly.
Then we look at two things at once. One is the habit, learned early, of managing the room. The other is the system around you, a partner or a family, that has been quietly handing you that role for years. Nobody in the story has to be the villain for the pattern to be real.
With couples, we get underneath the argument you keep having to what each of you is asking for. With families, we sort out which rules were chosen and which were simply inherited.
And the work moves. Between sessions you'll try things: a need said out loud, a conversation you've been having alone in your head, a small no. We notice together what changes.
How I work.
My first job is to make therapy feel safe and unhurried, so you can say the real thing without managing how it lands. From there I stay solution-focused, so we work toward change rather than circling it.
With couples, I draw on Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) and attachment-based therapy to understand the bond, and the Gottman Method for practical tools around conflict and repair. With families, Bowen Family Systems helps trace patterns across generations, and psychodynamic work helps with how the past keeps showing up in the present. CBT, Motivational Interviewing and compassion-focused work come in when they're useful. For more on why this kind of work helps over time, see Why Therapy Works.
What I help with.
The themes that come up most in my work. Each links to more on how Align approaches it:
At Align I co-lead three areas with Jasmeet Bhullar: couples and premarital work, family boundaries, and identity.
I've also written two Field Notes on this: The one who keeps adjusting and The table you don't want to sit at anymore.
Who I work with.
Most of my clients are women, couples, and families, and many are South Asian, sorting out where culture, family expectation and their own lives meet. I also see many professionals holding several roles at once, including the second shift at home that never shows up in a job description. Individual, couples, premarital, and family therapy.
Training & credentials.
- Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, California BBS #102581
- 15 years in clinical practice
- Adjunct Faculty, Pepperdine University, for 10 years
- Previously Therapist, Occupational Therapy Training Program (OTTP), a Los Angeles County community behavioral health program of Special Service for Groups, serving children, families and adults in homes, schools and the community
- Member, California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT)
- Master's in Clinical Psychology with an emphasis in Marriage and Family Therapy, Pepperdine University — the shared graduate program of every Align clinician · Bachelor's degree, California State University, Fullerton
Logistics.
Sessions are held entirely online, on a secure platform, anywhere in California. Availability is flexible: Sunday through Saturday, mornings, afternoons, and evenings. The regular rate is $200 per individual session and $250 per couples session, with a limited number of reduced-fee slots and out-of-network reimbursement available. Start with a free 15-minute consultation.
You can also find me on Psychology Today, South Asian Therapists, the Asian Mental Health Collective, Monarch and LinkedIn.
Questions about working with Nazzi, answered.
Who does Nazzi work best with?
Women and couples in their 20s and 30s working on relationships, anxiety, and the patterns that keep repeating. I have particular experience with South Asian clients navigating family, culture, and identity alongside their relationships.
Does Nazzi work with couples as well as individuals?
Yes. I see individuals, couples, premarital couples, and families.
With couples I combine Emotionally Focused Therapy, which gets underneath the surface argument to what each person is really asking for, with the Gottman Method's practical tools for conflict and repair.
Does Nazzi offer therapy in Farsi?
Yes. Sessions with me are available in English or Farsi, online anywhere in California.
How does Nazzi approach family boundaries?
I take the long view. Much of what gets defended as "how our family is" turns out to be a rule someone made under pressure two generations ago. Bowen Family Systems gives us a way to trace where a rule came from, so you can decide which ones you want to keep.
Family members, including siblings, can join sessions when that would help.
What does a first session with Nazzi look like?
Mostly a conversation about what brought you in and what you'd like to be different. There's no pressure to perform or have it figured out. We start wherever you are and build from there.
How will I know if therapy with Nazzi is helping?
Often it's a relationship that feels less heavy, a need you voice without guilt, or a problem you solve instead of avoid. I won't promise a timeline, but you'll have a clear sense of what we're working toward.