About Cari

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Cari S. Cruckson, LMFT believes that therapy works best in a safe and welcoming environment—one where clients feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and emotions while also receiving honest feedback and practical tools to support positive change.

Cari provides counseling for individuals and families facing a wide range of emotional and behavioral challenges. She specializes in working with adolescents, transitional-age youth (TAY ages 18-25), and adults who are experiencing anxiety (including social anxiety, relationship struggles and school-related stress), depression, isolation, negative thinking patterns, as well as diagnoses such as high-functioning Autism, ADHD, and PTSD. In addition, she supports parents in addressing behavioral challenges with their children and teens, including non-compliance, verbal aggression, school refusal, and other difficult dynamics at home.

Cari holds two Master of Arts degrees from Pepperdine University in Southern California: Clinical Psychology (2000) and Marriage and Family Therapy (2002). A California native, she began her career working with children and teens in the Los Angeles foster care system, helping them develop communication skills and strengthen their sense of identity beyond the label of “foster child.” She has also served as a mental health clinician with large nonprofit and county agencies in Ventura County, focusing on youth in the community as well as children, adolescents, and young adults in special education settings with a variety of mental health needs. For the past five years, Cari has been in private practice in Arizona, continuing her commitment to supporting individuals and families through life’s challenges.