About Maidah Chughtai
MA in Counseling (MFT/PCC), Saint Mary’s College
BA in Communication Studies, San Jose State University
California Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, #161780
Member, California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists (CAMFT)
Many of my clients carry more than one world inside them — the values and expectations of family and culture, and the demands and pressures of the lives they are building for themselves. That tension is not a flaw to be fixed. It is often where the most important and meaningful work happens.
I understand what it means to navigate multiple identities at once — to feel pulled between who you were shaped to be and who you are becoming. I bring that understanding into my practice without judgment, and with a genuine curiosity about the experiences, relationships, and early patterns that have made you who you are.
Much of the work I do is rooted in the belief that the past lives in the present. Early relationships — with caregivers, family, and the environments we grew up in — leave lasting imprints on how we see ourselves, how we connect with others, and how we respond to stress and change. Exploring those roots, gently and without blame, is often where the deepest and most lasting shifts happen. Therapy, in my view, should honor the full picture of who you are — not just the presenting problem, but the whole story behind it.
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How I Work
I don't believe in one-size-fits-all therapy. People come to me carrying very different things — different histories, different relationships, different ways of understanding themselves and the world — and I think the approach should fit the person, not the other way around.
My work draws on several complementary frameworks, and I move between them based on what a client or family needs most.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is built on a simple but powerful idea: the way we think shapes the way we feel, and the way we feel shapes the way we act. When those patterns become unhelpful — catastrophising, self-criticism, avoidance — they can keep us stuck in cycles of anxiety, low mood, or conflict that feel impossible to break.
I use CBT to help clients identify those patterns, examine them honestly, and develop more useful ways of thinking and responding. It is practical, collaborative, and tends to produce results relatively quickly, which makes it particularly effective for anxiety, depression, and stress.
Family Systems Therapy
We don't exist in isolation. We are shaped by the families we grew up in, the cultures we belong to, the roles we were assigned and the ones we took on ourselves. Family systems therapy takes that context seriously.
Rather than treating a person's struggles as something that exists inside them alone, systems thinking looks at how those struggles make sense within the relationships and dynamics around them. This is especially meaningful for clients navigating complex family expectations, intergenerational tensions, or the particular pressures that come with being part of a culture — or two cultures — with strong ideas about how family should work.
When I work with families together, I am not looking for who to blame. I am looking for the patterns, and for where there is room to shift them.
A Note on Faith and Therapy
Some clients come wondering whether therapy is compatible with their spiritual or religious commitments. I understand that question, and I take it seriously. I do not approach faith as something that needs to be explained away or worked around. Where spirituality is a source of meaning and structure in a client's life, I see it as a resource, not a complication.
I am comfortable exploring the intersection of faith, values, and mental health — and clients who want that dimension to be part of our work together will find it welcomed here.
Attachment-Based Therapy
Our earliest relationships — with parents, caregivers, and siblings — shape the invisible blueprint we carry into every relationship that follows. Attachment-based therapy starts from the understanding that many of the difficulties people experience in adult relationships, parenting, or their sense of self have roots in those early experiences.
This approach is especially central to my work with children and with couples. For children, understanding the attachment relationship helps parents respond in ways that build security and trust. For adults, it can illuminate why certain relational patterns keep repeating — and open up the possibility of something different.
Play Therapy (for children aged 3-12)
Children do not process their inner world the way adults do — through words and reflection. Play is their native language. It is how they make sense of confusing experiences, express what they cannot yet articulate, and work through fear, loss, or change in a way that feels safe.
In play therapy, the therapy room becomes a space where children can explore at their own pace, through creative and symbolic play, with a therapist who is following their lead. Parents are often surprised by how much can shift in a child simply through this kind of unhurried, unstructured attention.
I work with children as young as three, and I always keep parents closely involved — because the most lasting changes usually happen at home.
“My role is not to tell you who to be or how to live. It is to help you understand yourself more clearly so you can make choices that genuinely feel like yours.”