Chiméne Lee, MA, LMFT & CCHT

Here's What's True

I am a warm and compassionate licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Santa Cruz, CA. I'm also a Certified Clinical Hynotherapist. I have a private practice in a lovely office space in mid-town. I've been in clinical practice for ten years. I work with Individuals, Couples, Families and Adolescents and I assist them in gaining clarity and more happiness in their lives. I've helped many people who struggle with feelings of disconnection, depression and anxiety, or who have trouble in their relationships.

I am here to help and support you, as you move through the changes and challenges of your life. I honor each client's unique intuitive wisdom and I offer a non-pathologizing and empowering understanding of human issues, assuming each person has the capacity to transform, both within themselves and in their relationships with others. I create emotional safety for my clients by providing a comfortable and collaborative therapeutic environment for deep listening and healing. I specialize in bringing mindful presence by helping my clients to release relational burdens of extreme beliefs, extreme emotions and sensations, all of which get in the way of the inherent compassion, curiosity and creativity that lie within. Together we can explore the science of self-compassion and how positive emotion leads to greater satisfaction in relationships, inside and out. I am here to facilitate healing and personal growth on the journey to self-love.

More about me

I've lived in Santa Cruz county for 37 years, and I've seen it go through many changes. I came here to go to school at UCSC and eventually got married and had a family. I've been married over 25 years and together we've raised two children to adulthood. I understand the complexities of marriage and parenting because I've lived them. I have real life experience, grounded in professional clinical expertise.

Before becoming a therapist I volunteered for seven years (2001-2008) with Hospice of Santa Cruz County. Those years were an important stepping stone in my decision to become a therapist because I was drawn to the raw emotional authenticity of those experiences. I learned to get out of my own way, and simply be present with each and every person, meeting them exactly where they were. I was deeply privileged to support clients and their families during the most tender and challenging of life's experiences. I learned the value of practicing presence, compassion and service.

In the past five years, I have become the care manager for my elderly mother, who has dementia. I deeply understand the unique challenges of the caregiver, especially as they relate to aging parents and the additional complexities of offering support to someone with special mental health/medical needs. It’s complicated and it can bring up lots of mixed emotions. If you are navigating through this caregiving journey as well, I have learned much along the way, and I can offer practical suggestions and tools for finding emotional balance.

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Degrees, Certifications & Professional Memberships