Stacey Sugar , MD, LCPC, LPCC

Stacey Sugar, MD, LCPC, LPCC, is a California-based clinician with 14 years of clinical practice. Her credentials include MD (Doctor of Medicine) and two licensed counseling certifications - LCPC and LPCC - which reflect training in both medical and counseling approaches to care.

She frames therapy around the idea that people continuously shape their life stories. Many arrive feeling that their narrative is fixed, but Stacey believes perspective can be changed even when the past cannot. By helping clients identify and work through unconscious defenses, she guides them toward insight that opens the door to meaningful change and greater authenticity.

Stacey emphasizes careful, paced exploration when entering new relationships, encouraging people to take the time they need to test what feels right. She meets clients where they are and offers practical tools to deepen self-understanding, build motivation, and support gradual progress toward the changes they want.

In sessions she attends to the full range of emotion, including feelings that may be hidden or unfamiliar. Bringing those elements into present awareness often produces clarifying moments that strengthen self-awareness and inform healthier choices. Those ready to engage in deeper work are invited to partner with her in addressing barriers to meeting their wants, needs, and personal goals.

Attachment, Client-Centered, and CBT for Online Therapy

Attachment-Based Therapy focuses on patterns of connection developed early in life and how those patterns affect current relationships. Online work using this approach helps clients address issues such as abandonment, attachment wounds, codependency, and intimacy challenges by exploring relational patterns and building more secure ways of relating.

Client-Centered Therapy prioritizes the client’s experience and fosters a nonjudgmental space where people can explore feelings and values at their own pace. This approach is useful for issues like self-esteem, life transitions, and communication problems because it emphasizes empathy, acceptance, and the client’s innate capacity for growth.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) offers practical strategies to identify and change unhelpful thought and behavior patterns, making it effective for stress, anxiety, depression, and coping with life changes. In online sessions CBT techniques can be taught and practiced through conversation and between-session exercises.

Finding the right approach is part of the therapeutic process, and Stacey will work collaboratively with each person to determine the best fit based on their needs, goals, and preferences. Online therapy with licensed professionals provides flexibility - sessions can take place by video call, phone, live chat, or text-based messaging - which helps make care more accessible and easier to fit into busy lives.