Catriona Waters LMFT, Bounce! Counseling & Coaching

Catriona is one of the best things to happen for me and my wife! Tl;dr - Catriona is brilliant, caring and excellent at understanding humans. Sign up with her. My wife and I decided to sign up for counseling before we got married to start figuring out how to deal with arguments that would habitually arise. I was looking for couples therapists and stumbled across Catriona who looked friendly in her photo and had a British accent! Haha. We booked with catriona and she is really professional and has A LOT of expertise in this field. I'm rather inquisitive and would prod the validity for certain measurements and catriona had the background and rationale for why everything we did in therapy made sense. I'm talking about the psychological reasons, the technical reasons, the neurobiological reasons, etc. More importantly, Catriona doesn't judge at all and has a very warm and caring side. With that said, she will also push you on things that need to be pushed. Catriona did a very good job at asking the right questions and giving an open space to discuss them. My wife and I are pretty private people but felt very comfortable sharing details with her that we wouldn't normally share with people. Without sharing details - Catriona did some really incredible analyses with myself that helped me personally. I owe her a lot! Catriona also helped me and my wife figure out how to deal with our differences in a more efficient way that allows us to still express care for each other. I'd highly recommend that couples go to therapy even if you think there is no problem (because there is ALWAYS one). Catriona is amazing and welcoming! Thanks, Catriona!

Jonathan Lee · October 29th, 2018

TLDR; I feel that Catriona was professionally irresponsible and that her “radically empathy” approach only bolstered my partner’s abusive behavior. Incredibly unprofessional and harmful. Could not recommend strongly against using her services. I attended couples counseling for several months with Catriona. Our counseling sessions always left me in tears. My partner at the time would rail against me, mock me, harshly criticize me, and monopolize our sessions— all of which Catriona allowed. There was one especially bad session where my partner was criticizing everything about me, making up lies about me. Catriona said I had to let him talk and speak his mind but that I could be heard when he was done. She watched me cry for half an hour and then ended the session without allowing me any sort of response. I could feel the dynamic in our relationship getting worse and worse. We stopped counseling because Catriona had a planned extended holiday. When she returned from holiday she asked if we wanted to resume counseling. My partner and I agreed but asked that Catriona help enforce reasonable boundaries to ensure safety in sessions, and that she explain more the process, as it had been several months of her just “radically empathizing,” mostly with my partner. After we made that request Catriona responded that while she felt capable of being our counselor, she was not going to continue working with us and gave us a list of referrals. Nine of the provided referrals worked in California. There was no closing session, that was the end of it. I stayed with that partner for several more years. We eventually started seeing a new counselor who, after one session, identified my partner’s pattern of behavior as emotional abuse. That counselor helped me realize my reality and rescue myself from over 5 years of abuse. She did in two sessions what Catriona could not/ would not do after several months. Turns out, couples counseling is COUNTER-INDICATED in abusive relationships. I fear she lacked the courage and/or professional integrity to recognize the very apparent signs of emotional abuse and to advocate for her clients. While he was my abuser, my former partner also suffered from the delay in understanding the abusive dynamic in our relationship.

Emily Rader · March 11th, 2026

aloulac · July 6th, 2022