Lynzee Medina, LMSW

Professional Introduction

Lynzee Medina, LMSW, is a compassionate and culturally responsive psychotherapist who believes that meaningful healing begins when clients feel genuinely seen, heard, and understood. She provides an affirming therapeutic environment where clients can explore difficult emotions, understand patterns that may be keeping them stuck, strengthen their relationships, and develop greater confidence in themselves and the lives they want to create.

As a Latina therapist, Lynzee brings a culturally sensitive perspective to her work and understands that mental health does not exist separately from culture, family, identity, relationships, community, and lived experience. She is particularly passionate about working with first-generation individuals, children of immigrants, and clients navigating intersecting cultural and personal identities.

Lynzee has experience providing individual and couples psychotherapy, counseling within higher education, crisis intervention, family-focused services, and community mental health care. Her clinical experience allows her to support clients experiencing anxiety, trauma, depression, relationship concerns, family conflict, self-worth challenges, identity concerns, and significant life transitions.

My Approach to Therapy

Lynzee believes therapy should be a collaborative relationship where clients can show up authentically without fear of judgment. Her therapeutic style is warm, compassionate, curious, and honest. She combines active listening and emotional support with thoughtful reflection and gentle challenge, helping clients move beyond simply understanding what is happening to begin creating meaningful change.

Rather than taking a one-size-fits-all approach, Lynzee works with clients to understand how their past experiences, relationships, family dynamics, culture, identity, and environment may influence how they think, feel, communicate, and respond to challenges today.

Together, Lynzee and her clients identify patterns that may no longer be serving them, explore the experiences underlying those patterns, and develop practical strategies for moving forward. Her goal is to help clients strengthen emotional awareness, establish healthier boundaries, improve relationships, challenge negative thought patterns, and reconnect with their existing strengths and resilience.

Lynzee has a particular interest in supporting first-generation individuals and children of immigrants who may find themselves navigating cultural expectations, family responsibilities, identity, relationships, and the experience of existing between multiple worlds. She provides space for clients to explore these experiences without requiring them to minimize or separate important parts of who they are. Her Psychology Today profile similarly emphasizes culturally responsive work with first-generation clients, children of immigrants, and individuals whose intersecting identities influence how they experience the world.

Whether a client is working through anxiety, intergenerational trauma, relationship difficulties, religious trauma, sexuality, self-worth, or a major life transition, Lynzee strives to create a therapeutic partnership that promotes greater clarity, self-understanding, healing, and lasting growth.

Specialties & Areas of Focus

• Anxiety and chronic stress

• Negative thought patterns

• Trauma and PTSD

• Intergenerational trauma

• First-generation experiences

• Children of immigrant experiences

• Depression

• Relationship and communication challenges

• Couples counseling

• Family conflict and family-of-origin concerns

• Self-esteem and self-worth

• Identity exploration

• Cultural identity and intersecting identities

• Religious trauma

• Sex and sexuality

• LGBTQ+ affirming therapy

• Boundary setting

• Emotional regulation

• Life transitions

• Grief and loss

• Women's issues

• Personal growth and self-discovery
  

Therapeutic Modalities

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

  Helps clients recognize connections between thoughts, emotions, and behaviors and challenge patterns that contribute to emotional distress.

• Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

  Incorporates skills for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, mindfulness, and healthier interpersonal relationships.

• Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

  Supports clients in developing greater psychological flexibility, making space for difficult emotions, and taking actions that align with their values.

• Narrative Therapy

  Helps clients examine the stories and beliefs they have developed about themselves and create space for alternative perspectives rooted in strength and possibility.

• Psychodynamic Therapy

  Explores how past experiences, relationships, and unconscious patterns may influence present emotions, behaviors, and relationships.

• Trauma-Informed Therapy

  Recognizes the impact of trauma while prioritizing emotional safety, empowerment, choice, and collaboration.

• Motivational Interviewing (MI)

  Helps clients explore ambivalence, strengthen internal motivation, and build confidence in making meaningful changes.

  
  

Education & Credentials

• Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW) — State of New York

• Master of Social Work (MSW) — Columbia University School of Social Work

  • Concentration: Mental Health and Disabilities

• Bachelor of Arts in Child and Adolescent Development — California State University, Northridge

  • Minor: Family Studies

• Motivational Interviewing Training — Columbia University

• Trauma-Informed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Training — Hunter College

Languages

• English

• Spanish — Professional Working Proficiency

  
  

Client Focus

• Adults

• Individuals

• Couples

• First-generation individuals

• Children of immigrants

• Latino/a/x and Hispanic communities

• BIPOC communities

• LGBTQ+ individuals

• Clients exploring racial, cultural, sexual, or other intersecting identities

• Individuals navigating intergenerational and family-of-origin concerns