Hello, I'm Deborah
Managing is not the same as being well. I help you navigate life's biggest shifts, process trauma, and find steady ground.
— Deborah Batres, AMFT
Read my story →Deborah Batres, AMFT #162914 · Associate Marriage & Family Therapist
Botaitis Therapy Group · Supervised by Nicole Botaitis, LMFT #47319
Hello, I'm Deborah
Managing is not the same as being well. I help you navigate life's biggest shifts, process trauma, and find steady ground.
— Deborah Batres, AMFT
Read my story →Is this you?
Something changed
Relationship, career, identity, loss. What used to fit doesn't anymore.
Something you've carried
It happened, or a lot of small things did. You want to understand it, not keep carrying it.
Fine on the outside
Everyone relies on you. You’re not sure who you’d tell if you weren’t okay.
The same fight, on repeat
You love each other. The fight is never really about what it's about.
Some things are harder to name.
That is reason enough to reach out.
About Deborah
I know that pattern from the inside. Before becoming a therapist I spent years as a founder of startups, chasing a version of success I never stopped to ask if I wanted. I learned to perform long before I learned to notice what was happening underneath. Finding my way back to myself is the work that brought me here, and it's why I recognize it in the people I sit with.
I'm engaged, direct, and curious about what's underneath the patterns you've learned to manage. I care about more than symptom relief. I want to understand how you relate to yourself, the people you love, and the life you're building, so you're not managing your life, you're living it.
Read my full story →My approach
We go toward the feeling
Not around it. That’s where the change is.
I follow what comes up
Your system says it before language does.
I say what I notice
Patterns are easier to see from the outside.
Psychodynamic·Somatic·Polyvagal·IFS·Mindfulness-Based·Trauma-Informed·CBT·EMDR·Emotion-Focused·Gottman Method
What I offer
For individuals
For anxiety, grief, trauma, burnout, and the unease you can't name. We find where the pattern started.
$150 · 50 min
Learn more →For couples
For the fight that keeps returning, or the one that changed everything. We get underneath the argument.
$180 · 60 min
Learn more →For trauma
For a single event, or the years of small ones. We work with what the body still holds.
$195 · 50 min
Learn more →Begin
Start with a free 15-minute call.
I see clients in person at Botaitis Therapy Group in Santa Barbara, and offer telehealth sessions throughout California.
