Carla DeFraine

Carla DeFraine’s clients tend to share one quality: they’re willing to do real work. The Irvine-based licensed psychologist draws adults, children, couples, and families who want someone sharp enough to challenge them and warm enough to make that bearable. She holds degrees from Harvard and Vanderbilt, completed her clinical internship at Emory Medical School, and brings that same rigor to everything from anxiety and mood disorders to eating disorders, personality disorders, and developmental concerns across the full lifespan.

She has a particular investment in divorce — specifically in helping separating parents protect their children and their finances while navigating the stress of the legal process. Families also come to her wrestling with the quieter friction of daily life: a teenager whose anxiety lives partly in a phone that never stops, parents who feel like referees between their kids and a screen. Carla works with all of it.

Her approach is eclectic, her manner direct. She will push when pushing is called for. Outside the consulting room, she is a performing musician who has recorded original songs for children — a detail that tells you something about how she thinks about people at every stage of life.