Hi, I’m Bar Zafrany, LMFT.
I’m a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist based in Woodland Hills, California. My work has always been rooted in relationships—how we connect with one another, how our experiences shape us, and how the environments around us can influence the way we feel and function.
My path into therapy began with a strong interest in children and adolescents. I studied Child and Adolescent Development and became fascinated by the ways early relationships, attachment, development, and environment shape who we become.
That eventually led me to pursue my Master’s in Marriage & Family Therapy, where I learned to look beyond the individual and understand people within the context of their families, relationships, schools, and communities.
Over the years, my work has grown from a strong foundation in children, teens, parents, and families into a broader practice that also supports women and adults—particularly around anxiety, self-esteem, identity, life transitions, chronic pain, and the emotional impact of physical health.
Today, I bring all of those pieces together in my work.
I don’t believe therapy should feel like someone sitting across from you telling you what you’re doing wrong.
I’m interested in understanding.
What happened?
What are you carrying?
What patterns keep showing up?
What is happening in your relationships?
What is your body telling you?
And perhaps most importantly:
What might need to change so you can feel more like yourself again?
My approach is warm, collaborative, and person-centered. I want therapy to feel like a place where you can be honest, ask questions, explore what’s happening, and make sense of your experiences without feeling judged.
My clinical work draws from person-centered, strengths-based, attachment, family-systems, narrative, trauma-informed, and other evidence-informed approaches.
I don’t believe every person needs the same kind of therapy.
Instead, I want to understand you and create an approach that makes sense for your needs, your goals, and your life.
Children and families have been at the heart of my work from the beginning.
My background in Child and Adolescent Development gave me a strong foundation for understanding the emotional, social, and developmental experiences of children and adolescents. My training as a Marriage & Family Therapist further shaped the way I look at children within the context of their relationships and environments.
Children don’t always have the words to explain what is happening inside.
Sometimes they communicate through behavior.
Sometimes through anger.
Sometimes through withdrawal.
Sometimes through anxiety, difficulty at school, changes in friendships, or simply not seeming like themselves.
And parents can be left wondering:
What’s happening? What does my child need? And how do I help?
I believe that working with a child often means working with the people and environments surrounding that child too.
I often think about it this way:
We can work with the child, put a little bow on them, and send them right back into an environment that hasn’t yet learned how to support the changes and shifts that are happening.
That is why family involvement can be such an important part of therapy.
When a child is changing, the family is adjusting too.
New emotions, behaviors, boundaries, developmental stages, and needs can require everyone to learn new ways of communicating and connecting.
My goal is not simply to “fix” the child.
It’s to understand what the child is communicating and help the entire system create more support, connection, and understanding.
School is a huge part of a child’s world.
It is where children learn, develop friendships, experience challenges, build confidence, and spend a significant part of their lives.
Because of my background and experience working with children and families, I have developed strong connections with schools and a deep appreciation for collaboration between therapists, parents, educators, and other professionals.
When appropriate and with the necessary permissions, I can collaborate with the people involved in a child’s care.
The goal isn’t to have everyone doing therapy.
It’s to help create consistency, communication, and understanding between the different parts of a child’s world.
I work with women navigating:
Endometriosis and chronic pain can affect much more than the physical symptoms.
There can be grief, frustration, uncertainty, changes in relationships, disruptions to plans, concerns about identity and body image, and the exhaustion of having to continually explain or manage something that others may not see.
Therapy can be a place to process those experiences and reconnect with yourself beyond your diagnosis or pain.
I’m interested in the relationship between emotional well-being and the body.
My training in Nutritional Psychology has deepened my understanding of areas such as the gut-brain connection, emotional eating, body image, habits, and the relationship between what we experience physically and emotionally.
I use this knowledge as one lens for understanding the whole person—not as a way to prescribe diets or provide nutritional treatment.
I am EMDR-trained and incorporate trauma-informed approaches into my work when appropriate.
Trauma can influence the way we experience ourselves, our relationships, our bodies, and the world around us.
Therapy can provide a space to process those experiences at a pace that feels safe and manageable.
Outside of therapy, I love being active, spending time outdoors, and finding ways to stay curious.
You’ll often find me:
I don’t believe therapists need to feel like a completely separate species from the people they work with.
I’m a person too.
I have my own interests, relationships, questions, imperfect days, and things that make me laugh.
I think bringing some of that humanity into the therapy room matters.
I believe being a good therapist means continuing to learn.
Alongside my clinical experience, I’m continuing to explore areas that connect with the direction my practice is growing:
I’m currently continuing my training in equine-assisted therapy and exploring future programs that bring together therapy, nature, movement, connection, and experiential learning.
These are areas of growth in my practice, while my foundation remains firmly rooted in the work I’ve been doing for years: children, teens, families, parents, and relationships.
Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist
California LMFT #135577
Master of Science in Marriage & Family Therapy
California State University, Northridge
Bachelor of Arts in Child & Adolescent Development
EMDR-Trained Therapist
Nutritional Psychology Training
Equine-Assisted Therapy Training — In Progress
Author of Nova’s Wild Adventure
