About Vivian Peralta Mesa, MS, LMFT
My Background & Approach
I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) offering virtual therapy to clients in Vancouver, Camas, and across Washington. My work is grounded in Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), an approach that helps you make sense of what you’re feeling, notice the patterns that create distance, and rebuild the safety and trust that help relationships feel close again.
I’m also a Certified Prepare/Enrich Facilitator --- a couples assessment tool used with couples who are preparing for marriage or who are wanting to deepen their commitment to one another.
With more than two decades of experience supporting individuals and couples through life’s most meaningful and challenging moments, I am here to support you through yours.
Connection is not just the goal of therapy; It is the foundation of healing.
I use these tools gently and intentionally, so you’re not just “talking about it,” you’re learning how to stay with what you feel (without getting swept away) and how to respond in ways that match what matters most to you. I believe real change begins when we slow down enough to listen to ourselves and to each other; therapy becomes a space to do exactly that. Together, we explore what’s been painful or confusing, make sense of the emotions underneath with compassion, and begin creating new ways of relating that feel secure, honest, and deeply authentic.
As an LMFT, I’m trained to consider the full context of your life: your history, your relationships, and the ways you learned to reach for closeness or protect yourself when things felt uncertain and how they weave together to shape your emotional world today. Whether I’m meeting with an individual or a couple, I pay close attention to the underlying needs and longings that often sit just beneath the surface. When we can understand those tender places with clarity and compassion, the patterns that once felt immovable begin to shift.
My goal is to help you feel safe enough to explore, supported enough to take new steps, and connected enough — to yourself and others — to build the kind of life and relationships that feel steady, mutual, and genuinely nurturing. Healing happens inside connection, and therapy is one place where we can tend that connection until it feels stronger in the rest of your life, too.
I’m an active member of several professional organizations that keep me connected to ongoing learning and the broader therapy community, including:
• American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (AAMFT)
• International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy (ICEEFT)
• Washington Association for Marriage and Family Therapy (WAAMFT)
• Portland Center for Emotionally Focused Therapy (PCEFT)
Professional Affiliations:
I participate regularly in several monthly EFT consultation and peer groups where therapists collaborate to deepen their skills, refine interventions, and stay grounded in attachment-based practice. This keeps my work fresh, accountable, and deeply connected to the heart of the model, so I can show up for you with steadiness and care.
Ongoing Consultation & Peer Community
Therapy Philosophy
I believe our relationships sit at the heart of our wellbeing. When we feel emotionally safe and connected, we move through life with more steadiness, resilience, and hope. But when that emotional connection feels strained or lost, it can shake our sense of safety and even our worth, and leave us feeling alone with the pain of disconnection. Therapy becomes a place to rebuild that sense of safety, a place where you can feel less alone in what you're carrying, and a place where what's been hard to name can finally have room to be held with care.
My intention is to create a steady, deeply inclusive space where every identity feels seen, respected, and held with care. Whether you identify as BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, neurodivergent, part of a religious minority, differently abled, or hold an identity not named here, you are welcome exactly as you are.
As a therapist of Latin American heritage, I carry a deep respect for the richness and complexity within our communicites, our languages, traditions, identities, and the sotreis that shape how we learn to love, struggle, and heal. Culture influences the way our hearts move through the world, and I honor those layers with humility and warmth, knowing each person brings their own wisdom to the room.
Who I Work With
Couples:
I work with couples who long to feel close again but find themselves stuck in painful cycles of distance, conflict, or silence. Some are young families overwhelmed by new roles and responsibilities, trying to hold onto each other through the noise of everyday life and all the added responsibilities and stressors that come with it. Others are blended or remarried couples navigating loyalty, trust, and family dynamics that can feel tender and complex. I also support couples recovering from infidelity, as well as those moving through major life transitions and trying to rediscover what togetherness means in this next chapter.
I also work with couples who are not in distress but want to strengthen their connection, partners who feel emotionally secure yet want to stay intentional as they grow together. This includes Pre-Commitment Counseling for couples who are exploring a future together, moving in, or deepening their commitment without necessarily planning a wedding. These conversations help partners slow down, understand the moves they each make when things get tense, honor each other’s histories, and build a clearer, shared sense of “us” so you can stand shoulder to shoulder, facing what’s hard together.
For engaged couples, Pre-Marital Counseling offers a space to prepare for marriage with clarity, warmth, and a felt sense of shared direction. Through Pre-Marital, Pre-Commitment, and Relationship Enrichment counseling, partners learn to communicate more openly, explore shared values, and stay connected as their relationship evolves.
Individuals:
I work with individuals navigating anxiety, depression, trauma, major life transitions, divorce or separation, and the lingering effects of toxic or narcissistic relationships. Many come to individual therapy carrying quiet exhaustion or self-doubt, unsure how to reconnect with themselves or where to begin. I also support those adjusting to life after divorce and help them grieve what was lost, rediscover who they are apart from that story, and rebuild a meaningful, fulfilling life.
For some, this includes the tender work of dating again. This space nurtures balancing hope with caution, trusting their instincts, and learning how to stay grounded in themselves while building steadier, more mutual connections. Minimum age for therapy is 21 years old.
Spanish-Speaking Therapist:
I am a Spanish-speaking therapist and offer therapy in both English and Spanish, creating a space where language flows naturally and you can express yourself in the way that feels most true to you. For many bilingual and Spanish-only speaking clients, therapy isn’t just about finding the right words, it’s about being understood in the rhythm, emotion, and meaning behind them.
Some clients come to therapy wanting to celebrate those roots while redefining what healing and identity look like for them now. Others seek a place where they don’t have to explain cultural nuances, where their experience simply lands and is understood.
Therapy with me is a space where both languages and identities are welcome. It is a space where you can bring your whole self without having to choose between parts of who you are. Whether we speak in English, Spanish, or move between both, the goal is always the same: to help you feel grounded, accepted, and supported as you grow into the person you’re becoming.
You deserve care that honors every part of who you are.
Values Statement:
A WELCOME TO ALL
In my work, I aim to cultivate a climate of inclusion where all can feel safe, valued, and affirmed. My approach views love and meaningful, secure connections with one another as a birthright of all human beings and strives to promote a more loving humanity and community for all. It holds hope for a world in which every person can embrace their universal human attachment needs and thrive without fear of persecution or marginalization as a result of gender expression, race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual and affectional orientation, family structure, age, class, mental health, physical characteristics, disability, or any other part of who they are.
Many of my colleagues, clients, and members of our community have grown up as targets of oppression and expressions of hatred. I am committed to helping my clients and colleagues move toward healing and safety. I am committed to fostering safe, secure bonds in couples and families. I work and pray for a society that attends to its most vulnerable, in the belief that this is what helps create a safe and thriving community for all.
I am a member of professional communities whose stated values also reflect and inform my work. These organizations affirm commitments to diversity, equity, and inclusion; to anti-racism and human dignity; and to attachment-based work that fosters belonging and emotionally fulfilling relationships. These commitments are meaningful to me and consistent with the values that guide my practice.
To learn more, please visit:
AAMFT.org – American Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
ICEEFT.com – International Centre for Excellence in Emotionally Focused Therapy
WAMFT.org – Washington Association for Marriage and Family Therapy
PCEFT.com – Portland Community for Emotionally Focused Therapy
THE LAND WE’RE ON
My values also shape how I think about the place where I live and work, and I recognize that the land we occupy is inseparable from the history and well-being of its original stewards. While this practice operates in a digital space, it is physically rooted on Indigenous lands.
A large part of my life and work takes place on the unceded ancestral homelands of the Cowlitz Indian Tribe, including what is now Longview and other parts of Cowlitz County. I recognize that the lands now known as Vancouver, Camas, Battle Ground, Ridgefield, and Washougal in Clark County are part of the ancestral homelands of the Cowlitz, Chinook, and Klickitat peoples, whose history is carried today, in part, through the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation.
From the foothills of Mount St. Helens to the shores of the Columbia River, I honor these Indigenous peoples’ enduring role as stewards of these lands and waters since time immemorial.
I honor the Cowlitz Indian Tribe’s continuing work in habitat restoration, cultural revitalization, language preservation, ceremony, and traditional lifeways, the Chinook people’s ongoing efforts toward recognition and cultural continuity, and the Klickitat people’s enduring connection to treaty rights, river stewardship, and salmon protection.
This acknowledgment is one small way of honoring Indigenous peoples of all regions and remembering that the systems supporting our connection are rooted in unceded lands that carry history, relationship, and responsibility.
To learn more, please visit:
Cowlitz.org - Cowlitz Indian Tribe
Yakama.org - Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation | Klickitat History
ChinookNation.org - Chinook Indian Nation
Native-Land.ca - An interactive educational map of the traditional territories, treaties, and languages of Indigenous peoples.
On A Personal Note …
Originally from Miami, Florida, I now live in Washington, surrounded by the natural beauty of the Pacific Northwest. Outside of sessions, I fill my life with things that bring me joy and keep me connected to my own sense of aliveness... practicing yoga, hiking, dancing, tending to my guppy aquarium, spending time with my new grandbaby and my closest people: family and dear friends.