Private pay therapist in California, online.
Martha Fernandez, LCSW, is a licensed clinical social worker in California who sees clients by secure video, in English or Spanish, and bills no insurance. Your first session can be this week.
- Licensed in California. Secure video sessions from anywhere in the state.
- English or Spanish. The same clinician, switching whenever you do.
- No insurance billed. Nothing about your care goes to a payer.
Licensed in California. Outside California? The network Martha co-founded sees clients in every state.
Find a clinician in your stateWhy Martha
What your hour with her buys.
She works exclusively with people at the top of demanding fields, and has for years. These are the reasons they choose her.
She is the right call if
- Your work runs on judgment. A board, a docket, an OR or a cockpit depends on you being sharp.
- A diagnosis on file is a risk. Licensing, credentialing, a medical certificate or a deal.
- You have tried the obvious options. Apps, benefits and plan therapists did not fit.
- You want one senior clinician. The same person every week, in English or Spanish.
She designed the model other clinicians follow.
Clinical co-founder of a private-pay concierge network for high achievers. Doctoral-level clinicians among its members work to her model. Her own practice is the only place to work with her directly.
See her network profileShe works only with people at the top.
Hundreds of founders, executives, partners, physicians and pilots have sat across from her, including leaders of some of the largest companies in the country. Before private practice she worked inpatient psychiatric units, community mental health and medical social work, so she has handled crisis at every level of care.
Bilingual, at this level, is rare.
Plenty of clinicians speak Spanish. Very few treat executives and physicians in Spanish at full clinical depth. She does, switching whenever you do.
Nothing about your care goes to an insurer.
No diagnosis filed with a third party, nothing a licensing board, an employer or a court can request from a payer. She follows HIPAA privacy practices.
You can read her method before you pay for it.
Wired to Burn is free in full on this page, behind thirteen white papers and bylines in HousingWire, IPS News, The Good Men Project and Behavioral Health News.
Who sits across from her
Who she sees as a telehealth therapist in California.
Names stay in the room. Titles don't have to. By the time most of her clients call, they have already tried the obvious options.
- Chief executives of national healthcare companies
- Senior leaders inside Fortune 500 companies
- Founders and CEOs of venture-backed companies
- Managing and equity partners at law firms
- Physicians across specialties
- Commercial airline pilots
- SaaS and technology leadership
She treats burnout, anxiety and depression in high performers; trauma, grief and high-stakes transitions; and couples under pressure, with CBT, ACT, behavioral activation, narrative and solution-focused methods, and is certified in Motivational Interviewing and Seeking Safety. No client is ever named, here or anywhere.
From her clinical reviews
High achievers wait 21 months before they get help.
That is the median gap between knowing something was wrong and starting treatment, across 307 high-achieving clients in a clinical review she reported. Fifty-eight percent waited for a crisis. Her practice is built to be the place you go before that.
Why this is different
Most therapy is built for everyone. Hers is built for the top of the org chart.
General-practice therapy
- You spend sessions explaining what a board, a deal or a medical certificate means
- Notes and a diagnosis that live with your insurer
- An intake coordinator, then whichever clinician has an opening
- Generic advice: rest more, set boundaries, take a vacation
- A clinician who has rarely sat with a CEO, a surgeon or a captain
MMartha Fernandez, LCSW
- She already knows the stakes, so the hour goes to the work
- Nothing filed with any payer, nothing an employer or board can request
- Martha herself from the first session, booked online this week
- A method built on her own research into high achievers who hide strain
- She has sat across from CEOs of national healthcare companies, partners and pilots
You would not hire a generalist for your deal, your surgery or your case. Why do it for your own head?
Her record
Every credential, checkable.
Each line opens the page that proves it, without taking you off this one.
- Licensed Clinical Social Worker, California, license 127918
- Two master's degrees from USC: Social Work (MSW) and Gerontology
- Bachelor of Arts in Psychology, California State University, Fullerton
- More than a decade in mental health care, from inpatient psychiatric units to private telehealth practice
- Clinical co-founder of CEREVITY, a private-pay concierge network of independent licensed clinicians built for high achievers
- Author, Wired to Burn (2026)
Every number links to its source on this page
Her research
Thirteen white papers. Built on her own clinical data.
Nine clinical indices drawn from her own reviews of hundreds of high-achieving clients, and four national white papers she led. Swipe through every headline finding.
of high achievers in her review said success made them lonelier.
2026 Success and Isolation Index312 clients, Sep 2026Read the white paper 64%of founders in her review hid mental health strain from investors or boards.
2026 Disclosure Gap Index318 founders, Aug 2026Read the white paper 67%of equity partners in her review hid strain from firm leadership.
2026 Law Firm Disclosure Index305 equity partners, Sep 2026Read the white paper 63%of high-net-worth clients said financial success increased their isolation.
2026 Wealth and Isolation Index311 clients, Aug 2026Read the white paper 67%reported their peak professional output while internal strain was at its highest.
2026 Performance Paradox Index287 clients, Aug 2026Read the white paper 71%of CEOs and senior executives in her review reported burnout.
CEO Burnout: What Actually Helps298 executives, Aug 2026Read the white paper 62%said their decisions got worse while they hid the strain.
2026 Cognitive Cost Index261 clients, Aug 2026Read the white paper 61%of physicians delayed therapy over licensing or credentialing fears.
2026 Physician Help-Seeking Index297 physicians, Aug 2026Read the white paper 58%of professional pilots flew while carrying strain they had not disclosed.
2026 Aviation Mental Health Index284 pilots, Aug 2026Read the white paper 2 in 3American employees reported some form of burnout in 2025.
The 2026 High-Achiever Burnout IndexNational white paper, May 2026Read the white paper 4 in 10US doctors are touched by burnout in a given year.
State of Physician WellbeingNational white paper, Jun 2026Read the white paper 56%of 3,765 pilots avoided care for fear of losing their medical certificate.
The Aviation Mental Health Disclosure GapNational white paper, Jul 2026Read the white paper 28%of licensed attorneys screened positive for depression.
The Lateral Partner Attrition ReportNational white paper, Jul 2026Read the white paperIn her words
Ask her what she sees. She has already written it down.
Why do screens miss people like me?
“The answer is technically accurate and clinically useless.”Behavioral Health News
What do founders actually come in with?
“Not sadness. Flatness.”TechBullion
My numbers look fine. So what changed?
“The board moved. The hours did not.”HousingWire
Every answer is in print. Each line here is quoted from an article she published, and each one opens its source.
She writes for clinicians, not just clients. Behavioral Health News publishes her for the people who do this work.
And for the rooms you sit in. HousingWire, TechBullion, IPS News and The Good Men Project carry her on leadership, founders and physicians.
The book, 2026
Wired to Burn.
A Therapist's Guide for High Achievers Running on Fumes
Martha's book on burnout in people who keep performing while it happens, and on how she treats it. The whole book is free, so you can read how she works before you book an hour of it.
One click. No email, no form.
Client reviews
In their words, without their names.
Shared with written permission. Names and identifying details are withheld to protect client confidentiality.
I had tried two therapists through my plan. Martha was the first one who understood what a board meeting does to my sleep.
Same week. Same person every time. Nothing on an insurance record. That was the whole decision for me.
She switched to Spanish the moment I did, and I never had to translate how I felt.
I read her book on a flight and booked before we landed.
I needed someone who understood what is at stake with a medical certificate. She did, from the first minute.
She asked the question nobody inside my company could ask me. Six months later I am still glad she did.
I came in for sleep. We found the real thing in three sessions.
Booking took two minutes. No intake call, no forms to chase, no waiting to hear back.
Private pay was the only way I was going to do this at all. It was worth every session.
We booked as a couple and she held both of us to the same standard. It changed how we talk at home.
As published in
Where her work runs.
Bylined articles, national quotes and expert profiles, in English and in Spanish. Each one opens here first.
Twelve articles in Psychreg
- The One Room a Chief Executive Cannot Get Anywhere Inside Their Own CompanySep 2026
- Founders Will Not Book a Weekly Hour, and Almost Every Mental Health Benefit Is Built on OneSep 2026
- What Attorneys Are Actually Afraid of Has Nothing to Do with Being JudgedSep 2026
- Business Owners Do Not Have a Stress Problem, They Have a Liability Nobody Around Them Is CarryingSep 2026
- Therapy for Executives: Why the Presenting Complaint Is Almost Never the FormulationAug 2026
- Standard Screens Miss High Achievers Who Hide ImpairmentSep 2026
- Smiling Depression in High Achievers: What the Smile Is DoingSep 2026
- Burnout vs Depression: How to Tell Which One You're CarryingSep 2026
- Emotional Blunting Is Not Anhedonia, and the Difference Changes the TreatmentJul 2026
- Fear of Success: Why Capable People Stall Right Before the WinSep 2026
- Toxic Productivity: When Getting Things Done Stops Being HealthySep 2026
- Intellectualisation: When Explaining Your Feelings Replaces Having ThemSep 2026
Fees
Two fees, stated plainly.
| Session | Fee | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Individual session | $400/ session | 50 minutes by secure video, first session and every session after |
| Couples session | $450/ session | 50 minutes by secure video, first session and every session after |
- Martha every time, never an associate
- First session the same week
- No diagnosis filed with a payer
- English or Spanish
- Anywhere in California
Private pay only. No insurance billed and no superbills issued.
Book your first sessionHow it works
How telehealth therapy in California works with Martha.
Choose your time
Tell us your profession and your city, then pick an open time on Martha's calendar. No intake call, no waiting to hear back.
Your first session, this week
A full 50-minute session with Martha by secure video. No waitlist and no handoff to someone else.
Weekly sessions
The same clinician every time, in English or Spanish. Her caseload stays small, so your hour is never squeezed.
En español
Terapia en español, con la misma terapeuta.
No es una sesión traducida. Es Martha, en su idioma, de la primera sesión a la última.
Martha Fernandez, LCSW, es trabajadora social clínica licenciada en California. Atiende por video seguro, en inglés o en español, y cambia de idioma cuando usted cambia. No factura a ningún seguro.
Leer este sitio en españolFAQ
Questions, answered.
Is there a free consultation first?
No. You book your first session directly. It is a full session with Martha, and the work starts there.
Why doesn't she bill insurance?
Billing an insurer means sending a diagnosis to a third party, where it becomes part of a record others can request. Private pay keeps your care between you and Martha.
Can I get reimbursed by my insurer afterward?
No. She bills no insurance and does not provide superbills, so nothing about your care is sent to a payer.
Is it confidential?
Yes. She follows HIPAA privacy practices, sessions are by secure video, and because nothing is billed, no diagnosis is filed with a payer.
Where do I need to be for sessions?
Anywhere in California at the time of the session. If you live in another state, CEREVITY, the network she co-founded, can match you with a licensed clinician there. Find a clinician in your state
Does she see couples?
Yes, for relationship strain under pressure. Choose “A couple” when you book and the right first session opens on her calendar.
Can she prescribe medication?
No. As a licensed clinical social worker, Martha does not prescribe. If medication might help, she will tell you, and you can see a physician who prescribes.
How do I reach the practice?
Send a question from this page and the practice replies by text within one business day. There is no public phone line or email, which keeps Martha's day for sessions. Current clients reschedule in the client portal or by text to the practice number they receive at booking. Ask a question
What if I am in crisis?
This practice is not an emergency service. If you are in crisis, call or text 988, the Suicide and Crisis Lifeline, or call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room.
What does it cost?
$400 for an individual session and $450 for a couples session, 50 minutes each, private pay only. See fees
Your first session can be this week.
Pick a time on Martha's calendar. Private pay, secure video, anywhere in California, in English or Spanish.