Purva Patel, MA, LMFT, LPC

You can love someone and not know how to reach them. I work with people who want a better relationship with their partner, their family, or themselves.

I’m Purva Patel, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor in Texas. I see individuals, couples, and families via telehealth. I hold a master’s in Marriage and Family Therapy from the University of Houston-Clear Lake, and I’ve trained extensively in Emotion-Focused Therapy, an approach built around understanding the feelings underneath patterns. I also draw on CBT, Trauma-Focused CBT, family systems, and person-centered approaches.

Much of my work is with couples where one or both partners has ADHD and they’re learning to communicate across different ways of thinking. I also work with interracial and intercultural couples sorting through the parts of a relationship that family and culture shape. I co-authored research on culturally competent therapy with Asian Indian American couples and have presented on culturally responsive therapy at professional conferences.

I also work with parents trying to understand what their kids are going through, with teens navigating change, and with adults working through something on their own. Years spent working with children who experienced abuse taught me how to sit with people through difficult material. It shapes how I respond to couples and families when past trauma surfaces in the relationship.

Before I became a therapist, I spent about a decade as a business journalist, including at the Houston Chronicle. That work taught me to listen for what someone isn’t saying yet and to ask the question that gets past the surface. I went into both fields for the same reason: to give a voice to what is yet unspoken.

I hope this is a place where you feel safe to be honest about what you’re going through, even the parts you haven’t said out loud yet.