Elena Balashova-Shamis, CA Psychologist PSY20104

Elena Balashova-Shamis is a California psychologist with 23 years of clinical experience. She holds the credential CA Psychologist PSY20104 and combines long-term practice with teaching roles at several local universities, including UCLA's medical school. Her work often centers on stress, anxiety, relationship challenges, trauma and abuse, grief, and depression.

Her background includes training in psychoanalysis alongside an integrative approach to care. She tailors sessions to each person’s needs, mixing insights from different methods rather than following a single protocol. Sessions tend to focus on understanding patterns, improving communication, and building practical coping tools.

Elena also brings experience with concerns tied to attachment, abandonment, body image, caregiver stress, commitment and control issues, and dissociation. She attends to the emotional impact of events such as divorce, natural or human-caused disasters, and first responder stress. Her clinical work includes attention to eating and food-related issues, forgiveness, and gender dysphoria.

In addition to clinical practice, she teaches and publishes, and mentors students through dissertation advising. That teaching work informs her clinical perspective and keeps her current with developments in the field.

Elena offers services in English and Russian. She practices in California and does not accept international clients. Prospective clients should confirm session formats before booking.

How therapeutic approaches meet online care

Elena's background includes psychoanalytic training and an integrative use of evidence-based therapeutic techniques. Psychoanalytic-informed work looks at long-standing patterns, early relationships, and how past experiences shape current feelings and behavior; it can help with deep relational issues and attachment concerns. Integrative evidence-based techniques focus on teaching practical skills for managing symptoms like anxiety, depression, and stress, such as emotion regulation and coping strategies.

Choosing an approach is collaborative. The therapist will talk with the client about symptoms, life goals, and what feels most useful. Together they will try methods that fit the person's needs and adjust the plan over time based on what helps.

Session formats are not specified in the biography, so confirm current options before booking. Online therapy can make scheduling easier and help fit sessions into a busy life, for example by reducing travel time and allowing appointments during a workday break. It can also make follow-up check-ins simpler and offer more flexibility for ongoing care. Licensed professionals can guide how to make remote sessions effective for addressing stress, relationship challenges, grief, trauma-related concerns, and depression.