Cristina Collins | Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (AMFT) Blended Family Specialist

At a Glance

Navigated the end of a marriage with a young child and the grief of watching the family I imagined change shape.
Went from courtrooms and conflict to genuine, lighthearted co-parenting with my son's father.
Mother of an 18-year-old son who has two separate, distinct anchors in his life.
Nearly fifteen years with my life partner, a Marine Corps veteran — building something new from lives that already had stories.
Former Family Advocate and Behavioral Intervention Specialist, with experience in IEPs, school meetings, and family team meetings.
Neurodivergent myself, with experience supporting families where neurodivergence is part of the picture.
Lifelong learner — degrees in psychology, industrial-organizational psychology, and clinical psychology, with a doctorate in progress.

Blended Doesn't Mean Broken

Families rarely begin a new chapter with a blank slate. We bring histories, traditions, former relationships, children, heartbreak, loyalties, fears, and hopes about what this new family might become.

Before anyone gets to the part about building something new, there's often something that needs to be grieved: a family that changed shape, a future you had already pictured, or the ordinary moments you imagined would look very different than they do now.

I don't think we can rush past that part. I've tried.

The Day My Family Changed Shape

I was married to my son's father when, six months into our marriage, I learned that he had been unfaithful and another woman was pregnant.

I still remember the day I found out like it was yesterday. I was curled into the fetal position on the black-and-white tiled floor of my 1920s art deco bathroom, crying for what felt like hours. I literally felt the pain of my broken, shattered heart.

And in many ways, my sense of self shattered with it.

I questioned everything. Was it my fault? What had I missed? Why wasn't I enough? And underneath my own heartbreak was another kind of grief entirely: my son was only twelve months old, and the nuclear family I had imagined giving him was suddenly gone.

During the day, I tried with everything I had to hold myself together for my baby boy. At night, when everything was quiet, I cried alone in the dark.

Slowly and painfully, I had to pick myself up and reconstruct who I was. And eventually I understood that healing wasn't only about whether I could trust another person again.

I had to learn how to trust myself again.

What Came After

But our story didn't end with the betrayal — or even with the end of our marriage.

What followed were years of learning how to become something entirely different to one another: co-parents.

It took years in and out of court, hours-long conversations, difficult truths, an enormous amount of unpacking, and forgiveness that sometimes felt forged through fire. There were moments when I genuinely couldn't imagine us ever reaching a peaceful place.

But somehow, slowly, we did.

Today, we remain separate and distinct anchors in our son's life, with his well-being at the center of the relationship we've rebuilt. We didn't have to become a family in the way I originally imagined to remain a family to my son.

After everything — the heartbreak, the anger, the courtrooms, the conversations, and the years it took to get here — we can be lighthearted with one another. We can exist on this earth together peacefully, connected by this incredible human being we created.

I never imagined that healing could look like this.

That experience taught me that forgiveness doesn't have to mean forgetting, excusing, or returning to what was. Sometimes forgiveness is what allows us to stop living inside the hurt and helps us decide what we want the relationship to become.

I want to be honest with you about the timeline, though, because it matters: this took years. If you're in the middle of it right now and it feels impossible, you're not doing it wrong. You're just not at the end yet.

Building Something New

Years later, on spring break in Puerto Rico, I met my life partner.

He's a reconnaissance Marine Corps veteran with multiple combat deployments behind him. We came together as two people carrying our own histories, trauma, and very different nervous systems into the same relationship.

We loved each other deeply. But loving each other and knowing how to love each other turned out to be two very different things.

We've had to learn when to move closer and when to give each other room. That dysregulation isn't the same as not caring. That repair matters more than winning an argument. That understanding someone's nervous system can completely change the meaning of their behavior.

I learned that boundaries don't push love away.

They give love somewhere safe to live.

That's the part I most want families to hear. Blending isn't primarily about merging schedules and last names. It's about building enough safety that several people with different histories can be themselves in the same house.

What I've Learned About Blending

I've navigated co-parenting through conflict and eventually peace. I've experienced the work of blending families, figuring out new roles and boundaries, and learning that children carry feelings about changes they never asked for.

And I've learned that you can't force people into closeness simply because the adults have decided they're a family now.

Connection has to be built.

That lesson started even earlier in my career. As a Family Advocate and a Behavioral Intervention Specialist, I sat beside parents in school meetings, IEPs, and family team meetings — families trying incredibly hard while navigating systems that didn't always understand their child or the complexity of what was happening at home.

I've sat in those rooms professionally.

And I've sat in them as a mother.

Whether you're navigating co-parenting, stepparenting, neurodivergence, different parenting styles, shifting roles, or children trying to find their place within a new family structure, I'm interested in helping you create something that feels authentic to your family.

Sometimes that's what makes blended families so beautiful: you aren't starting over. You're learning how to make something amazingly new from lives that already have stories.

How I Work

My approach is relational, neurodiversity-affirming, trauma-informed, culturally responsive, and deeply strengths-based. I lean most heavily on Emotionally Focused Therapy and Family Systems Theory.

I'm not here to decide who's right or tell you what your family is supposed to look like.

I'm interested in understanding the system: what each person is carrying, what they're protecting, where people keep missing one another, and what would help everyone feel safer and more connected.

I'm warm and compassionate, and I'm also direct. I'll ask questions, name patterns, and gently challenge you when there's something worth looking at.

The goal isn't to make your family look like someone else's. It's to help the family you actually have work better together.

Who I Work With

Blended families and step-families at every stage
Co-parents navigating conflict, court, or an uneasy peace
Stepparents figuring out their role
Couples where children from previous relationships are creating strain
Parents helping children adjust to separation, remarriage, or a new household
Families where one or more members are neurodivergent
Partners healing from betrayal, attachment injuries, and ruptures in trust
Parents navigating school systems and advocacy for their children
Individuals moving through grief, anxiety, and major life transitions

What We'd Work On Together

Making room for the family that changed shape — including grief that adults and children may experience differently.
Co-parenting across households, even when there's still hurt or conflict between the adults.
Communicating with an ex in ways that protect the children from becoming responsible for the adults' relationship.
Navigating stepparent roles — authority, attachment, boundaries, roles, expectations, and how quickly relationships should develop.
Supporting children through changes they didn't choose, including complicated feelings and loyalty conflicts.
Working through different parenting styles and the couple conflict that can grow from them.
Understanding neurodivergence in the family, particularly when transitions, sensory needs, routines, or different regulation styles affect family life.
Rebuilding trust after betrayal, separation, or years of conflict.
Creating boundaries that provide clarity and safety without requiring emotional disconnection.

Education

Doctor of Education (Ed.D.) in International and Multicultural Education, Racial Equity and Justice concentration — University of San Francisco (in progress)
M.A. in Clinical Psychology, Marriage and Family Therapy — University of San Francisco
M.S. in Industrial-Organizational Psychology — Carlos Albizu University, Miami
A.A. in Emergency Management — Community College of the Air Force
B.A. in Psychology — San Francisco State University

License & Employment Information

Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (AMFT) — AMFT #156870
All sessions are virtual. I coach clients worldwide and provide therapy to clients in California.
Supervised by Dr. Harry Motro, LMFT #53452
Employed by New Path Family of Therapy Centers

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