Welcome to a Place of Rooting Deeply, Healing Trauma, and Repairing Relationships

Individual Adult Therapy, Couples Therapy, and EMDR Intensives in Carlsbad, California.​

Melanie Gotez Welcome To Upward Roots Relational Therapy California

At Upward Roots, I believe healing begins when you feel safe, seen, and supported. 

The body keeps the score when we experience trauma and don’t have the resources to cope, a safe place to ground, or caring hands to catch us and comfort us as we naturally process the event. I am here to provide you that safe, compassionate space for your mind and body to process, release, and rebuild. Whether you are navigating past wounds, seeking emotional clarity, or rebuilding connection in your relationships, our approach blends evidence-based therapy techniques with heart-led care. 

With Upward Roots, healing unfolds into growth, resilience, and a deep sense of rooted strength. Our specialties include:

Each Therapy Journey is Unique, You May Feel at Home Here If…

You keep noticing childhood attachment patterns keep wreaking havoc on your adult relationships

Attachment styles, inner child work & relational healing.

  • Discovering your attachment style and working toward earned secure connection
  • Healing from emotionally immature parenting
  • Breaking cycles of generational trauma—whether you’re parenting, choosing not to, or afraid of repeating the past
  • Processing relational wounds from childhood, friendships, or past partners
  • Tending to your Inner Child and offering them the care and safety they needed then so you can feel more ready for genuine connection now
More About EMDR

You feel like you’re living in survival mode or nervous system overdrive

Somatic therapy and EMDR for anxiety, shutdown, hypervigilance, and trauma responses.
  • Working with hypervigilance, sensitivity, anxiety, and shutdown

  • Understanding your body’s trauma responses and how to meet them with care
  • Navigating dissociation, freeze, or fawn states with curiosity and compassion

  • Learning to feel safer in your body, home, work, and relationships
More About Somatic Psychotherapy

You grew up in chaos or unpredictability

Somatic support and EMDR for disorganized attachment, complex developmental trauma, and relational instability.
  • Rebuilding trust in yourself after growing up in instability or inconsistency

  • Soothing big reactions that don’t match the moment—but make perfect sense to your history

  • Learning how to feel “adult enough” to handle life when overwhelm takes over
More About DARe

You struggle to ask for help or take up space

Boundary work and grief-informed therapy offering Corrective Experiences of care for caregivers, helpers, and over-functioners.

  • Letting go of “I’m fine” and learning to receive support

  • Building the confidence to say no, rest, and have needs

  • Tending to the grief of what never was, while making space for what could be
More About Parts Work

You are caught between a rock and a hard place

Body-mind attunement for decision-making, identifying values within transitions, and internal ambivalence.
  • Facing choices around relationships, parenting, moving, or identity

  • Exploring the ache of staying in something that no longer fits—and the fear of being alone

  • Working with “rock and hard place” moments with honesty and gentleness
More About Parts Work

You feel like you’ve been living to please others, like your life isn’t quite your own

Values-based, parts work for self-trust, meaning, and authentic living.
  • Reconnecting with dreams that feel authentic and self-directed

  • Building motivation rooted in values rather than performance or pressure
  • Creating a life that feels connected, meaningful, and sustainable—not just “fine”
More About Parts Work

You work in mental health and are seeking therapy for your own deep work

Somatic Therapy, Parts Work and EMDR for therapists focused on attachment, countertransference, and professional identity.
  • Breaking through the tension between confidence and competency
  • Releasing personal material showing up as countertransference

  • Clarifying what belongs to your own healing versus your clinical development
  • Creating space where you don’t have to be the one holding everything together
  • Rebuilding trust in yourself as both a person and a provider
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You love your children deeply and quietly fear you’ll pass on the very patterns you worked so hard to survive

Trauma-informed, attachment-based support for parents who want to break generational cycles utilizing Trust-Based Relational Information, EMDR, DARe, and Inner Child Healing.
  • Untangling generational patterns of neglect, abuse, codependency, or enmeshment that fuel fears of “getting it wrong”
  • Supporting the grief of unmet childhood needs triggered by raising children of your own
  • Building enough internal safety to stay present in your adult energy, repair when needed, and parent from connection rather than fear
More About EMDR

You identify as a Highly Sensitive Person (HSP) and have felt the impact of narcissistic or relational abuse

HSP-informed support for empathy-driven trauma, emotional overwhelm, self-doubt, and rebuilding healthy boundaries.
  • Making sense of exhaustion, self-doubt, or hypervigilance
  • Rebuilding trust in your perceptions and inner signals after gaslighting or chronic invalidation
  • Learning to protect your sensitivity and empathy without shutting down or over-accommodating
  • Healing trauma bonds by strengthening boundaries while staying connected to your depth and intuition
More About DARe

If you identify with any of these situations, reach out and schedule a consultation by clicking on the button below: 

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I’m a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist located in Carlsbad, California. I help adults and couples heal attachment wounds, soften survival patterns, and resolve mind-body conflicts that keep them feeling stuck. My relational therapy focuses on building the internal safety many never had growing up—repairing the bond between Self and Inner Child so you can move from surviving to truly thriving as your most authentic, regulated, connected self.

Healing happens as we gently notice problematic patterns, understand their origins, and tend to the real needs beneath them. Together, we blend resourcing, processing (EMDR), parts work, resourcing, breathwork, imagery, and gentle somatic movement to support your nervous system and nourish your attachment system at a pace that feels safe.

Over time, the stories that once felt overwhelming begin to soften, even when the truth of “that should never have happened” remains. I’m here to guide and witness your journey—helping you rebuild safety, trust your intuition, grieve what was unmet, and grow into relationships and a life that feels genuinely yours.

Upward Roots Office Carlsbad Ca
  • Background Feathers
  • Emdr Intensives With Upward Roots Relational Therapy

EMDR Intensives

EMDR Intensives at Upward Roots offer a safe, supportive space to tend deeply to what has felt heavy or unresolved. These focused sessions allow you to move through past wounds, release patterns that no longer serve you, and cultivate resilience and clarity in a shorter, intentional timeframe. Intensives are available to clients in California and to those traveling from outside the state for multi-day sessions. My concentrated approach is ideal for individuals ready to process complex emotions, navigate trauma, or address long-standing patterns in a deeply supportive, personalized environment.

Treatment Approaches

Therapy For Individuals

Individual Therapy

Individual therapy at Upward Roots offers a nurturing, intentional space to slow down, reconnect with yourself, and gently heal what has felt heavy or out of balance. Together, we support the roots of your wellbeing so you can grow in the directions that matter most.

Therapy For Couples

Couples Therapy

Couples therapy at Upward Roots supports partners who want to strengthen their foundation before patterns become entrenched, as well as partners navigating longstanding cycles of hurt who need support untangling the impact of trauma or betrayal. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Starting therapy often begins with a massive sigh, an exhaustion of looking for help, for relief, for change. I welcome your curiosities and hope that you will begin to find answers to your unsettled questions on the pages of my website.

Here are answers to the most common questions I am asked about working with Upward Roots. For any additional questions, please reach out so I can support your next step of growth.

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