Dr. Sandra Espinoza, PsyD, LMFT (she/her) is an Associate Professor and Branch Director for the Couple and Family Therapy program at Alliant International University (Los Angeles Campus). A bilingual therapist and second-generation Mexican-American, Dr. Espinoza integrates cultural humility, social justice, anti-oppressive, anti-carceral approaches, and advocacy in her scholarship, teaching, and practice. She maintains a small private practice supporting mostly interracial couples and Latinx clients. She has over 14 years of clinical experience working with the undocumented community and has presented on the topic of immigration and deportation at both local and national levels. She is deeply grounded in her roles as a mother, partner, and daughter, which also influence her clinical work and research.
Legal status and impact on mental health, Immigration and Deportation in families, Attachment theory, EFT, Self of Therapist issues and impact on clinical work, social justice.
- Law & Ethics
- Preparing for Community Practice
- Practicum
- Espinoza, S., Davis, S., & Seshadri, G. (2024). Perceptions of the effect of parental deportation on adult intimate relationships. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 50, 390–406.
- Espinoza, S., Dadras, I., & Florian, J., Soto De Matute, H. (2024). Reimagining treatment for children caged at the border. In Kids in cages: Surviving and resisting child migrant detention (p. 221). University of Arizona Press.
- Espinoza, S., Gutierrez-Sabatini, N., Dadras, I., Lee, K. I., Duran, M., & Garabedian, A. (2025). A family centered approach to mandated reporting: An anticarceral praxis for couple and family therapists working with BIPOC families. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 51, e70022. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmft.70022