Cerritos, California – August 31, 2026 – PRESSADVANTAGE –
California completed its shift to the Behavioral Health Services Act in all 58 counties on July 1, 2026, delivering the reorganization voters approved as Proposition 1 in 2024. The state announced the milestone on July 2, describing a system realigned around housing, full-service partnerships, and accountability for people with the most complex needs. Eye Cue Mental Health is publishing an explanation of where relationship-level care fits, because the reorganization has prompted questions it does not directly answer.
The reform is substantial and largely concerns a different population. County behavioral health systems are directing a larger share of local dollars into intensive, wraparound full-service partnerships that combine housing, treatment, employment support, and case management for people living with serious mental illness and substance use disorders. Los Angeles County began that reallocation on July 1 alongside the rest of the state.
Couples counseling has never been the county system’s function. A person seeking help for a marriage under strain, a partnership recovering from a breach of trust, or a relationship struggling through a health crisis or a job loss has generally worked through private practice and insurance rather than through county behavioral health. That was true before Proposition 1 and remains true after it, but the volume of coverage has left some Californians uncertain about which door to use.
The practice’s position is that clarity helps more than reassurance. County systems serve acute and complex need. Private practices serve the broad middle, including the relationship work that rarely reaches a crisis threshold and rarely gets prioritised for public funding at any point. Couples therapy falls squarely in that second category. Eye Cue Mental Health describes its approach at eyecuemh.com/couples-counseling.
“The reform is aimed at people who genuinely need a level of care no private practice provides, and that is the right priority,” said Saqib Iqbal, LCSW, founder of Eye Cue Mental Health. “What gets lost in the coverage is that a couple having a hard year was never in that system to begin with. They are not losing access to something. They just need to know the door they are looking for is a different one.”
Practically, that means the route into couples work runs through a practice directly rather than through a county referral. Intake is generally a conversation about what has been happening and what both partners want to address, followed by scheduling. There is no county eligibility determination involved and no waiting list tied to public funding categories.
The practice notes that its clinicians work with couples at a range of stages, from partners in sustained conflict to those managing a specific transition such as a new child, a relocation, a career change, or the strain that a family health event places on a relationship. Some couples come in together from the start; in other cases one partner begins individually and the work widens later. The full service range is listed at eyecuemh.com/therapy-services.
Insurance sits alongside that as a separate question, and one worth asking early rather than assuming. Coverage for relationship-focused work differs meaningfully from coverage for individual treatment, and the answer depends on the specific plan. The practice addresses it during intake so that both partners understand the arrangement before scheduling rather than afterward.
Couples across California can reach the practice by video, or in person at the Cerritos office, with details at eyecuemh.com.
About Eye Cue Mental Health Eye Cue Mental Health is a California therapy practice offering telehealth across the state alongside in-person care at its Cerritos clinic. The multi-clinician team provides individual, couples, family, and teen therapy, along with support for anxiety, depression, trauma, ADHD, grief, and related concerns, with clinicians available in several languages. The practice accepts a range of private insurance plans as well as Medi-Cal.
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For more information about Eye Cue Mental Health, contact the company here:
Eye Cue Mental Health
Saqib Iqbal
(562) 860-2891
saqi@eyecuemh.com
17215 Studebaker Rd., Suite #110, Cerritos, CA 90703
