Therapists for college students near San Diego, CA

Hi! My name is Dr. Archita Birla (she/her), and I am a Queer, South Asian American psychologist providing therapy services in Redwood City & throughout CA! I have experience working with teenagers and adults with Autism & ADHD, who are People of Color, and are Queer/LGBTQIA+ with various presenting concerns (anxiety, self-esteem concerns, emotion dysregulation). Particularly, I am passionate about working with BIPOC & Neurodivergent clients navigating self-diagnosis, self-accommodation, perfectionism, and negative self-talk. My own lived experience combined with my professional training in DBT, ACT, Narrative, and Feminist/Multicultural Therapies allow me to support clients using a person-centered approach. I support individuals through challenges - promoting clarity, healing, and values-driven change. I offer a safe and encouraging environment, where you are the expert of your lived experience. My therapeutic style is guided by curiosity, authenticity, and warmth. I recognize the vulnerability of showing up in therapy and commend you for seeking support in this journey. I firmly believe in the importance of a therapeutic relationship, and look forward to getting to know each other to see if we are a good fit!

Are feeling overwhelmed or stressed from school, work, extracurriculars, finances, and everything else? I’m a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) in California, and I specialize in helping college women manage stress and heal from trauma with compassionate, evidence-based care. With a Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology from Azusa Pacific University, I bring experience from residential treatment centers, school-based programs, and nonprofit organizations. I provide therapy for trauma, anxiety, depression, and life transitions, always with a trauma-informed and culturally responsive approach. I incorporate evidence-based therapies such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing, and Faith-Based Therapy for clients seeking a spiritual lens. I’m also trained in EMDR therapy for clients looking to process and heal from traumatic experiences.

Hello! I’m a licensed Clinical Social Worker therapist, licensed in both California and Washington State. I offer telehealth video sessions for young adults. My therapeutic style is warm, collaborative, and empowering. My goal is to create a safe, caring, non-judgmental, and strength-based approach for you to process your emotions. As a therapist, I utilize a variety of different therapeutic interventions to customize treatment to meet my clients' needs. I love empowering my clients to leave therapy feeling proud of the work they have done, and confident and capable in their next stage of life.I truly listen to my clients, openly, honestly, and without judgment. I love to tell them what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. I feel homework is a critical and crucial part of treatment, and it helps to solidify our discussions.

Working in metal health for over a decade, I realized I would ask more questions about the person than I was trained to know what to do. I knew I wanted to help people more and decided to further my education to be able to do that. Clients need to feel heard and understood. I would initially ask how they would like to feel heard and understood. I would naturally reflect back on what clients have stated to ensure I heard their words correctly. I would also ask if I understood their words correctly to confirm. Working together is collaborative. Building trust looks like me asking questions to see the client’s experience and what support looks like to them. It is listening to their stories and hearing what the client would like to work on as far as goals and supporting them to do so.

I'm a proud member of the LGBTQ+ community who helps Queer people feel less stressed, more fulfilled, and live their best lives. Therapy is normal and healthy, and I would love to partner with you on your mental health glow-up. Reaching out is the hardest part, but you can do this! You can get started by scheduling your free, no pressure consultation through proudcounseling.com (linked at the bottom of my profile) so we can meet and see if I might be a good fit for your mental health glow-up

Hello, My name is Lisa Chester-Schyman and I'm an LMFT practicing in Los Angeles, California. I provide a safe and compassionate environment to support you in your life journey and its many challenges. Through our work together you will develop a deeper understanding of yourself, which will allow you to navigate your life with more ease, manage stress, change and transitions, and live a life filled with meaning. Together we will explore your true nature and I will support you to find more comfort in your life by teaching you tools to overcome obstacles to your emotional well-being. Our collaboration will allow you to move through the more challenging times in your life with a greater sense of ease. I work with adults, teens, and adolescents. I specialize in grief and loss, relational issues, transition and trauma. I believe the relationship between a client and therapist is essential in creating personal healing. I nurture a trusting relationship where you will feel safe to explore your thoughts and feelings without any judgment. From this safe place we will explore what coping mechanisms will best help you and I will help guide you through. I would love to help you on your journey especially during this very difficult time in life and the world. Looking forward to working with you.

I'm Coley Woodward, LMHC, founder of Psyberspace Center for Psychedelic Therapy. I help high-achieving individuals and couples break free from trauma, anxiety, and burnout using evidence-based approaches that go beyond traditional talk therapy. As a Certified EMDR Therapist and Consultant-in-Training, I specialize in complex PTSD, attachment wounds, addiction, and relationship repair. I integrate EMDR, Sensorimotor Psychotherapy, and Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) to create lasting change — not just insight. My style is direct, warm, and relational; I meet you where you are while gently challenging patterns that keep you stuck. Whether you're in New York, New Jersey, California, or Georgia, I offer virtual sessions nationwide and in-person care in Manhattan.

Women who struggle with depression, anxiety, PTSD, and many other emotionally draining conditions just wish they had someone to talk to who will listen without judgement. You may have experienced a traumatic break-up or even a trail of brokenness. You may have experienced child abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and/or abandonment. You may have grown up with a family member with addiction, watched parental violence, or had a partner with addiction. At this point in your life you need assurance things can change, you want answers to why you end up in the same relationships, and you need the coping skills needed to get past the past. If you're ready to do the hard work of healing you're on your way to finding hope, your voice, power, and autonomy. With my help you can begin a new life with strength, confidence & purpose. I specialize in helping women in trauma change their belief systems, thoughts and behaviors, so they might experience growth and healing in all their relationships. I believe in you. You have already taken the first step toward change. I want you to leave with a flicker of hope for your future, a glimmer of what your life can be, and a new sense of purpose. You are not alone. I want to be that someone who will listen to you? I want to help you heal from trauma and create hope for a better tomorrow.

Hi, I'm Ava (she/they). I'm a therapist specializing in the treatment of OCD, eating disorders, and trauma. I'm particularly passionate about providing therapy to the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ communities. As someone who is part of these communities, I have firsthand experience with difficulty finding a therapist who truly “gets” me without making assumptions or generalizations.

I work mainly with young adults (18-40) who may be dealing with mental health challenges that include ADHD, anxiety and depression. Most of my clients face a build-up of stress related to identity, relationships, school or career. I help clients build positive and healthy mental health practices into their lives. Please visit my profiles on Headway.

Monique is a CBT & solution focused therapist who believes therapy should be practical, honest and actually useful. She specializes in working with anxiety, depression & grief. She has a particular strength in supporting teenagers & adults through life transitions, emotional overwhelm & those ‘I know something needs to change’ moments. Her style is warm & collaborative-while still being direct & challenging when needed. Monique believes real growth happens when clients feel supported and gently pushed out of unhelpful patterns. Sessions are structured but flexible, with a strong focus on insight skill-building & real world application. Monique values transparency in the therapeutic process and where you don’t have to have it all figured out…we’ll start where you are.

I am a Stanford trained Physician with a specialization in Psychiatry. I have advanced training in Cognitive Behavior Therapy or "CBT." CBT is a very well researched form of counseling that is highly effective for depression, anxiety, insomnia and many other conditions. I love what I do and previously served as the Director of Evidence Based Practice and Ongoing Education in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Division of Behavioral Medicine. I conducted research, taught, and saw patients at Stanford for more than a decade and I received numerous awards for excellence in these areas. I was trained for more than ten years with a person named Stewart Agras, and another named David Burns - they are pioneers in Behavioral Medicine and CBT. I was very blessed to have excellent mentors and training. I have extensive experience sharing this experience with those students I have consulted with in higher education at Stanford and in the University of California. I have worked all of my career with undergraduate, graduate, law, and medical students and believe that these formative years are critical times in the formation of a person, and they are often challenging times. I am warm, friendly and approachable. I laugh frequently (and often cry) with my patients. My family is from Italy where sincerity and the authentic sharing of emotions is valued and respected. Parlo un 'po l'italiano ma non molto bene! (I speak a little Italian but not very well!) I am very conservative with respect to use of medications and prefer to help students develop skills in managing life stressors by getting trained in CBT. This art is disappearing sadly in my field as brief medication checks are much more lucrative to clinics but there is a cost to the patient in this reductionist approach! I am very comfortable and prefer to help persons manage stress with CBT alone without medications as it can provide a lot of sophisticated and lasting protections that are well supported in the scientific research literature. As professionals, we should do what is right and not what is most profitable as we take the Hippocratic oath to defend our patients. I can add medications if they are indicated and supported by good research when CBT is not helping on its own as I am a physician trained in all scientifically supported modalities of providing support. I respect my patients' values in this. If we can work through though times without medicines, I really try to encourage that, and, for many persons willing to grow through stress, it is definitely achievable, and strongly supported by randomized controlled trials (fancy studies used to test treatments for effectiveness). There is substantial evidence that suggests that this approach is very important in reducing risk for relapse in the long term. I love helping students build confidence in themselves when the circumstances are really challenging and have many, many patients who have reached out to me over many years thanking me for the times we spent together getting through the roughest of times. I don't have a lot of material wealth. The pictures and post cards of so many smiling, happy, and good persons graduating, getting married, getting started in their careers, and getting started with their families and overall being in a good, secure place are the real treasures that I have collected in my career. I am a practicing Catholic and am very comfortable incorporating faith in treating my patients. Many persons are referred to me when seeking a caring Catholic Psychiatrist who is highly trained in using Cognitive Behavior Therapy to promote resilience and virtue when life becomes really challenging. I am sadly quite familiar with the pain of having lost very precious persons in my life including my own dear wife to devastating metastatic cancer at an extremely young age. That was tough and occurred shortly after we lost our infant daughter. I have two beautiful college aged children who are doing very well despite all of the things our family was beset with. We came together and got through. Faith, family and fellowship can be crucial sources of support when things feel really overwhelming. I was highly trained in CBT and combining this with the above made all of the difference. I will encourage you also to protect yourself with these types of resources when all seems lost. Note that I do not manage ADD or ADHD or prescribe habit forming medications or perform evaluations for these conditions or autism spectrum disorder. I do see students who need to use their insurance through Headway and MyCatholicDoctor at the links below: Headway: https://care.headway.co/providers/anthony-mascola-m-d?utm_source=pem&utm_medium=direct_link&utm_campaign=201271 MyCatholicDoctor.com https://mycatholicdoctor.com/resources/doctors/anthony-mascola-md/ Accepting insurance in private practice in Psychiatry is unfortunately not very common. The majority of the most highly qualified Psychiatrists and Psychologists forego seeing patients with insurance as it is really tough to manage coordinating insurance in a small practice and does not reimburse well. This does not feel right to me as when life is hardest, finances are tight. My Italian family were poor and commercial fishermen and I am sworn as a Catholic to help persons when they don't have a lot of resources. The portals above are trying to help persons who are seeking help who don't have a lot of money to get connected to really good care. If you are going through a tough time and looking for someone who is both qualified and kind to support and encourage you, then don't wait any longer. Don't go through this alone! Please reach out and call me. I have spent all of my life training to help you! I promise I will support you and push you to find strength that you don't even realize you have. You can't realize it when you are stressed and often working with a professional person can help. Be prepared to work though, as sometimes this means facing a fear you'd rather avoid, or examining uncomfortable patterns of thoughts and behavior. I need a willing collaborator and promise you that I want ask you to do more than you can. I know from a lot of my own life experience how devastating stress can be but I also want to be honest and real and genuine and effective. I don't see passive treatment reduce suffering effectively in the long run. I don't want my students to suffer their whole life. I want my students to grow and recover, just like a good coach or teacher. You are smart, you have a good head on your shoulders and if we can learn from the circumstances that evoke stress we will be able to overcome stress in the future. Those who do not train in CBT are often on medications for years and suffer a great deal with a very high rate of relapse. Taking time to train in CBT is a more challenging treatment but it can develop powerful skills that will help you for your whole life! If while reading this you get a good feeling inside, then please schedule a free fifteen-minute visit to see if it is a good fit for you. If you are looking for a really caring Psychiatrist who is warm and kind, highly qualified, who really enjoys helping persons find their strength with a healthy, proactive, evidence based and highly effective approach to dealing with stress, you will not be disappointed!

My goal is to help you develop healthier ways of thinking, feeling, and relating. My style is warm, collaborative, and grounded in evidence-based practice. I draw from interpersonal, cognitive-behavioral, and acceptance and commitment therapy approaches to create a space that feels safe, compassionate, and tailored to you. Together, we’ll work to understand your experiences, develop new coping strategies, strengthen your resilience, and help you move toward the life you want. I believe therapy works best when it’s a partnership—one where you feel seen, heard, and empowered.

At One Heart Behavioral Health, we know life can feel overwhelming sometimes. Whether you’re struggling with anxiety, stress, relationship issues, parenting challenges, depression, grief, trauma, or simply feeling emotionally exhausted, you do not have to go through it alone. Our goal is to create a space where people feel comfortable, supported, and genuinely cared for. We work with children, teens, adults, couples, and families from all walks of life, and we understand that every person’s story and needs are different. Therapy should never feel cold or intimidating — it should feel like a safe place to breathe, heal, grow, and be heard without judgment. We offer both in-person and telehealth sessions with flexible scheduling and same-week appointments whenever possible. Our team is committed to making mental health care feel approachable, welcoming, and accessible for the community we serve. Whether this is your first time reaching out for support or you’re returning to therapy after time away, we’re here to walk alongside you every step of the way.

Dr. Aundrea helps people navigate life changes and relationship challenges so they can thrive.

Hi, I'm Chris! Im a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist with nearly a decade of experience working with diverse populations, including children and adolescents, homeless veterans, individuals struggling with substance use, and almost everything in between. My professional journey has equipped me with a deep understanding of relational dynamics and effective therapeutic techniques designed to alleviate distress in it's many forms and flavors such as anxiety, depression, trauma, and life-cycle transitions. I am passionate about helping clients navigate life's challenges and build healthier, more fulfilling relationships.

I conduct psychoeducational evaluations to assess children and adults for Learning Disabilities including Dyslexia, Attention/ADHD, Executive Functioning, Autism Spectrum Disorders, Giftedness, Depression, Anxiety, and other educationally relevant mental health concerns. Comprehensive evaluations may include assessing a student's cognitive functioning, processing abilities, academic achievement, social/emotional functioning, and/or adaptive behavior. Psychoeducational evaluations for adults are conducted on those who may need support within higher education, in the workplace or to seek employment, and with high-stakes professional exams. Comprehensive evaluations allow us to identify needs and areas of concern, as well as highlight areas of strength. They allow us to best determine a student's learning profile and what supports they may need to access their education, which is why assessment is a crucial first step. Please reach out for your assessment and consultation needs.

I am so happy you are here! Starting therapy can be difficult, but you have already taken the first step! In my last 7+ years as a therapist, I have worked with teens and young adults who are experiencing anxiety, stress, and depression due to life transitions and/or trauma. In our first session, you will have the opportunity to share your story and we will work together to set realistic goals to meet your needs.

Are you looking to make some changes in your life? Let's make it real and transformative together. As a seasoned and licensed psychotherapist, I'm here to be your guide, helping you connect with your inner voice, find balance, and foster the rich, fulfilling relationships you truly deserve. My approach seamlessly weaves together Western and Eastern Psychology, uniting Mind, Body, and Spirit to deepen your relationship with yourself. Specializing in various modalities such as CBT and MBSR, I am equipped to assist in healing emotional trauma, anxiety, mental blocks, and pain, while also fostering creativity and high-level performance.

We are a private therapy practice located San Francisco and Pasadena specializing in psychotherapy for women and children in individual and group settings. Spark All Wellness helps children and mamas through difficult life situations, trauma and the challenges of parenting. Our team specializes in EMDR, CBT, Play Therapy & Trauma-Informed Yoga Therapy and offer both in-person and telehealth sessions.