Therapists for college students near 94132

As a licensed psychotherapist I work individuals and couples. As an educator for over 25 years, I have also worked with colleges students, particularly international students, undocumented students, and the underserved population. I firmly believe that from childhood to adult years we face myriad of challenges, i.e relational, emotional, and life transitions. During these times if the right support is not available to us, we compensate by activating parts of our Self that may manifest themselves as anxiety, depression, trauma reactions, compulsive behaviors (e.g. gambling, substance abuse, internet addiction), etc. As a result, relationships with our others, as well as with ourselves, are affected. My goal is to guide you through healing these parts leading to a self who is more emotionally aware and connected. You will develop an awareness of your patterns, learn to live with more harmony in the present, and build stronger relationships.

I am passionate about healing and deeply committed to helping you cultivate a sense of inner freedom, safety, wholeness, and connection with yourself. I view challenging emotions and experiences as powerful portals for self-exploration, healing, and growth and it’s my joy and privilege to help you navigate them. I bring warmth, curiosity, openness, compassion, and deep trust to my work with clients. Through thoughtful inquiry, consistent engagement, and a focus on your needs, I strive to cultivate a safe and supportive environment where true growth and self-discovery can flourish. I welcome all of you into the session including parts that hurt or can be hard to be with alone and really work to support you in navigating these parts in a non-judgmental and compassionate way. I see therapy as a collaborative journey, where we work together to craft a plan with strategies to help you meet your goals and navigate the complex territory of being human. I believe in the transformative power of therapy, not just for the individual, but also for the relationships and communities we touch and show up for differently by choosing to heal and grow. I’m a big believer in making space for joy, connection, and beauty in our lives as ways to resource ourselves. I find this a lot in nature and am an avid hiker and lover of national parks.

Are you ready to make a change in your life? Is there a pattern you keep repeating in relationships that you want to let go of? Do you want to feel comfortable and happy in your own skin? Is your past affecting your present in debilitating ways you want to change? Your brain is naturally wired for change, the neuroplasticity in your brain allows you to form new neural connections breaking free of limiting beliefs. Therapy taps into this ability, and provides tangible skills for you to learn and connect to your own healing power. An experienced hand makes all the difference in healing and awakening to your best self. Specializing in trauma I’m holistic in my approach looking at the flow of energy in you as a whole being: Spirit, Mind, and Body. I interweave Mindfulness, Trauma Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT) and Attachment Focused Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (AF-EMDR) to fit your unique needs and together we take a journey to the possible.

My name is Samantha Harrold (she/her) and I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Board Certified Art Therapist, Certified in The Trauma Conscious Yoga Method. I provide art and somatic therapies via telehealth to residents throughout the beautiful state of California. I work with highly sensitive persons (HSPs), the LGBTQIA+ community as well as those exploring monogamy or consensual nonmonogamy relationship styles. I specialize in PTSD, Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (c-PTSD) and relational trauma, especially that which shows up as difficulty asserting oneself, an exaggerated sense of responsibility, and exaggerated experience of shame/guilt. I believe that all humans want and deserve to live a life free from suffering. Everyone has innate wisdom and goodness. Sometimes early life experiences and stressful or traumatic life events make it feel as if Anxiety, Fear and Depression have taken over, instead of just being emotions we experience, and parts of ourselves that do not define our whole. Therapy can help us understand that these and other painful emotions will not last forever, and that even though we may not have had control over our past, we do have the ability to build a future of resiliency, compassion and strength- A life you are passionate about.

As a therapist grounded in Depth Psychology, I offer a compassionate and collaborative space for you to explore the layers of your experience. Whether you're navigating anxiety, grief, life transitions, or relational challenges, I work with you to make meaning out of struggle and to reconnect with your own inner wisdom. My approach is relational, psychodynamic, and trauma-informed, with deep respect for your individual journey. I’m especially attuned to how unconscious patterns, family systems, and early experiences shape who we are—and how we heal. I also welcome dreamwork, myth, and imagination into the room when appropriate. I work with adults and teens, and I’m particularly passionate about supporting those who feel stuck, sensitive, or like they don’t quite fit the mold. You're not too much—and you're not alone. Therapy with me is not about quick fixes; it’s about building an authentic relationship where transformation becomes possible. If you’re ready to begin or continue this work, I’d be honored to walk alongside you.

If you’re experiencing anxiety, depression, stress, overwhelm, trauma, or issues controlling alcohol use… our team can help. Our mission is to provide highly effective, personalized care that empowers and guides you through life’s challenges, transitions, and complications. We support each individual to be the best version of themselves, live a vibrant life, feel supported and less alone by utilizing our experience and evidence-based techniques tailored to meet their needs. Each therapist on my team has their own specialties and unique training. We treat a wide array of client and would love to support you in your therapy process.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

I’m passionate about collaborating with clients to increase their confidence in their ability to cope with challenges and build fulfillment in their lives. It has been an honor to witness this in others during the past 15+ years of being a therapist. When it comes to working with clients, I take a biopsychosocial, collaborative approach, believing we are all physical, mental, emotional, and social beings with unique goals, challenges and viewpoints. My counseling approach is gentle, compassionate, person-centered, solution-focused and strength-based. I incorporate evidence-based interventions such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), using the spirit of motivational interviewing to support clients to meet their goals and increase their coping.

Welcome. Taking the first step to getting help can feel daunting. Thank you for being here. Sometimes, life can feel like a whirlwind of unexpected events that can leave you feeling overwhelmed, confused, and empty inside. Whatever it is that you have experienced, know that you have the right to find peace and tranquility. Encountering trauma is scary, but know that you are not alone. Know that YOU are valuable and worthy of living a peaceful life with meaning. Naturally, I incorporate a spiritually holistic approach and strive to connect people to what feels good to their soul. Overall, my approach is mostly centered around your distinct needs. I believe individuals need a warm, safe, and sacred space to begin the healing process. Your experience is important to me and my hope is to maintain a sacred space to help you explore challenges and find some understanding. My role is to be your anchor as we walk through difficult moments. My goal is to be your guide and provide you with a safe, non-judgmental space to find clarity. I strongly believe every person has natural strengths that make them resilient and my hope is to find these within you. It would be an honor to sit with you. If there is anything that resonates with you here. Let’s connect.

While therapy can be challenging to face, I try to make the process as easy as possible, hopefully even enjoyable. I enjoy working with adult individuals and couples who are curious about themselves, introspective/reflective and interested in personal growth and identity development. I am a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist (LMFT) with 19 years of experience working with individuals/couples/families. My training has been heavily focused on helping people work through relationship issues and overcome feelings of anxiety, depression and grief/loss. I have also worked extensively w/individuals working through addiction recovery. Because I believe it is important to utilize the quickest yet most effective treatment, the treatment modalities I use are tailored to the individual and their unique needs. I like to see patients experience relief, empowerment, and personal growth as quickly as possible, yet without compromising the therapeutic process. It is important to me that individuals can easily and conveniently obtain the help they need in order to maintain continuity of care. For this reason, I am available to meet via secure video conferencing platforms if needed.

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!

Are you navigating life between two worlds, balancing family and cultural expectations with your own sense of self? Perhaps you're a child of immigrants, first-generation, or someone far from home asking deeper questions about who you are and where you belong. I'm a bilingual (English/Tagalog) psychotherapist specializing in depth-oriented, Jungian therapy. I work with Filipino Americans, Asian Americans, immigrants, and first-generation individuals doing the meaningful, sometimes difficult work of building an authentic identity, one that honors where they come from while making room for who they are becoming. My approach is exploratory and relational. Drawing from Jungian psychology, psychodynamic therapy, and somatic awareness, I work with the unconscious patterns, cultural conditioning, and intergenerational stories that shape your present life. This includes dream work, active imagination, and close attention to the body's wisdom alongside the mind's. If this resonates, I'd love to connect. I offer a free 15-minute consultation — reach out and let's talk. I also offer Walk & Talk therapy for clients in the Cupertino and Silicon Valley area - sessions conducted outdoors in nature for those who find that movement supports their process. Ask me about it when you reach out.

I specialize in working with people who experience intense emotions like anxiety, sadness, or anger in response to life changes or adjustments. If you're looking for a psychologist who incorporates evidence-based practices while flexibly tailoring treatment to meet your unique problems and background, you've come to the right place! Whether you want to stop worrying or feel more confident, we'll consider how your inner emotional world interacts with the greater cultural context surrounding you. Let's meet if you're open to changing your thoughts, habits and perspective- or simply want someone to understand your point of view!

I’ve always had a deep interest in understanding people and their experiences. I was often the friend or family member that people would turn to for support, over time, I realized that I wanted to do more than just offer advice—I wanted to truly guide people on their personal journeys toward healing and growth. I was inspired by the idea of providing a safe space for people to explore their thoughts and feelings, and the idea that through therapy, people can find clarity, strength, and lasting change. I believe the most important thing is creating a space where you feel comfortable sharing openly. I listen closely to your words, but also pay attention to the emotions and body language that might not be as obvious. I want to really understand your perspective—what you’re going through, how you’re feeling, and what you need. My goal is for you to feel that you’re not just being listened to, but truly understood in a way that’s supportive and non-judgmental. Everyone’s experience is unique, so I try to adapt my approach to what works best for you, ensuring that you always feel seen and valued throughout our work together. Working together is a process, and it’s built on open communication, respect, and collaboration. I believe trust is something that grows over time, and I’m committed to creating a space where you feel comfortable and supported every step of the way. Trust is something I prioritize, and that comes from being consistent, empathetic, and non-judgmental. I’ll always meet you where you’re at, and we’ll work together to set a pace and approach that feels right for you.

Taking the courageous step to seek support is a powerful act of self-care and strength. It’s a recognition that you deserve compassion, understanding, and guidance, no matter how overwhelming life’s challenges may feel. You don’t have to navigate your struggles alone, together, we can create a safe and welcoming space where you feel truly seen, heard, and supported. I deeply respect the uniqueness of each person’s journey, and I am here to meet you exactly where you are. Whether you’re feeling lost, searching for clarity, or striving to grow into the person you aspire to be. I specialize in working collaboratively with my clients to create personalized treatment plans that address their unique challenges and goals. My approach encompasses a wide range of concerns, including anxiety, depression, trauma, substance use, marital issues, and stress management. Together, we’ll chart a path toward healing, growth, and meaningful change My mission is to help you uncover the strengths you already possess, develop practical and effective coping skills, and create a life that reflects what truly matters most to you. You deserve a life filled with purpose, resilience, and fulfillment—one that aligns with your unique values and aspirations. I’m here, ready to support you whenever you feel ready.

Hi, I'm Dr. Serena. I help clients who are struggling with anxieties and self-doubt by exploring what's getting in the way, where the fears are coming from, and how your existing strengths can help shift you out of feeling stuck. This might look like mix of using what is working for you with creating new strategies. I also consider how family expectations, values, and culture play a role in how you are trying to show up at school as well as in your relationships. I use my experience in providing couples therapy to help individuals figure out what they want, how to communicate that effectively, and navigate conflict so that you can feel seen and supported by the people in your life. Want to see if we are a good fit? Schedule a 15min consultation call on my booking website: https://serena-galloway.clientsecure.me . I'll answer your questions and we can set up virtual sessions that fit your schedule. I look forward to hearing from you 🌻

I am and have always been inspired to work in the mental health field because I believe everyone should have the opportunity to be happy and free from hindering and sometimes debilitating mental health symptoms. I started my adult life working in the corporate world and not too many years later realized that it was not my calling or my passion. It was then that I pursued furthering my education in order to be in a position to help others find their purpose, freedom, serenity, and happiness. Being a good listener is an extremely important skill and I believe a gift of mine. I believe that individuals are the experts in their own lives and therefore have a wealth of information to transmit. This is why listening is a major key in the therapeutic process. I am one to guide, not to dictate instructions for your life. I believe in being a partner in the process of recovery, healing, and well-being. A strong therapeutic alliance begins with the therapist’s ability to listen and empathize. It builds upon mutual respect and open-mindedness. A non-judgmental presence that exudes a sort of transparency and authenticity is vital in this process as well. Being flexible and modifying therapeutic modalities to fit the client’s needs are essential.

My experience covers a wide variety of presenting concerns and backgrounds. Working for a decade in higher education I spent a great deal of time with high achievers who were managing anxiety, depression, trauma, relationship and identity concerns. I am a strengths based, person centered therapist at my core, who utilizes perspectives and interventions from many areas of treatment, e.g., identity development models, systems theory, interpersonal and cognitive behavioral therapy. I believe people often have the answers for themselves if given the proper conditions for reflection and growth.

I am a bilingual licensed Marriage and Family therapist. I am dedicated to helping individuals and families navigate life’s challenges and build stronger, more resilient relationships. With a warm and non-judgmental approach, I create a safe space for clients to explore their thoughts, feelings, and experiences. I believe in empowering individuals to achieve independence, confidence, and success in their daily lives. Through my education and work experience, I personalize and create interventions with the collaboration of the client.

Hi! I’m Jen, a therapist living & working in Santa Monica, CA. I offer in-person and virtual therapy for teens, adults, and couples, with a special focus on supporting college students navigating life’s big transitions. College can feel like a constant pressure to have it all figured out, like keeping up with classes, planning your future, maintaining relationships, becoming independent. It’s easy to go on autopilot and miss the internal struggles happening under the surface. In our work together, we’ll take a closer look at the patterns, beliefs, and experiences shaping how you move through the world - not with judgment, but with curiosity. That might mean noticing how the past shows up in the present, tuning into what actually feels good (which often gets overlooked), or learning how to ask for what you need with more confidence and empathy. I know firsthand what it’s like to seem “fine” on the outside while feeling overwhelmed inside. My own experiences navigating high-pressure environments, family dynamics, and personal growth have shown me how powerful it is to have a space for reflection, connection, and honest support. My approach is insight-driven, relational, and strength-based. This means we'll work on understanding why you do what you do, not to label it, but to learn from it, and build on the strengths you already bring to the table. The relationship we build in therapy becomes a space to practice things like vulnerability, setting boundaries, and getting your needs met, so that over time, the changes you make here can ripple into your everyday life — in classes, friendships, dating, and beyond.