Therapists for college students near 94132

I am a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner (PMHNP-BC) with a DNP (Doctor of Nursing Practice) degree from the University of Massachusetts Global. I have experience working with adolescents and adults in multiple settings facing various complex mental health issues, including OCD, depression, anxiety, ADHD and mood disorders.

Welcome! I often support young adults and adults who feel stressed and overwhelmed by demands in life, many of whom tend to be at least somewhat perfectionistic. I have specialized training and experience in supporting people with college and career issues, setting and holding boundaries, dating and relationships, managing anxiety, social anxiety, OCD, skin-picking/hair-pulling, depression and postpartum anxiety/depression/OCD and parenting difficulties and existential issues. I often support sensitively-wired empathic clients in need of a kind gentle approach that is still direct and clear. Many of my clients do identify as Highly Sensitive (HSP), Neurodivergent (ADHDers and/or Autistic) and/or Empaths/Empathic. Please visit my website to learn more, and you are welcome to email me to schedule a free consultation call where I will be happy to answer any questions that you have.

Navigating life’s transitions can feel overwhelming—whether it’s moving to a new city, starting college, getting married, going through a divorce, changing careers, or grieving a loss. I specialize in working with adolescents and adults who are struggling with anxiety and depression, particularly when these challenges arise during times of change. At the heart of my work is the belief that meaningful change begins with a strong, genuine relationship between therapist and client. What makes my practice unique is my commitment to helping clients discover and connect with their authentic selves. So often, conflict and distress arise when we feel out of alignment with who we truly are—or when we’re not even sure who that self is. My goal is to help you move toward a life where you feel more genuine, grounded, and whole. I strive to create a space where you feel both validated and challenged, using an integrative approach that draws from psychodynamic, narrative, and emotion-focused therapies. Together, we will explore patterns, reframe perspectives, and connect with the parts of yourself that feel most authentic. In our early sessions, you can expect us to spend time building trust, exploring what brings you to therapy, and clarifying your goals. We’ll focus on understanding your unique story and laying the foundation for the work ahead, at a pace that feels right for you. Therapy, to me, is about introducing you to yourself—sometimes for the very first time. If you’re ready to begin that process, I’d be honored to walk alongside you.

The thing that inspires me most to work in mental healthcare is my desire to help people live the best lives they possibly can. I have always believed that the relationship you have with your clients is the most important foundational part of successful therapy. I foster that by providing a warm, inviting, non-judgmental space for my clients to be open and to feel heard, validated and supported. With my clients, I try to make sure they feel understood and like they know what to expect as we work through the healing process.

From the outside, it may look like you have everything under control. You're responsible, capable, and driven. But beneath the accomplishments, your mind rarely slows down. You're constantly thinking about what's next, replaying conversations, second-guessing decisions, or feeling guilty when you try to rest. I specialize in working with driven young adults and professionals struggling with chronic anxiety, perfectionism, and self-imposed pressure. Many of my clients feel exhausted by overthinking, overwhelmed by expectations, and frustrated that success hasn't brought the peace or confidence they hoped for. Together, we'll work to quiet the constant mental noise, build self-trust, and create a healthier relationship with stress and achievement. Therapy is about helping you understand what's keeping you stuck and developing practical tools to move forward with greater clarity and confidence. My approach is collaborative, down-to-earth, and LGBTQ+ affirming. Many clients begin therapy feeling overwhelmed by pressure and responsibility. Over time, they often find themselves carrying less emotional weight, responding to challenges with greater confidence, and creating a life that feels as good on the inside as it looks on the outside. If you're ready to stop carrying it all alone, I'd be honored to connect.

At Lightway, we believe life is worth living, and living to the fullest. But we know that sometimes it certainly doesn’t feel that way. Dr. Bleeker and her team of therapists help clients to identify what it is that's holding them back, so they can find a way forward. They specialize in working with college students and young adults who are struggling with issues related to anxiety, depression, adjustment, identity formation, academic caseloads, and trauma.

I am passionate about joining others on their journey towards healing and growth. Through my own experiences overcoming adversity and managing personal struggles, I became dedicated to pursuing a career as a therapist so that I can help others navigate their own difficulties. My goal is to create a non-judgmental and safe atmosphere in which you will feel comfortable exploring your own thoughts, emotions, and life experiences. I use a multi-model holistic approach, uniquely tailored to each individual. I am skilled in helping people cope with issues related to anxiety, depression, trauma, mood disorders, and adjustment to life stressors. I have experience working with clients from a variety of cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds, as well as the LGBTQ+ community. As a therapist, I prioritize your own personal goals and needs as you choose to express and address them. I have the utmost respect for the right of one’s self-determination. I provide undivided attention, thoughtful feedback, and hold a safe space for you to process whatever you would like to address. I am constantly aiming to ensure you feel empowered and comfortable to openly express your thoughts and emotions. This includes any changes that you would like from me and/or treatment. I consider rapport and therapeutic alliance as possibly the most important aspect of therapy and its effectiveness. I will meet you where you are at and proceed at your own pace. I am also transparent and welcome questions. I am open-minded, genuine, accepting, and deeply empathetic. I read each individual and explore whether you want to be challenged, given suggestions and ways to cope, or simply heard and validated. Therapy is an interactive experience in which you are the leader.

Welcome to Thrive! We are a group practice serving San Diego and the greater CA area as we are now offering online only sessions due to Covid19. We love working with college students and young adults and everyone in our office specializes in this age group. We tend to work with diverse clients in terms of their experiences and needs but always approach our work from a fun, collaborative, and client centered perspective. We focus on building relationships with our clients as our most important goal and then working towards the goals that client chooses. Plus, since there are 6 of us at Thrive, I believe that most students can find a therapist at Thrive who will be a good fit for them!

My therapeutic style is warm and genuine and I like to use humor when appropriate. I am a big proponent of using therapeutic techniques that have good research evidence demonstrating their effectiveness. I specialize in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for adolescents and adults. CBT teaches clients coping skills to manage their emotions and behaviors. It also changes clients' emotions by helping them change their thoughts and behaviors. I provide CBT to address the following presenting problems: depression, anxiety, OCD, PTSD, and difficulties adjusting to major life changes. DBT is an adaption of CBT that was developed to help clients with multiple problems in multiple areas who struggle with chronically dysregulated emotions. These clients may also have suicidal behaviors, self-harm behaviors, impulsive behaviors, difficulties in their interpersonal relationships, and/or Borderline Personality Disorder. I also have specialty training in the DBT Prolonged Exposure protocol for individuals with comorbid Borderline Personality Disorder and PTSD. In terms of my education and experience, I received my Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from Stony Brook University in 2014. I then participated in my first postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Washington with Dr. Marsha Linehan, the developer of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT). Afterwards, I completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Jacqueline Pistorello at the University of Nevada, Reno, focusing on providing clinical services to college students and conducting research on evidence-based treatments for suicidal behaviors. As a faculty member at the University of Nevada, Reno School of Medicine, I taught medical students, psychiatry residents, and child psychiatry fellows about psychology, therapeutic techniques, and how to interact with patients. I opened my private practice in 2017 in Reno, Nevada and recently moved to Virginia.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

Hola, Hello, thank you for reaching out and taking the time to see what NHFCC is all about. We are a group practice located in Downey, Santa Ana, and virtually in all of CALIFORNIA. We understand that therapy or coaching is a unique experience. We are here to support you in your journey.

Helping you get unstuck from Anxiety, OCD and Trauma and learn to live a more fulfilled life. Are you feeling overwhelmed and stuck obsessing? There is hope and you are not alone. ERP, CBT, EMDR and Mindfulness Skills are treatment methods used to help you live a more fulfilled life. Therapy can help you get freedom over issues that are holding you back from your true potential and goals in life. With over 14 years of experience I can help and guide you to learn to break free from old patterns and negative thoughts to tune into our true resilience.

We are proud to be BIPOC therapists serving our diverse community. Our practice is dedicated to creating a safe, understanding, and culturally responsive space for all clients. Whether you’re seeking support for stress, anxiety, depression, or life transitions, we are here to walk alongside you on your journey. Services available in English & Spanish | In-person & Telehealth. If you are currently going through a difficult situation, experiencing a life transition, or need support in reducing symptoms interfering with your day-to-day life. We are here to support you, listen unconditionally, and offer you skills that may help you cope with your current situation more effectively. Creating a safe place for our clients is important for us because we believe that in doing so our clients can become their authentic selves and reveal their deepest fears or secrets while being met with compassion and acceptance. Our clinicians are trauma informed and use evidence-based interventions to support our clients in improving their symptoms. You have taken a big step in searching for help and we understand this was not easy. We encourage you to give us a call to see if we are a match and discuss ways that we can support you. We offer a free 15-minute consultation. We can work collaboratively to help you reach attainable goals.

Life can be overwhelming and bring challenges that seem bigger than ourselves. This can lead us down rocky terrain. If you find yourself exhausted, unmotivated, anxious, depressed, feeling helpless or hopeless, know that it is okay to seek help. You can change your path. As a therapist it is my goal to meet my clients where they are on their path, to assist them in learning how to access their inner strengths, to practice self-compassion, and learn to overcome harmful narratives developed from past traumas. I work collaboratively with my clients to help them achieve their goals and live a more fulfilled life. Change can be uncomfortable but with a strong therapeutic relationship and support it can feel more manageable, empowering, and exciting. The core of my practice is a combination of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, self compassion work, and mindfulness. I am also a registered art therapist allowing for therapeutic exploration through art for clients who are interested.

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!

I work with students who feel overwhelmed, anxious, burned out, or like they’re barely keeping up even if they’re still functioning on the outside. You may be juggling school, work, relationships, family pressure, and big life transitions, while internally feeling exhausted, stuck, or constantly behind. Many students I work with are high-achieving on the outside but struggling privately with anxiety, depression, overthinking, procrastination, self-doubt, or feeling disconnected from themselves. Others are navigating relationship stress, identity questions, or the lingering impact of past experiences that still affect how they show up in daily life. Therapy with me is a space where you don’t have to hold it all together or figure it out alone. Together we slow things down, understand what’s underneath the stress, and start building clarity, steadiness, and emotional relief in a way that actually feels manageable in student life. My approach is warm, collaborative, and grounded in both emotional insight and practical tools to help you feel more regulated, confident, and connected to yourself.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

I would like to first congratulate you on being here and taking that first step towards improving your health and wellbeing. If you are trying to navigate the physical and mental struggles of day-to-day life, want to learn effective ways to cope and manage symptoms, to practice healthy communication with others, improve your outlook on life and lived experiences or even just want someone to listen to your story in a nonjudgmental space, you have come to the right place. Together, we will work towards identifying what goals you have in order to promote balance and help you live your life!

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

Telehealth in CA Do you know who you are, what you need, where you want to go in life, how to get there? Does it seem like others have their sh*t together while you sometimes can't figure out what you are doing? How do you make choices and decisions if you don't know which way to turn? How do you create healthy relationships if you didn't have the best role models at home? How can you calm your worry and anxiety about school, life, and your future? Do you have any physical or medical problems interfering with your life? Has life dumped a truckload of lemons on your doorstep? We don't always choose our circumstances, but we still have to figure out how to deal with them. It helps to have a non-judgmental, supportive person to help you sort through these big life issues. Call me to see if I might be that person for you. While I am white and cis gender, I have clients and family members from a range of personal identities. My schedule varies, so we'd need to see what fits for virtual sessions.