Therapists for college students near San Diego State University
Pause and imagine what life could feel like if the past no longer dictated your present. Imagine permitting yourself to grow in new directions, breaking free from painful relational patterns, or no longer paying a heavy price for success and achievement. I help adults and couples who are struggling with anxiety, depression, trauma, or relationship challenges. Many of my clients are high-achieving professionals feeling stuck, disconnected, or exhausted. Others are navigating trauma, loss, life transitions, or questions of identity, seeking clarity and relief. I believe everyone can unlock their innate capacity to heal and grow. In our work together, you’ll find a safe and collaborative space to slow down, reflect, and begin practicing new ways of relating to yourself and others. My approach combines a relational psychodynamic foundation with evidence-based methods, including Cognitive and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (CBT, DBT) and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) for couples. Before becoming a psychologist, I worked in international business across multiple countries, which shaped my appreciation for cultural and contextual influences. I now support adults navigating perfectionism, stress, career pressures, and major transitions. I offer both in-person and teletherapy.
Pandora Psychiatry offers medication management to students attending colleges and universities in California. In addition to your on campus resources, I can be available for evening or weekend appointments. I have extensive experience working with young adults with anxiety, depression, mood disorders, ADHD and more. Now offering in-person sessions in Seal Beach!
Witnessing my clients feel empowered to work towards meaningful change inspires me everyday. Asking for help is a difficult thing to do, especially when it comes to our mental health. My position allows me to support folks who’ve taken the first step (often for the first time) to focus on improving their coping skills, confidence, self-compassion, relationships, boundaries, and self-care. I aim to highlight strengths and utilize my client’s interests and passions to help facilitate positive changes. Supporting folks through life challenges, trauma, and grief is also an important part of my practice. Many of my clients are choosing therapy for the first time, and I am honored to be a part of their journey. One of the most important aspects of the therapeutic process is feeling heard and understood. By staying open, curious, collaborative, and compassionate, I hope to make the therapeutic process as welcoming as possible. It is important to me that all my clients feel safe and welcome in my (virtual) space. By creating an environment that is warm and authentic, I aim to develop trust so my clients feel comfortable bringing any topic to the table. My practice is supportive for folks who identify as neurodivergent, nerdy, LGBTQIA+, and people in non-monogamous relationship structures.
I help women explore the complexities of mental health, womanhood, and modern life. I provide a safe space for women to share their challenges, triumphs, and experiences. I provide a range of psychotherapy services that empower women to take control of their mental health. I am committed to helping women reach their highest potential and live their best lives.
✨ Therapy where you can let go of the “I have to be perfect, successful, and okay 24/7” act Helen Bass - Asian girlies & interracial couples — 🤍 you don’t have to hold onto invisible pressures, frustration, or resentment by yourself. I’m here to walk with you as you heal and reconnect with the life that feels true to you.
https://care.headway.co/providers/alejandra-arias?utm_source=pem&utm_medium=direct_link&utm_campaign=195190
My clients are vibrant, interesting, intelligent, and high-functioning people who sometimes face challenges with overthinking, self-esteem, emotional regulation, maintaining relationships, and self-compassion. People often reach out to me when they’re struggling to navigate a life transition, work or school-related stress, establishing boundaries and/or balance, or are seeking support in shifting patterns that are no longer serving them. I have worked with young adults, millennials, elders, tech professionals, non-profit professionals, and members of the LGBTQIA+ community, as well as caregivers and people living with chronic pain. My approach draws from various therapeutic modalities, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Motivational Interviewing (MI), Solution-Focused Therapy, and Mindfulness. This allows me to tailor our sessions to your unique needs and preferences. My goal is to create a secure therapeutic relationship where you can freely explore all parts of yourself. In recognition of the importance of accessibility, I offer tele-health therapy sessions. This means you can receive support from the comfort of your own space, making mental health care more accessible and convenient for you. I understand that finding a therapist can be an overwhelming process. I value the time and energy that you are putting into seeking the best support for you and would welcome an opportunity to speak in an initial free 15-minute consultation to see if we’re a fit for working together.
Do you feel like life's obstacles have become too overwhelming? If so, you're not alone. I can help you overcome such obstacles. Through psychotherapy, I help individuals live happier, healthier and more productive lives. Breaking through your obstacles begins with you. Contact me and we start your journey toward wellness. I see individuals dealing with a wide variety of struggles ranging from depression, anxiety and trauma to trouble with relationships, multicultural issues and difficult life transitions. Even if don't see your particular issue listed, let's discuss your needs and goals for therapy, and I can refer if necessary.
Hi there, I’m Kayleigh. Welcome! I’m glad you’re here. I’m a Marriage and Family Therapist Trainee currently pursuing my master’s degree at Alliant International University. I understand that reaching out for support can feel overwhelming at times, and my goal is to offer a steady, caring space where you can feel safe, seen, and supported. I work with teens, adults, couples, and families who are navigating challenges like anxiety, emotional regulation, relationship stress, self-esteem, and life transitions. I’m especially drawn to supporting clients in building resilience, exploring their identity, and creating meaningful change in their daily lives and relationships. My style as a therapist is collaborative, thoughtful, and grounded in respect for your unique experience. I integrate techniques from family systems approaches including Cognitive Behavioral, Collaborative, Narrative, and Solution-Focused Brief Therapy to help uncover patterns, deepen understanding, and encourage growth. I work with you to shape the therapy process around your needs, goals, and comfort level. Outside the therapy space, I enjoy gardening, discovering local coffee spots, and spending time with family and friends. I try to live with intention, humor, and curiosity, and I bring those same values into my work with clients.
I am inspired to work in the field of mental health care because of my passion for fostering meaningful change in a supportive, non-judgmental environment. My dedication to helping individuals build on their strengths and navigate challenges allows me to empower them to heal, grow, and thrive. Guided by empathy, I aim to create a space where people can feel understood and supported in their journey toward better mental health. To ensure clients feel heard and understood in sessions, I create a safe, non-judgmental space where they can express themselves openly. I approach each session with empathy, active listening, and cultural humility, tailoring my support to honor the unique experiences of individuals from diverse backgrounds, including LGBTQ2+ individuals, low-income families, children, adolescents, and trauma survivors. By validating their feelings, recognizing their strengths, and fostering trust, I help clients feel truly understood and supported throughout their journey. I build trust and a strong therapeutic alliance by creating a warm, non-judgmental, and compassionate environment where clients feel safe to share their experiences. I honor each client’s unique strengths, values, and goals, fostering a sense of partnership and mutual respect. This approach helps establish a strong foundation for meaningful growth and healing, allowing clients to feel supported and understood throughout the therapeutic process.
My undergraduate focus was in math and science. However, through the years I decided that relationships were more important and realized that most individuals don't have the tools to form good marriage, family, and friendship connections. Much of this is the result of poor parenting that leaves an individual fearful, without confidence, and having no idea how to navigate life's challenges. Children are precious and deserve to feel loved and secure. This is difficult if their parents weren't nurtured and shown how (primarily by example) to have a loving marriage. We deserve love in marriage, and our children need that example. My graduate studies at the University of Southern California were in sociology (sex and gender focus) and marriage and family therapy. I have years of experience in parenting, responding to domestic violence, treating pornography addiction, and helping clients who are depressed and/or anxious.
I understand the unique needs of various families with their children. I have a strong background in working with children as a school-based therapist, school counselor, and administrator in the school setting throughout Los Angeles County. I specialized in catering to the unique needs of working mothers, adolescents, couples seeking counseling, and families with special needs children. I am skilled with various counseling services, including individual therapy sessions, couples therapy, family therapy, parenting support programs, and relationship coaching. As a single mother of two, one with special needs. My strong suit is to specialize in working with mothers with understanding and compassion by genuinely providing empathy with the stress and pressures of balancing work and family life. I understand the needs of adolescents and recognize their need for supportive mental health services in the areas of depression, anxiety, ADHD, and other behavioral concerns that they cannot manage on their own. I can support families by understanding these needs and helping parents build a strong relationship with their child/children.
As an active listener, I provide individualized treatment utilizing a nonjudgmental approach through medication management and supportive therapy. Let’s start!
College students are going through transitional times in their lives. They are learning how to navigate life on their own while balancing new responsibilities, changes in relationships, and the building of their adult identities. Many find themselves feeling anxious, depressed, stuck, or lost when unforeseen challenges come their way, their life expectations aren’t met, or childhood wounds become harder to ignore. I support clients with coping with current life stressors, overcoming perfectionism and people-pleasing, and processing grief and trauma from the past.
During my clinical training at a college counseling center, I worked closely with students navigating anxiety, self-doubt, emotional overwhelm, relationship difficulties, trauma, academic pressures, and major life transitions. I also currently serve as a clinical supervisor for doctoral trainees in a graduate psychology program. As a contributing author in a Cambridge Scholars Publishing volume exploring the transcultural unconscious, I am especially attentive to the ways psychological suffering can emerge across emotional, relational, somatic, cultural, ancestral, and intergenerational layers—particularly for individuals navigating between multiple cultural worlds, identities, or systems of meaning. In addition to my clinical work, I draw insight from four decades of lived experience across business, music, holistic practices, and cross-cultural traditions, which continue to inform my understanding of psychological resilience, creativity, identity, and the complexity of human experience. Many of the individuals I work with appear highly capable on the outside while privately struggling with a persistent sense of disconnection from themselves or uncertainty about who they are beyond achievement and external expectations. If you are trying to meet academic, familial, cultural, or social demands while also struggling with questions of identity, self-worth, meaning, or belonging, therapy can offer a space where your inner life is approached with greater curiosity and depth rather than reduced to productivity or performance. Therapy may also help you develop the psychological flexibility to hold the tension between external expectations and your own emerging questions about identity, meaning, and authenticity without forcing one side of yourself to disappear. I work particularly well with students and young adults who are psychologically curious and interested in understanding the deeper patterns shaping their emotional lives. This may especially resonate if you tend to organize your inner life and external world primarily through thinking, analysis, and intellectual understanding. The capacity to reflect, reason, and make meaning from complexity can be a profound strength that supports resilience, creativity, and achievement. At the same time, thinking can sometimes become a way of creating distance from emotional or somatic experience, especially when vulnerability or relational life once felt difficult to navigate. You may genuinely enjoy ideas, self-reflection, and intellectual exploration, while also sensing that certain emotional experiences remain difficult to access, articulate, or fully feel. Together, we may explore how early relational experiences, unconscious dynamics, cultural and family histories, and internalized expectations influence your self-esteem, relationships, perfectionism, emotional regulation, and sense of meaning or purpose. My approach is psychodynamic and depth-oriented while also integrating evidence-based trauma treatment, including EMDR. Therapy is not only focused on symptom reduction, but also on helping you develop a more reflective and compassionate relationship with yourself. I value both the importance of making practical progress in daily life and the longer process of psychological development that unfolds as your inner and outer worlds begin to come into deeper dialogue. For many young adults, this stage of life involves more than adapting to social expectations—it can also become an important period of questioning, identity formation, and emotional integration. Therapy can provide a space for you to think deeply, process difficult experiences, and cultivate a more grounded and genuine sense of self.
Feeling overwhelmed, anxious, or stuck? You’re not alone. I work with many college students—both in person and through telehealth—to help manage anxiety, panic attacks, phobias, overthinking, and stress related to school, roommates, and the future. Whether you’re navigating academic pressure, social challenges, or just feeling stuck in your own head, you’re in the right place. I’ve helped hundreds of students understand their anxiety and develop tools to move forward with confidence. I also offer Ketamine-Assisted Psychotherapy (KAP) as an option for deeper healing. Reach out today for a free consultation—let’s talk about how therapy can support you.
I graduated with a BA in Psychology from University of Missouri-Columbia (Mizzou). I earned an ADN from Santa Monica College, Masters in Nursing Education from Phoenix University and PMHNP Post Masters Cert from Maryville University. I worked inpatient for about 3 years then switched to education. I have been an LVN instructor and director of nursing. I developed the Mental Health course for the ADN program. I taught ADN students and later became the Director of Nursing. I finished my PMHNP certificate while I was the ADN director then switched to working at Foresight full-time. I am inspired to work in mental health to improve others’ quality of life. I collaborate with my patients to come to a mutually accepted treatment plan. All psychiatry providers at Foresight have specialized experience in treating a wide range of common mental health conditions, including but not limited to ADHD, anxiety disorders, mood disorders, depression, and PTSD. In addition, I specialize in the following areas: first responders, men’s issues, veterans care, binge eating disorder
Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.
My therapy specialties are Anxiety, Addiction, family members of those with Addiction, Substance abuse Recovery and Trauma. I use a specific Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) material from a Rand Corporation Study on mood disorders to treat anxiety and related issues. I utilize an evidence-based therapy called Eye Movement Desensitization Reprocessing (EMDR) to treat trauma or related issues. I worked in high quality treatment centers for 14 years as a therapist so I know a lot about addiction related issues. I am also a certified Life Coach.