Play Therapy in Santa Cruz, CA

Feeling anxious or worried? Too busy for therapy during the work week? I'm available for Friday afternoon and Sunday appointments. I provide support and practical feedback to help clients effectively address personal life challenges, reduce stress levels, and lead richer, fuller lives. I am an interactive, solution-focused, cognitive behavioral therapist. In a comfortable and supportive atmosphere I work with a wide range of emotional and behavioral issues.

Ryan approaches each session with warmth, genuineness, and empathy. He believes in meeting each individual where they are and creating an environment that is built on trust, safety, and a strong, caring relationship. Therapy with Ryan is a safe and comprehensive exploration into one’s life that focuses on growth, evolution, insight, awareness, and understanding. Therapy with Ryan is a space that allows one to unfold and make sense of life’s complexities, resulting in a life and a way of being that feels authentic and meaningful.

Accepting new clients! I work with couples, adults, teens, college students and kids. I understand how trauma can stop our daily lives, and force us to time travel to the past to relive our suffering. Trauma can cause blocks in our ability to think, feel, understand ourselves and the world.

Hola! My name is Maya Sol. I am a Xicana activist, dancer, educator, therapist, and Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW) dedicated towards raising awareness, political consciousness and empowering our community. I am dedicated towards increasing culturally grounded and decolonial mental health access in California and Colorado with an emphasis on Spanish-speaking & BIPOC communities. I am proud to have a long history in addressing disparities within the community with an intersectional lens and inclusion for LGBTQ2 and Communities of Color.

Shine a Light Counseling Center offers quality, affordable therapy in Santa Cruz, Watsonville, Scotts Valley, Monterey and San Francisco. Our diverse staff of therapists can help with a wide range of personal difficulties, including difficult emotions, conflicted relationships, and problematic behaviors. We believe in your good intentions. And we would like to help you self-reflect to discover how to move through the challenges you face, so you can emerge with a more satisfying life.

I support clients who struggle with chronic depression, anxiety, relational issues, and existential crises by inviting them to look inwardly and incorporate their growing insight into daily life’s challenges. I believe the process of self-discovery is the realest gift of life, the path leading to our internal peace and freedom. My passion is to support you in becoming you, in this world we all live in - as your self, and as part of something greater.

If you are reading this, you having been wanting things to be different. You ARE on the path to change! You ARE ready to feel better, do better and stop settling for mediocre. Whether it's learning, healing, feeling, speaking or listening, you can grow through this. Learn how to increase the connection with yourself, intimate partner, family and friends and find the support that you need. If you are or have been afraid, learn how fear can be overcome by practicing strategic action and utilizing growth mindset strategies.

Are you feeling "stuck" in your life right now? Do you notice recurring dysfunctional patterns in your life that you'd like to stop? Is it impacting your work, social, and/or academic life? Are your relationships being impacted by Covid 19?

My commitment to all my clients is to provide empathy, compassion, and curiosity in order to support authentic expression of feelings and needs. The path towards authentic expression is unique to the individual depending on their background, their experience with therapy and their specific therapeutic goals and so I offer various therapeutic interventions, to support authentic self expression and healing. I value both the exploration of one's past as well as here and now functioning through mindfulness practice. Using a holistic approach and focusing on the client's strengths and insights, the journey towards wholeness begins.

This is not always easy work. Exploring trauma, sadness, anxiousness, fear, doubt, insecurities, change, and more can be challenging and even scary. So much has shifted in our world, it feels as if it has also unearthed new chances to also allow ourselves to grow. I imagine that’s why you’re here, searching for ways to connect with and support these parts of yourself, or to help a younger loved one do so. In my work, I choose to employ curiosity and acceptance, informed by models such as Internal Family Systems, to gently lean into change and healing at the client's pace.

All of us struggle at times in our lives and need extra suppport. I offer a warm and nurturing enviornment to support healing and growth. I work with a variety of modalities including Cognative Behavioral Therapy, Solution Focused Therapy, along with depth work modalities such as Object Relations Therapy. I help people deal with issues in relationships, addictions, self esteem, depression, anxiety, grief/loss, anger and adjustment, along with a variety of other issues. I work with families, couples and individuals, including adolesents and children. Please feel free to call me to discuss your specific needs.

I became a therapist because I have a passion for working with people in meaningful ways. I have a big heart, and am warm and welcoming. I have a genuine interest and caring in helping people's lives be better in all ways --- emotionally, physically, mentally, and spiritually. I am fully present and available to deeply listen to your innermost process. I am empathetic, compassionate, understanding and non-judgmental. I believe that no one is broken, that everyone can heal, and I would feel honored to be a part of your healing journey.

I enjoy working with individuals, teens & children who experience fear, anxiety, obsessions, trauma, depression, ADHD & learning disabilities. I also enjoy supporting parents through their children's struggles including the need for 504s/IEPs as well as adult’s late diagnosis of ADHD. I've been doing couples work for over 10 years using the evidence-based research of John Gottman PhD which I find to be highly effective for couples. Its tools allow for comprehensive & practical use outside of therapy that help improve communication & closeness, & strengthen & repair relationships.

Prior to becoming a Marriage and Family Therapist, I worked as an Intensive Care Nurse and Educator. I have witnessed the importance of integrating mind, body and spirit in the role of healing. In my work I utilize techniques from a variety of theories in an attempt to identify and resolve issues you are facing. To achieve your goals, I employ Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) for trauma, Guided Imagery, Expressive Arts and Sandtray. I help clients reclaim parts of self eclipsed by childhood woundedness. My focus is to empower you to find your authentic voice and inner wisdom.

I work with individual adult and adolescent clients to heal symptoms such as depression, anxiety, addictions, body image issues, somatic pain or illness, suicidal ideation, parent- child related difficulties, and attachment-based wounding. Through the lens of Internal Family Systems, a non-pathologizing approach to healing trauma, I help clients to align with their internal resource for healing, get to know the true meaning of their symptoms, and unburden the pain they carry. Clients report feeling greater connectedness, expanded perspective on their lives and compassion for themselves and others around them following treatment.

You deserve to be respected as a unique individual, regardless of your age, race, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity. I believe that each and every person that comes to counseling has a unique life experience and unique concerns that they bring into the counseling room. My goal is to meet each client where they are, and work along side them to help them achieve the goals they have come to counseling hoping to achieve. I enjoy working with individuals, couples, and families, drawing from a variety of research-based treatment modalities based on the needs of the particular client.

Trinity holds a Masters in Clinical Psychology and is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist. She has taught Child Development at the College Level and specializes in the following areas: individual & couples counseling, children & adolescents (0-18 years of age) and family counseling, trauma, abuse (sexual, physical and emotional) recovery (also EMDR trained), attachment challenges, drug & alcohol addiction, depression, anxiety, grief and loss, relationship issues, establishing healthy boundaries, life transitions.

I invite you to join me on a journey of inner discovery! I will gently guide, empower and inspire you to build up your inner strength - and diminish the blocks that inhibit your positive energy and potential. We will develop awareness into the stories, patterns and core beliefs that are causing you suffering and holding you back.

Welcome! I’m Lesa Pascali and I am committed to connecting with individuals, couples and families through individualized therapy and to helping them to discover/rediscover the harmony, meaning and wellness within their lives. After 23 years in law enforcement and 18 years doing therapy, I have dealt with a variety of situations. I’ve worked with individuals, couples and families, veterans, ex-offenders, children, teens and neurologically imbalanced individuals. I use a variety of therapies including RLT therapy, CBT & Solution Focused therapy and am a Certified Relational Life couples therapist.