Parenting Therapists in Santa Cruz, CA

At Santa Cruz Therapy Collective, I enjoy supporting young adults who are exploring their identities and independence. With a relational approach that includes CBT and trauma deactivation, I invite clients to explore past relationships and how they influence current patterns. Our work together supports them to lean into the challenges of life and craft an intentional path forward. I also often work with parents who are struggling with anxiety, isolation, conflict, and loss of self. The parenting experience is not always what people anticipate - instead of joy there is worry, insecurity, and overwhelm.

Do you find yourself constantly meeting the needs of others, leaving little time and energy for your own well-being? I'm here to support you on your path to a more balanced, happy life. Therapy can be a sanctuary where you are the priority and your needs are truly heard. Together we’ll develop the tools you need to navigate the complexities of work-life balance, tricky family dynamics and parenting / caretaking struggles. In our sessions we'll uncover your strengths, sharpen your communication skills, and give you the confidence to embrace life's twists and turns. You'll be empowered to discover the answers you hold within.

Are your seeking a more peaceful and harmonious life?  One that can hold both the challenges and the goodness?  Therapy can help. My style is warm, empathic, and collaborative.  I use evidence-based techniques such as cognitive behavioral therapy, mindfulness and brain science. I would like to help you tackle what is impeding you and open up new options so that you can make good decisions and create more happiness for you and your loved ones.

Maybe NOW is the right time. Maybe I am the person. Do you need support and strategies to help you through a difficult time or address a particular problem? Let me help. It is an honor to connect with you and work together to help you overcome obstacles, adjust to transitions, and help you become the person, couple, or family that you want to become. Benefit from my 18+ years of experience, as well as my lifelong active and vital pursuit of knowledge and well-being. Compassionate, effective, intelligent and holistic. Let me help and support you in moving forward.

Reaching out for support can be a difficult and vulnerable experience. My goal is to help you and your family find calm, connection, and joy again! My therapeutic approach is collaborative, interactive, and warm. Together we will highlight your strengths as parent, child, or teen while identifying areas that may benefit from change. I tailor treatment to your individual, child's, and/or family's needs and use a variety of therapeutic strategies customized to address underlying issues and help you and your family thrive.

These are strange times. Finding the right therapist can be challenging. Finding some one you can feel comfortable with and who has the skills and experience you need. In my 15+ years in this field, I have worked with many common issues: life transitions, anxiety, depression, addiction, parenting, marriage and relationship difficulties and more. Years of study of a variety of therapeutic methods form my background and my thinking. In addition to my training, I bring creativity, honesty and humor to this hard and rewarding work.

My work centers around helping people achieve their goals. I enjoy working with people of all ages and backgrounds and I easily connect with others and believe that through relationship building you are able to facilitate positive changes in your life. My varied experience over the past twenty years as a school counselor, parent, Therapeutic Foster Parent, Equine Assisted Psychotherapist and Challenge Course Facilitator have shaped my eclectic style of working with people. Based on your specific needs and areas of desired growth, together we will tailor a plan to best meet your needs as we move forward through the therapy.

Do you feel a sense of disconnection in your relationships? Are you considering divorce or frustrated with your co-parenting relationship? Therapy is a place where you can take a much needed pause from the stresses you face, and explore your inner world and your relationships. I can help you identify what needs attention so you can feel better and more connected to the important people in your life.

My approach is to help clients right where they are at and assist them on a path toward wholeness. I work with individuals, and families. Some of my specialties are treating anxiety, grief, depression, life's stressors, parenting, spiritual abuse, PTSD, and molest/abuse.

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.

Being a parent is so hard. There are moments of joy, there is so much exhaustion, and there are times that honestly feel soul draining. In these times you can feel like a hollow, empty shell going through the motions of life and parenthood. It can feel like there is a fog of stress and anxiety hanging over even the sunniest of days. It can feel so far away from what you imagined. This soul draining feeling has a powerful message for you. Somewhere along the way you lost your connection to yourself.

Are you yearning for a more joyful life and more connected relationships? Perhaps you have patterns that are getting in the way of connection and joy bc of difficult past experiences. I provide a warm, accepting environment to allow for clients to clear negative experience, regulate their nervous system and start living in the present. I have a certification in brainspotting, a neuroexperiential model which has been shown to reduce and even eliminate symptoms of trauma, anxiety, and depression. I also have a bachelors degree in music therapy so using music and other expressive arts are available to clients. Expressive arts retreats

Embarking on the journey of psychotherapy is a courageous and empowering act. My intention is to assist you in recognizing, respecting, and building on your strengths, and improving your capacity for self regulation. Through this partnership, I will assist you in bringing unconscious faulty core beliefs to the light of mindful awareness, engaging your wisdom and compassion. I will work with you collaboratively to address and navigate through your pain, your perceived limitations and stuck places, which are your growing edges. This demanding and enlivening work can improve your quality of life, and expand your capacity for joy and happiness.

Starting therapy takes courage. By the time my clients begin working with me they have grown tired of what's not working in their lives. I help them develop new perspectives, work through grief and loss, and choose their path forward. I base my practice on direct style, good humor and close attention to the subtle dynamics that have kept them stuck until now. Tools: Somatic, Narrative, Gestalt and Mindfulness approaches. Specialties: Trauma recovery, challenging life transitions, working with finances, sexuality and parenting.

I believe the brain constantly seeks healing and balance. In my experience, no matter what happens to a person, the deepest parts of oneself hold wisdom and strengths. Once we accept, appreciate, and access more of what’s inside of us, we can grow into the life we want and into our unique selves. I work from a client-centered, culturally competent, and strengths-based perspective. I meet you where you are; we identify your needs, perspectives, wisdom, and strengths, and collaborate on the goals you set for therapy. I provide a non-judgmental therapeutic space

As I see it, the primary role of a counselor is to serve as a mirror to help reveal what the client hasn't yet been able to see-especially those patterns of relating to self, others, and the environment that might be causing suffering. At the same time, the counselor is there to reflect, affirm, and strengthen the client's unique gifts and talents.One of the biggest impediments to healing, growth, and creativity is shame. To help clients move through this debilitating emotion, I use a combination of mindfulness, body awareness, and other healing modalities.

Are you seeking a therapist who is attuned, invested, present and committed to supporting you on your journey toward growth, discovery, and healing? Having been a client myself, I understand how important it is to find a therapist who you feel really "gets you" and with whom you feel safe and comfortable being vulnerable and open. I focus on creating a foundation of presence, safety, and trust in the therapeutic relationship. I am here to see you, hear you, understand you, and support you & will meet you with a non-judgmental, compassionate, and supportive presence as we work together.

Hi. I am Joe Sousa, a licensed psychotherapist in the State of CA. I've been providing counseling services in the Santa Cruz area in one form or another since 1993. Here's the issues I work with in therapy: Relationship enhancement, improve communication, sexual intimacy; handling difficulties, such as breakups and divorce; discovering life purpose and build self-esteem; issues relating to school, careers, money, a child or an elderly parent; dealing with powerful emotions, like anger, anxiety, depression, fear, grief, loss, and panic; addictive or compulsive behavior, with regard to alcohol, drugs, food, sex and/or porn.

Sometimes life throws us situations we never imagined for ourselves. The death of a parent, spouse, or best friend. Frequent calls from your child’s teacher about their “bad behavior." A surprise announcement from your teen that they’re not comfortable in the gender you always thought they were. You’re not alone, and you or your child don’t have to go through these experiences alone, either. Together, we’ll find ways to cope with the days where it feels too hard to get out of bed, to explore what feelings are coming up when you’re crying alone in the shower, or to come up with strategies to see the “good” in your child.