Therapists for college students near San Francisco, CA

Hey, I’m Sadé (pronounced Shah-day). I know therapy can feel intimidating, I get it. If you’re feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or just need someone to talk to, I’m here to offer a process that moves at your pace and centers your needs. As a Marriage and Family Therapy (MFT) Intern, I support individuals, teens, couples, and families in facing whatever life brings big or small. My goal is to create a space where you feel heard, understood, and empowered to work through whatever challenges you're facing. I’m especially passionate about working with those navigating anxiety, depression, self-esteem struggles, relationship challenges whether romantic, family, or platonic, breakups, life transitions, PTSD, attachment wounds, emotional regulation, burnout, and cultural identity concerns.

Becoming a therapist felt like a natural path for me, where my curiosity about the human experience and my desire to help others could come together. I value the opportunity to walk alongside my clients as they gain insight, work through challenges, and create meaningful change in their lives. I also believe that having a supportive, nonjudgmental space to reflect and be heard can be incredibly powerful, and it’s meaningful for me to be able to offer that to people. I value creating a supportive, collaborative and warm environment where clients can feel seen and safe to be themselves and open up. My goal is to help you develop insight, strengthen coping skills, work to build emotional resilience, reclaim calm and feel more confident in navigating life’s challenges with greater clarity and confidence. My work is guided by compassion, curiosity, and respect for each client’s unique life experience. I believe that everyone has the capacity for growth, and I am honored to be part of that process. By integrating evidence-based, trauma-informed care with practical tools, I help clients move from surviving to thriving. I invite you to reach out for a consultation to explore how we can work together to build a more empowered future. I strongly believe in practicing what I encourage in my clients-prioritizing intentional self-care in everyday life, whether that means attending my favorite Zumba class, enjoying a good book, or soaking up the sun while on a walk with my two chihuahuas.

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

Hi there! I’m Terry, an expressive arts therapist who works with college students and young adults navigating life’s ups and downs. College can bring a lot of change—new independence, academic stress, relationships, and family dynamics—and sometimes it can feel overwhelming. I’m here to help you work through anxiety, depression, relationship struggles, identity exploration, family issues, or tough transitions. I also specialize in supporting students who deal with OCD, emetophobia (fear of vomiting), chronic illness/autoimmune challenges, and family or childhood trauma. In our work together, we might use talk therapy, expressive arts (art, movement, writing, music), EMDR, ERP, mindfulness-based CBT, or psychodynamic therapy—always tailored to what fits best for you. My goal is to give you a safe space to better understand yourself, build compassion, and develop tools to handle whatever life throws your way. If you’d like to see if we’re a good fit, please reach out! I provide superbills you can submit to your insurance for possible reimbursement (check with your plan for details).

Hi! I am a licensed therapist practicing in person in Santa Cruz, Ca as well as virtually throughout the state of California. I primarily work with neurodivergent individuals (ages 13+), individuals looking to process trauma, and individuals/families looking to learn new coping skills. Take a peek at my website and reach out with any questions!

Working in metal health for over a decade, I realized I would ask more questions about the person than I was trained to know what to do. I knew I wanted to help people more and decided to further my education to be able to do that. Clients need to feel heard and understood. I would initially ask how they would like to feel heard and understood. I would naturally reflect back on what clients have stated to ensure I heard their words correctly. I would also ask if I understood their words correctly to confirm. Working together is collaborative. Building trust looks like me asking questions to see the client’s experience and what support looks like to them. It is listening to their stories and hearing what the client would like to work on as far as goals and supporting them to do so.

Being the first in your family to navigate college and professional settings is filled with excitement, growth, transition, and joy. It can also be lonely, confusing, and stressful. Do you feel caught between two worlds (family and work/school)? Do you underestimate your value or worth in places where you experience prejudice and discrimination? Are you struggling to define or accept who you are and what you value based on tensions with family or your culture? When you are First Gen, there are often challenges in both your professional and personal life that are hard to understand and cope with but you don’t have to do it alone. Working together, we will be able to gain clarity on how your experiences are impacted by your personal and family history, your communities, and society as a whole. We will shine a spotlight on your strengths, build your confidence, and help you lean into how amazing you are. We will explore how to manage the sad, frustrating, uncomfortable, and anxious parts of your life in a way that builds you up and grounds you in your values. Existing in two worlds doesn’t have to mean separating your life. You can be your full self with anyone, anywhere. If you are ready to get started on the next stage of your First Gen journey, contact me today!

Hi, and welcome — I’m really glad you’re here. Seeking therapy can feel overwhelming, especially when you or your relationship are carrying the weight of anxiety, trauma, disconnection, identity questions, or cultural pressures that are hard to name. I work with young adults and couples navigating emotional and relational challenges — including trauma, identity development, communication struggles, family conflict, neurodiversity, and learning disabilities. Whether you’re adjusting to college, career transitions, independence, or partnership changes, we’ll focus on building clarity, confidence, and steadier coping skills. My approach is warm, collaborative, and grounded in evidence-based practices such as CBT, Narrative Therapy, Client-Centered Therapy, ACT, DBT, and EMDR. I tailor each session to meet you where you are, helping you build awareness, resilience, and stronger, more secure connections. I bring deep respect for the cultural identities, values, and lived experiences that shape each person and relationship. My goal is to create a space where you feel safe, understood, and supported — where therapy isn’t just about symptom relief, but about fostering authenticity, self-trust, and growth. This is your journey, and you don’t have to walk it alone.

Having trained at the University of Notre Dame (Ph.D., M.A.), UC Berkeley (APA-accredited internship) and Stanford (post-doctoral fellowship), I bring rigorous scientific expertise into my clinical work with college students. In fact, I worked at the University Counseling Centers at all three of these schools and have continued to develop a specialized private practice that focuses almost exclusively on college students. I also teach for Pepperdine University in their Graduate School of Education & Psychology. I help clients with a range of concerns including: anxiety, depression, career and academic concerns, ADHD, relationship concerns (situationships, am I right? :) ), body image and eating disorders, perfectionism, college/life transitions, as well as family of origin challenges (let's say it together, boundaries...). I often work with high-achieving students who often are managing academically but struggling internally. My clients often put others first and themselves last. By the time they come to therapy, concerns have been going on for some time and they've reached a breaking point. They may feel they "should" be able to handle things on their own. As a recovering perfectionist and someone who was riddled with anxiety throughout college, I get it. It wasn't until my own training in CBT that I learned how destructive such thought patterns were. It inspired my clinical approach, as well as three clinical workbooks I've published on Solution-Focused Therapy, CBT, and Positive Psychology with the top mental health publishers. Many of my clients who have been to therapy before often remark how "easy" I make the process. We laugh, we learn, and talk like old friends. Therapy doesn't have to be stuffy or stressful. It's about feeling respected, validated and heard. Learning to take care of yourself, set appropriate boundaries, and thrive! I'd LOVE to work with you! Please feel free to book a complimentary 15 minute consultation at my website below so we can connect!

Welcome. I am Dr. Christiane Speed. I am a licensed psychologist in CA and NC. I have been practicing for over 12 years and possess extensive experience working with college and university students both in CA and NC. I enjoy helping students regain a sense of control and empowerment over their life struggles so that they can engage and enjoy life more fully and create a healthier academic and personal life balance. A major part of therapy involves helping students adapt to student life, balance school and personal life. Students come to see for help with how to communicate effectively in relationships, and to learn practical coping skills for stress and time management. We work on identifying and managing procrastination, increasing motivation and goal directed activities and setting very clear, realistic, achievable goals and having a growth mindset. Other areas of work might include managing and resolving interpersonal problems, setting healthy emotional, physical and personal boundaries, improving family, friendship and romantic relationships and overall functioning. My areas of specialty include anxiety (including generalized anxiety disorder, health anxiety, imposter syndrome, OCD, social anxiety, specific phobia), complex stress and life struggles, depression , grief and loss. I take a flexible and individualized approach to treatment and integrate effective techniques from different approaches including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Mindfulness and Solution-Focused Therapy. To gain a more holistic understanding, treatment also addresses how cultural, family, medical, physical, social, societal and spiritual factors interact with each client's unique life struggles. My main focus is getting to know each of my client's unique life experiences, difficulties and needs so that I can tailor therapy to best suit what will work best for that client. If you feel that we would be a good fit working together, please contact me to schedule an appointment. I look forward to the potential of working with you.

Hi, I'm Brandi Walker, Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and owner of B.O.L.D.L.Y. Therapy. I provide psychotherapy services to California and Oregon residents. I work to help clients obtain and retain quality mental health by providing useful psychotherapy services delivered with empathy, authenticity, flexibility, and professionalism. I provide clients with a safe confidential therapeutic space to discuss concerns, feel valued, and supported.​ I provide supportive psychotherapy services using a solution-focused approach that targets client's immediate needs, while highlighting client's strengths and resources, in efforts to alleviate mental problems and improve their overall life. I will work together with clients to improve their mental health in hopes to create opportunities for clients to learn and grow into the person they want to be. You can learn more about me at my website www.boldlytherapy.com

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.

Do you find that the thing that brought you to this website is causing you a lot of pain? Are you ready to step forward in living a life that feels more authentic? Maybe you are tired of listening to the voice inside your head that tells you that you are not worthy of living the life you want. I’m here to remind you that you do not have to walk through this alone. You are courageous for asking for help. I believe it is through connection, community and vulnerability that women are able to look at their inner wounds and heal them. As a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, I offer individual therapy to women of all ages* to support the treatment of relational issues, anxiety, depression, trauma, stress management, grief and loss. In my practice, I take a relational approach to therapy and rely deeply on the therapist-client connection in order to support meaningful change, uncover inner strengths, and instill hope for the future.

Are you and your partner disconnected? Have tons of resentment? Feeling like roommates? Having the same conflict over and over again? Constantly met with defensiveness? Feeling like you are always misunderstood? Scared to bring things up because they'll "get upset" or shut down? Don't know where to start? If you are facing any of these challenges, you are not alone. Some conflicts in relationships never fully go away, but they don't have to keep hurting you. We can unpack whats really happening beneath the surface so the conflict stops feeling destructive and we can get the change you've been hoping for. I provide telehealth therapy for couples who want real and structured change, not just a therapist who is a mediator or referee. I use the Gottman Method, which is a research-based intervention with 50 years of research on how couples communicate and connect. I will bring those tools to every session to help you repair your relationship. Healing and change are possible, even when it feels difficult and uncertain. My approach is warm, structured, direct, and collaborative. I’ll help you understand why patterns keep showing up and give you tools you can actually use outside of session. Therapy with me is a space where you can slow down, feel understood, and start making changes that last.

I provide individual therapy to individuals who are looking for help to cope with life's various twists and turns. I utilize an organic approach to gain an understanding of your specific life situations and stressors that are contributing to your current feelings. I use positive affirmations, strength identification and skill building to encourage you to reach your personal goals. We will work quickly to alleviate uncomfortable symptoms while we learn to identify triggers that may cause these feelings in order to focus on making long term changes that will help you to move forward through life. I would love the opportunity to work with you to find a way to bring out the strength that is inside of you. You are capable of so much more than you can even imagine!

Please visit my profile to learn more about my services.

Personal wellness is an ever evolving journey in the human process. The journey begins with a choice to acknowledge an issue, stressor, or area of desired growth to create a different outcome. Whether facing a new challenge, or struggling with a long standing issue, seeking professional support can be the choice that helps empower and create meaningful change. It is a privilege to serve my clients and to help them on their journeys toward meaning and personal fulfillment. It is my goal to help my clients be their best selves, even in the midst of fluctuating circumstances. My clients describe me as easy to talk to & one who challenges them, balancing listening & feedback during sessions. I do my best to tailor treatment to fit individual needs. My clients leave sessions with tools to apply between appointments. I believe growth requires work both in & out of the session. I have more than 20 years combined experience in medical and acute behavioral social work, crisis intervention, counseling, and higher education.

I am interested in working with motivated students who are willing to invest themselves in the therapeutic process. I provide a safe place to talk and a supportive place to address what "hurts", "what's really hard and stressful in their life". Therapy is a relationship based on team work and a willingness to invest attention and time from me as well as from the client. Some issues are resolved quickly while others require more attention and time to resolve.

Heather Ward, MA, LMFT, PMH-C, is a licensed therapist with deep roots in college campus mental health, having provided counseling and wellness support across multiple higher education settings in the Los Angeles area. Trained at the University of Southern California's Rossier School of Education, Heather has worked at Pierce College, West LA College, and California State University, Northridge, where she managed large student caseloads, coordinated care with multidisciplinary campus teams, and developed workshops focused on building healthy relationships and emotional resilience. Heather brings a warm, collaborative style and a nonjudgmental presence to her work with students navigating depression, anxiety, identity shifts, and the pressures of academic life. She draws from attachment-based, psychodynamic, and mindfulness-oriented approaches to help clients build emotional regulation skills and strengthen their sense of self during pivotal life transitions. Earlier in her career, Heather also contributed to campus mental health from an administrative lens, developing and implementing strategic mental health and counseling initiatives at UCLA Extension — giving her a uniquely well-rounded perspective on how students are supported at an institutional level. Heather is committed to culturally sensitive, inclusive care and has experience supporting diverse student populations across community college and university settings.

Hi, I’m Paige. I’m a Therapist (APCC) with three years of experience providing school-based mental health services to teenage clients. I specialize in working with neurodivergent and/ or LGBTQ+ clients across California through telehealth, as well as offering in-person sessions in Culver City. I bring lived experience into my work. I understand firsthand how identity, systems, and pressures can intersect in complex ways, and I strive to create a space where clients feel genuinely seen, affirmed, and understood. I have extensive experience supporting clients navigating burnout, low “motivation,” impulsive behaviors, relationship stress, and self-esteem challenges. My approach is grounded in relational modalities, and I prioritize building strong, authentic connections with children, teens, and adults to support meaningful and lasting growth. I also believe therapy doesn’t have to feel stiff or overly clinical—there’s room for jokes and connection in the process. Looking forward to connecting. Offering Remote all of California or in-person near Culver City.