Integrative Therapists in Montecito, CA

With degrees in psychology, coaching certifications, and over 20 years of experience, Jessica offers you an integrative and comprehensive approach to achieve successful results. Her ultimate goal is to help people acquire the insight, learning, and practice to navigate the terrain of intimacy more effectively. She guides clients on a path from confusion and heartache to clarity and authentic connection. Couples and individuals transform pain and struggle into deep love, connection, and vitality. She is also the creator of Connected Couple, which is a comprehensive, research-based, transformational, relationship program, which helps couples at any stage in their relationship.

Therapy can be a helpful and beautiful transforming tool. My primary goal is to create a space for you to feel safe to share whatever you need in our sessions. It is your time, and I am here to help guide you and work with you. You are the expert in your story, and together, we will work hard to find solutions and peace. I specialize in working with teens and young adults but have clients of all ages. I also specialize in OCD, trichotillomania (hair-pulling disorder), ADHD, and anxiety. Seeing all clients residing in CA via telehealth.

NOTE: Currently, my practice is limited to seeing individuals on Saturdays only. I look forward helping you find more effective ways of dealing with the conflicts and changes of everyday life. If you struggle with unhealthy coping strategies such as dependency on substances/behaviors, seem to repeat the same self-defeating patterns in relationships, have difficulty managing intense, overwhelming feelings or often feel misunderstood while trying to communicate, I can help you alter underlying patterns and develop tools that lead to enduring change.

Are you feeling more and more overwhelmed lately? Are you losing sleep, isolating, or drinking more than usual? Are anxiety and depression becoming too familiar? Glad you stopped in. You have found a safe place to regain homeostasis and find new ways of coping. I offer a compassionate, understanding, integrative, and faith-supportive approach, while promoting spiritual, physical, and psychological wellness. My services include a free phone consultation, and a reasonable fee offering a sliding scale. I believe that psychotherapy should be professional, helpful, AND affordable.

Over the course of his career, Dr. Valenzuela has worked in a variety of settings. The breadth of his experience includes extensive work with severe mood and psychotic disorders. Dr. Valenzuela’s commitment to addressing mental health issues from an early age has informed his work with adolescents in the juvenile justice system and in schools. His work in local community settings has guided his professional identity as a warm, empathic, nonjudgmental, and depth-oriented practitioner.

Life can lead us down some pretty confusing paths sometimes, leaving us feeling crazy, unsettled, and totally lost. You don't have to feel like this forever. I work with individuals, couples, and teens who are really going through it - anxiety, panic and stress, relationship issues, PTSD, and unresolved issues that continue to impact current life. Many of my clients are insightful, curious, growth-oriented people who are seeking something beyond traditional therapy. My focus is on helping you to UN-learn all the crap you've taken on over the years that is weighing you down and freeing up whatever it is that seems to be stuck.

Choosing to search for a therapist can be difficult and scary. Whether you are navigating stress, life transitions, reckoning with your identity or complex mental health concerns, I provide an empathetic and nonjudgmental environment that supports healing, growth, and empowerment. I offer support to adolescents, adults, and families, with a special interest in working with emerging adults. I understand the role of a therapist can be both a resource and a witness as you discover what needs tending.

I've spent my career as a therapist helping children, adults, and couples deal with difficult emotions, relationships, and trauma. I practice trauma informed care even when trauma isn't the focus. In my office you will find radical acceptance, compassion, and a fellow traveler on your journey. I understand that starting therapy can be difficult, especially the first time, so I take the time to build a caring relationship. Therapy wont be sterile or rushed or cookie cutter. You can expect to reduce suffering, strengthen your authentic self, challenge beliefs, foster resiliency, and create more space for curiosity and compassion.

If you grew up in a dysfunctional family system with abusive family members and dynamics it is inevitable that the unaddressed trauma is going to show up in your relationships, career, family life and your own self-concept. You’re here because you’re struggling with anxiety, low self-esteem, codependency, shame and guilt, people-pleasing and perfectionism. I help adults with childhood and adolescent trauma process their past, gain awareness, and reconnect with themselves.

Our lives are filled with challenges, large and small. The best of these expose us to the power and vulnerability of our humanity. Facing these challenges can result in positive, at times life-affirming, experiences. At other times, these challenges can be daunting. The thought of confronting them leaves us stuck, anxious or fearful. In extreme cases, we may be rendered emotionally unstable - our psyches overwhelmed - unable to live in accordance with our values in our everyday lives. We question everything - our values, our purpose. Pushed to the edge of or beyond our limits, we feel small, alone, unlovable, unworthy.

In a safe and serene space, I meet you where you are. I welcome individuals open to exploring their own deep wisdom, truth, and Inner Healer. Engaging in our own healing work can provide growth, transformation, or new states of consciousness. My approach to therapy is an eclectic, multicultural and individualized therapy for different issues-trauma, relationships, daily life stressors, transpersonal experiences, or whatever is needed for the stage of your life.

My role as a psychotherapist is to accompany people on their courageous journeys of healing, discovery, and self-expression. I enjoy working with individuals who are curious and inspired to take their inner work seriously. I believe that the narratives we tell about ourselves hold tremendous power and that, through our work together, we can become more conscious of how these stories shape our lives in order to find opportunities for new understanding and meaning making. As a depth psychotherapist, I have reverence for the wisdom of psyche, the unconscious, to help guide us to explore parts of ourselves in order to become more whole.

Your relationship has gotten to a place where you’re both unhappy. All the responsibilities have piled up since having kids and you hardly have meaningful conversations let alone have fun together anymore. You’re tired of the constant bickering and the resentment you have built up over time. You’re wondering.. is this.. it? You’ve worked so hard to build a family and a life together but you’re finding that most of the time you’re exhausted, angry, and feel really alone. Perhaps, there is also some old stuff related to how you grew up that is coming up again as well. You just want to fight less and feel close to your partner again.

The process of therapy is one of self exploration and self discovery. Many of my clients seek therapy during life transitions or when experiencing relationship challenges. Some suffer from lack of self confidence, or are plagued by anxiety without an understanding of its cause. Through our work together I help people gain insight and understanding about the problems they’re encountering and become aware of unhelpful patterns they may be repeating. As a result of gaining new perspectives and understanding their emotional landscape on a deeper level, my clients often experience life in a more rich and meaningful way.

I'm a clinical psychologist who has worked extensively with individuals, couples, and children. As a therapist, I feel it is essential to develop a working alliance with my clients empowering them in their journey to develop and enhance their lives. I aim to create an environment where clients feel validated and accepted, while still being motivated and supported in their power to develop themselves fully. Helping people to develop a fuller sense of who they are, and what matters to them allow me to support them in overcoming barriers that keep them from achieving the lives they want.

What if our most challenging difficulties with depressions, anxieties and relationship problems are messages pointing the way to more connection, confidence and aliveness? I work with individuals to transform the avoided places in you to a kinder, wiser relationship with yourself. With over 30 years experience, I am dedicated to helping you have your inner life reflect the outer life you long for, allowing your most genuine self to emerge. Seeing difficulty as an opportunity to rework outdated patterns and unproductive mental habits, one develops a limitless capacity to generate unexpected, imaginative and effective solutions.

I work primarily with adults who seek therapy to improve their relationships, navigate life changes, and understand difficult patterns to generate more peace, joy, and authenticity. I’m able to support you with a range of concerns, including insomnia using CBT-I, new parents, work related challenges, career growth and menopause. In addition, I work with individuals to clarify their future goals, desired life path, and create new habits for wellbeing.

When choosing a therapist, experience matters. As a seasoned psychotherapist, scholar, and consultant with substantial training, I know there is no set formula for you and your situation. My holistic approach includes attention to your unique circumstance and goals including emotional, spiritual, and psychological health from a mind, body, spirit, perspective. There is no substitute for working with a professional who is fully attentive and present to what you are bringing to the experience, whom you can trust in helping you meet your goals and enhance your life quality.

My goal as a psychologist is to help you live a more meaningful, vital and fulfilling life. I provide compassionate and effective therapy that will help you learn new skills and launch you in the direction you want to be moving in your life. Foundational to my approach is a collaborative partnership, where positive transformations evolve in a warm, safe environment. I have worked extensively with clients who struggle with depression, anxiety, eating concerns and unhealthy habits. I also work well individuals who are going through major life transitions, relationship problems or want to revitalize their lives.