Therapy for Teens and Adults in San Marino

I work with teenagers and young adults who are in the middle of figuring out who they are — and doing it in environments that often have a strong opinion about who that should be. My practice is identity-affirming, which means I am not here to nudge you toward any particular answer. I am here to help you find yours. I bring cultural awareness, warmth, and genuine curiosity to every person I work with.
La Crescenta sits in the Crescenta Valley between the Verdugo Hills and the base of the San Gabriel Mountains, with Foothill Boulevard as its commercial corridor and quiet residential streets stretching upward toward the chaparral. Crescenta Valley High School serves a student body that reflects the community's blend of Armenian-American, Korean-American, and other immigrant and first-generation families. The nearby communities of Montrose and Glendale sit just to the south, and the Angeles National Forest is visible from almost everywhere in the valley.
A lot of the teenagers who find their way to my practice from this area are navigating the particular challenge of growing up between two cultural worlds: what home expects and what they are becoming outside of it. They are figuring out identity, belonging, and what they actually believe about themselves, often without much support from the adults around them who are managing their own versions of the same questions. Therapy for teens near La Crescenta, CA at my practice is a place to work all of that out without pressure, judgment, or a predetermined outcome.

How it works

My approach starts with your whole story

My practice is identity-affirming and culturally grounded, which means the parts of you that feel complicated to hold in other spaces — your identity, your family's culture, your queerness, your nonconformity — are explicitly welcome here. I bring a decolonial lens and a genuine interest in the full person, not just the diagnosis.

Book a discovery call

We start with a free 20-minute consultation. You tell me what is going on and I share what working together would look like. We both figure out if this feels like a good fit. I do not require you to arrive with anything prepared. Whatever is actually happening is enough to get started.

What ongoing work actually looks like

My clients build more than coping skills. They develop a grounded relationship with their own identity, a clearer sense of what they value, and a more honest picture of what they need in relationships and in their own life. That kind of self-knowledge compounds over time and touches everything.

Explore my therapy services and specializations

Identity questions are some of the most significant work of adolescence, and they rarely have a neat shape. For some teenagers, the question is about culture: who am I when the home version and the outside version feel incompatible? For others it is about gender, sexuality, or a combination of things that do not have easy labels. For many, it is simply the work of figuring out what they actually think and feel beneath the layers of what everyone else wants them to be. My practice holds all of it. I do not require the identity question to be resolved before therapy can begin. I meet clients where they are in the process, and I provide a space that has room for the genuine uncertainty and complexity of who they are becoming. What develops over time is more internal stability: a sense of self that can tolerate not having everything figured out and that knows what it stands on even when external circumstances are shifting.
For teenagers navigating complex cultural identities, some of the most significant wounds are not single events but patterns: years of feeling like a misfit, accumulated moments of not being seen, the chronic stress of navigating incompatible worlds. EMDR is well-suited to this kind of layered experience because it does not require a single clear narrative to work from. It works at the level of felt experience and memory networks, helping the brain integrate what has been held in fragments. Clients often describe the change less as insight and more as a shift in how something that used to feel heavy has started to feel different in the body. I am a Certified EMDR Therapist, and I use this approach with clients whose patterns feel rooted in accumulated experience rather than a single event. It is one of the most versatile and effective tools in my practice.
Anxiety that is rooted in identity tension has a specific character: the constant monitoring of how you are coming across, the calculation of what is acceptable in which context, the exhaustion of being different versions of yourself for different audiences. This kind of anxiety is social and relational at its core, and it tends to be chronic and low-grade rather than dramatic. In sessions, we identify the specific flavors of anxiety that this person is carrying. We trace the beliefs underneath them: about belonging, about safety, about what happens if you stop performing in the way you have been. We build a different relationship with those fears over time. What clients report as the work progresses is a gradual reduction in the monitoring. They start to take up more space without the same level of vigilance about how that is being received. That shift changes a lot of other things.
For teenagers navigating bicultural or multifaceted identities, depression often comes with an added layer: the grief of not quite fitting anywhere, of being too much in some contexts and too little in others. The loneliness of that experience can be deep, and it is rarely acknowledged by the adults around them who are focused on the external markers of how the teenager is doing. In my practice, we acknowledge all of it. The depression and the identity and the loneliness and the context. We do not separate any of it out, because it does not exist separately in the person's experience. What I watch develop over time is a more whole sense of self: one that does not require any particular context to feel okay, because the internal relationship is strong enough to hold up on its own.
Some of the trauma that teenagers from immigrant and first-generation families carry is not their own in origin: it is what got passed down through their parents and grandparents, showing up in patterns of vigilance, in rules that don't quite make sense but feel immovable, in an anxiety that predates the teenager's own experience. Intergenerational trauma is real, and it is worth taking seriously. In sessions, we work with what is present in this person's body and experience right now, whether or not the origin is their own history or someone else's. We work carefully and at a pace the client sets, building safety before anything else. The healing is in the body's capacity to settle: the nervous system beginning to register that safety is available, that the threat is not immediate, that something different is possible.
In families where education represents the path to security and opportunity, academic burnout carries extra weight. The teenager who cannot make themselves study anymore is not just failing academically; they are failing to deliver on a hope that belongs to more than just themselves. That is a profound thing to carry, and the guilt and shame attached to it can make the burnout significantly worse. In sessions, we work with all of that: the love behind the expectation, the exhaustion, the guilt, and the genuine needs of this particular teenager. We do not require them to choose between honoring their family and honoring themselves. We work toward a version of both that is actually sustainable. What develops over time is a relationship with achievement that is grounded in genuine motivation rather than fear, and a clearer sense of what kind of future this person actually wants to build.
For first-generation college graduates, the post-grad period can carry a complicated mix of pride and disorientation. They made it. They did the thing that was supposed to open everything up. And the opening turns out to feel more like exposure than opportunity: suddenly having to build an adult life with fewer models for what that looks like on their specific terms. In sessions, we work on that building process directly. Not what success is supposed to look like but what this person's life could look like. That question is often the first time a client has been asked it without an implicit template attached. Clients often describe a significant shift in clarity and direction that comes from simply being in a space where the question is theirs to answer.
When trauma is layered with identity, the healing work has a particular texture. Not only does the client need to process what happened but they also need to rebuild their sense of self in a way that is not defined by it. Those two things have to happen together, and they require a space that can hold both. In my practice, identity is never separate from the trauma work. We build a relationship with both simultaneously: working with what happened while also affirming who this person is and what they are capable of beyond it. The change I see over time is a kind of expansion: the person taking up more space, claiming more of their own story, becoming less available to be defined by what was done to them.

Who I serve

My practice serves clients in La Crescenta and the surrounding communities including Montrose, Glendale, La Cañada Flintridge, Burbank, and greater Pasadena. I offer in-person sessions at my office at 16 S Oakland Ave Suite 211 in Pasadena, accessible from the Crescenta Valley, and virtual sessions for anyone in California. An embedded map below shows the surrounding service area.
Smiling woman with curly dark hair in a light floral blouse, outdoors with greenery in the background

Hi, I'm Cristina Lugo — teenager therapist serving La Crescenta, CA

I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker and Certified EMDR Therapist with over fourteen years of experience working with teenagers and young adults navigating identity, culture, and healing simultaneously. I bring a decolonial, identity-affirming approach to every session and a deep belief in the importance of cultural context in mental health work. As a Puerto Rican-American therapist, I understand firsthand what it means to exist between worlds, and I bring that understanding into the room. I work from my Pasadena office and offer virtual sessions across California. Therapy isn't about fixing you. It's about helping you remember who you were before the world got loud.

FAQ about my services

  • What is the best type of therapy for young adults and teenagers?

    There isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. The most effective therapy depends on your stage of life, identity, and needs. EMDR, mindfulness, ACT, and creative approaches can all be helpful when tailored to you.



  • Do you offer therapy in person? What about virtual? Which one is better?

    I prefer in-person therapy because it creates a stronger sense of connection at my Pasadena office. Virtual sessions are also available for convenience, and some clients even choose a mix of both.



  • Do you take insurance?

    I am considered out-of-network. Many PPO plans reimburse part of the cost, and I provide monthly superbills so you can request reimbursement directly from your insurance company.


  • What is your cancellation policy?

    I ask for at least 24 hours’ notice if you need to cancel. If we can’t reschedule in the same week, the full session fee will apply.



  • Do you offer a sliding scale?

    I believe that therapy should be within reach, regardless of what life throws your way. I offer a community-minded sliding scale for individuals affected by systemic stressors, financial strain, or unexpected crises. If this applies to you, please let me know. Together we’ll make a plan that supports your healing while honoring the sustainability of my practice.