Therapist in Long Beach, CA | EMDR, Art & Somatic Therapy
I work with people in their twenties and early thirties who look like they have it together and feel anything but settled underneath. Many of my clients are managing demanding jobs, shifting friendships, and the quiet weight of family expectations that never got named out loud. I offer a space that's warm and unhurried, where we can slow down enough to actually notice what's driving the anxiety instead of just managing its symptoms. My training in EMDR, somatic work, and art therapy means we're not limited to just talking things through when talking isn't enough. I bring a decolonial, culturally grounded perspective to every session, because your story doesn't exist apart from where you come from.
Cal State Long Beach students and recent grads make up a good chunk of my caseload, still figuring out who they're becoming once the structure of school falls away. Others live closer to the water in Belmont Shore, building a life near the shops and the shoreline while wrestling with pressures that don't show up in a beach town postcard. The Aquarium of the Pacific and the Queen Mary give this city its postcard reputation, but plenty of the young adults I meet here are navigating something heavier beneath that surface. This is one of the most genuinely diverse port cities in Southern California, and Long Beach clients often bring rich, layered cultural backgrounds into our work together.
Growing up in a port city that's constantly in motion can mean absorbing a specific kind of restlessness, the sense that you should always be doing more, moving up, proving something. For clients balancing multiple cultural identities or navigating family systems that didn't always leave room for individual feelings, that restlessness gets even heavier. I built my practice to be a place where none of that has to be performed. Clients often tell me it's the first time they've felt like therapy actually fit who they are instead of asking them to fit into it.
How it works
My approach starts with your whole story
My work is trauma informed at its core, which means we pay attention to how your nervous system learned to protect you, not just what you're saying on the surface. EMDR is one of the tools I lean on most, alongside somatic awareness and art based approaches when words alone aren't cutting it. Everything I do is filtered through a decolonial lens, so we're always considering the cultural and generational context shaping your experience, not treating you like a problem to be solved in isolation. Curiosity drives the process more than any fixed formula does.
Book a discovery call
Getting started looks like an actual conversation between two people, not a clinical process you have to get through first. I want to know what's brought you here, what hasn't worked before, and what you're hoping shifts. There's no formal checklist and nothing about it should feel like you're being evaluated. Together we shape a plan that reflects your goals, and you have a say in that plan from the very first conversation.
What ongoing work actually looks like
Over time, the work stops being about managing crises and starts being about building something durable. Clients leave sessions with tools they actually use between our time together, not just insight that fades by Wednesday. They get clearer on which parts of their identity are truly theirs versus inherited, and they build a relationship with themselves that doesn't collapse the moment life gets hard again. Many of my Long Beach clients come in having tried therapy elsewhere and found it didn't stick. Here, it does.
Explore my therapy services and specializations
You might be excelling at work while quietly falling apart in ways nobody around you can see. Career pressure, relationships, and figuring out who you even are apart from your family can pile up fast, especially when you've been the one everyone else leans on.
In our sessions, we slow that pile down. We sort through what's actually happening emotionally, name the patterns that keep showing up, and start building something more sustainable. I work with you the way that actually fits, because not everyone heals the same way.
Over time, clients tend to notice they've stopped bracing for the next thing to go wrong. That shift, from constant readiness to something closer to ease, is usually the first sign the work is landing.
If a memory or feeling keeps resurfacing no matter how much you've already processed it intellectually, that's not a personal failure. It usually means your nervous system got stuck somewhere and hasn't caught up to the fact that you're safe now.
EMDR is one of my favorite tools because it works at the level where a lot of pain actually lives. You don't have to walk me through every detail of what happened for it to work, which is honestly a relief for most people who come to me exhausted from retelling their own story.
I move through EMDR in a way that always follows your pace. Clients often describe the shift as things finally quieting down, less reactivity, more room to just be in the present moment.
Some experiences resist language entirely, no matter how self aware you are or how much you've already read about your own patterns. Art therapy gives you an entry point that doesn't require finding the right words first.
Working through color, image, or material lets what's underneath surface on its own terms, often before you can fully name it. That takes the pressure off needing to intellectualize your feelings before you're allowed to actually feel them.
No artistic background is required, and there's no right way to do this work. It's simply another route into the same honest process, one that's especially useful on days when talking feels impossible.
You can know exactly why you feel a certain way and still feel it show up physically anyway, the racing heart before a hard conversation, the shoulders that won't unclench. Somatic therapy meets that experience where it actually lives, in the body, instead of staying purely in the realm of insight.
We build real awareness of physical sensation as it happens, learning to catch anxiety or tension before it fully takes over. Over time, that translates into feeling less controlled by automatic reactions and more able to stay grounded even when things get hard.
This work complements EMDR and talk therapy well, and it gives you something tangible to carry into daily life, whether we're meeting in my Long Beach office or online.
PTSD doesn't always look like flashbacks or obvious distress. Sometimes it's a persistent sense of unease, unexplained avoidance, or a body that stays braced for danger long after the danger has passed. None of that means something is wrong with you. It means your system adapted to protect you and hasn't updated yet.
I prioritize safety and pacing above everything else in this work. You're never required to relive every detail out loud for the process to be effective, and we move only as fast as actually feels manageable for you.
What tends to happen over time is a genuine loosening, not erasure, but the past finally losing its grip on the present. Many clients arrive doubting that's possible, and helping them get there is some of the most meaningful work I do.
Childhood trauma doesn't need to involve a single dramatic event to leave a real mark. Plenty of my most accomplished clients grew up with a parent who couldn't hold space for feelings, or a family system where being easy mattered more than being honest.
This work moves carefully and never rushes. Safety comes first, always, and we build the pace around what you can actually tolerate rather than an outside timeline. The goal is helping your nervous system finally release what it's been carrying instead of just talking around it.
Over time, clients start reclaiming their own story in a way that includes what happened without letting it define them entirely. Watching that shift happen is one of the most rewarding parts of this work.
For some teenagers, individual sessions only tell half the story, and being around peers facing something similar changes the whole equation. Group work gives teens a chance to realize they're not the only one dealing with anxiety, family stress, or the pressure of growing up fast.
These groups are built to feel genuinely safe, not like a performance for adults deciding how they should feel. Many teens find it easier to take in support from people their own age than from anyone older.
It's a space where struggling doesn't make you the outlier, and where connection, not correction, is the whole point.
Some of what shows up in my adult clients started taking shape years earlier, which is part of why I also work with teenagers already carrying more than they should have to. That might mean anxiety, tension at home, or the quiet job of managing everyone else's emotions before their own.
Teens open up when they sense they're actually being heard instead of handled. Sessions give them real language for what they're feeling before it calcifies into a lifelong pattern, and many parents notice their teen starting to name emotions instead of just reacting to them.
This work meets teens exactly where they are, not where they're expected to be, whether we connect in person or virtually.
Who I serve
My practice serves clients throughout Long Beach, including Belmont Shore, Downtown Long Beach, and the areas surrounding Cal State Long Beach, as well as neighboring communities across the greater Los Angeles and Orange County area. I offer in-person sessions in Long Beach and virtual sessions for clients anywhere in California who'd rather meet from home. You'll find an embedded map of the surrounding service area just below.
Hi, I'm Cristina Lugo — LCSW therapist specializing in young adults
I'm a licensed psychotherapist specializing in EMDR, working with Gen Z and young millennial clients across Long Beach and the surrounding area. As a Puerto Rican American therapist, I bring a genuine understanding of navigating multiple cultural identities and family systems that don't always make room for individual needs. My Long Beach practice is built to feel like the space I wish had existed for me, honest, warm, and rooted in real cultural awareness. Therapy with me isn't about correcting who you are. It's about helping you find your way back to yourself underneath everything you learned to become.
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.