Therapy for Teens and Adults in San Marino

I'm Cristina Lugo, a therapist based right here in Pasadena, and I work with teenagers, nonbinary youth, and young adults in their 20s and 30s who are carrying more than they know how to say out loud. My practice is built on the belief that young people deserve real support: not just someone to vent to, but a space where they can actually understand what's going on and start growing into who they are. I bring warmth, creativity, and a culturally grounded lens to every session, and I take the work seriously without making it feel heavy.
I grew up shaped by community and culture, and that shows up in how I work. A lot of my clients are navigating life across the San Gabriel Valley: from the academic pressure of schools like Polytechnic, Blair, and John Muir High, to the creative hustle around Art Center and Pasadena City College, to the quieter residential streets of Bungalow Heaven, Hastings Ranch, and San Rafael Hills. This city looks polished from the outside — the Rose Bowl, Old Town, the Tournament of Roses — but the teens and young adults I work with are often carrying real complexity beneath that surface.
Whether it's the pressure to perform in a city that prizes achievement, the experience of holding multiple cultural identities at once, or simply the exhaustion of spending years trying to seem fine, I get it. Therapy for teens in Pasadena, CA at my practice isn't about fixing what's wrong with you. It's about finally having a space where you don't have to filter yourself. My clients tell me it's the first place they've felt genuinely seen, and that's exactly what I'm going for.

How it works

My approach starts with your whole story

I don't do cookie-cutter therapy. My work is grounded in trauma-informed care and a genuine curiosity about who you are, not just what brought you in. I bring a decolonial lens to everything, which means I'm thinking about the cultural, familial, and systemic layers of your experience, not just what's happening on the surface. Sessions might include talk therapy, EMDR, mindfulness, creative tools, or all of the above depending on what actually fits.

Book a discovery call

We start with a free 20-minute consultation that feels more like a conversation than a process. I want to hear what's going on, what you've already tried, and what you're hoping for. There's no intake packet vibe. Just two people figuring out if this is a good fit. From there, we build a plan together, because you're part of this process from day one.

What ongoing work actually looks like

My clients don't just survive their hard seasons. Over time, they start to actually live differently. They develop real tools for the hard moments, get clearer on who they are and what they want, and build a relationship with themselves that holds up. A lot of the teens and young adults I work with have been in therapy before and felt like nothing stuck. That changes here.

Explore my therapy services and specializations

A lot of the teenagers I work with are exhausted in a way that's hard to explain: not just tired, but worn down by the constant effort of keeping it together. School, friendships, family expectations, figuring out who they even are — it adds up fast, and most of them have been managing it alone for longer than they should have. In our sessions, we slow 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 each person the way that actually fits them, because not everyone heals the same way and I'm not going to pretend otherwise. Over time, what I notice most is that clients stop masking so much. They start showing up as themselves, and that shift tends to ripple outward into everything. A lot of teens describe it as finally being able to breathe.
Some things don't get better just by talking about them. If you've got experiences that keep showing up in your body: the tightness, the flashbacks, the way certain situations send you right back, that's not a character flaw. That's your nervous system doing its job. It just needs some help updating. EMDR is one of my favorite tools because it works at the level where a lot of pain actually lives. It doesn't require you to narrate every detail of what happened. It's more about helping the brain process what got stuck, so it stops running the show without your permission. I'm a Certified EMDR Therapist, and I weave it into sessions in a way that always follows your pace. For a lot of my clients, it's been the thing that finally moved something they'd been carrying for years: less reactivity, more groundedness, a quieter relationship with the past.
Anxiety doesn't always look like panic attacks. For a lot of the teens and young adults I work with, it looks like perfectionism, people-pleasing, lying awake replaying a conversation from three days ago, or just this constant low hum of dread that never fully goes away. If that sounds familiar, you're not broken. You're just carrying something that hasn't had a safe place to land yet. In sessions, we work toward understanding what's actually underneath the anxiety: the stories about belonging, about worth, about what happens if you stop performing. That understanding is usually where the real relief starts, and it tends to happen faster than people expect once they stop trying to think their way out of it. Clients who come in describing constant mental noise often tell me the same thing after a while: it got quieter. They're still themselves, still caring about things, but they're not being run by the loop anymore.
Depression in teenagers is sneaky. From the outside, a kid can look totally fine: keeping up with school, showing up on social media, saying "I'm good," while internally they're numb, disconnected, or just kind of going through the motions of their own life. It can take a while to even recognize it as depression, and longer still to say it out loud to someone. I create space where teens don't have to have the right words for it yet. We go at their pace, explore what's been building up under the surface, and start to trace the roots: the beliefs, the experiences, the relational dynamics that have made things feel so heavy. Nothing is forced, nothing is rushed. What I love about this work is watching a client start to reconnect with the parts of themselves they thought were gone. The things they used to care about. A sense of possibility. My clients often describe it as finally feeling like themselves again, and that never gets old for me.
PTSD doesn't always announce itself. Sometimes it looks like being on edge for no clear reason, avoiding places or people without totally understanding why, or having memories surface when you least want them to. The nervous system is just trying to protect you. It learned that the world could be dangerous, and it hasn't gotten the memo that things are different now. My approach to PTSD work centers on safety and pacing above everything else. We work in a way that helps you process what happened without having to retell every detail, which for a lot of people is a huge relief. Sessions move at your pace, always, and we never go somewhere you're not ready to go. What I see in this work is a slow but real shift. The past stops running the present. Not erased, but no longer in charge. A lot of clients come in not believing that's possible for them, and that's one of the most meaningful things I get to be part of changing.
Academic burnout often gets misread as laziness or not caring. The teens I work with who are burned out are usually the opposite: they've cared so much, for so long, that their system finally said enough. That's not a discipline problem. That's a human problem, and it deserves to be treated like one. In sessions, we slow down and get honest about what's been driving the pressure: ideas about worth, about what success is supposed to look like, about what happens if they finally stop performing. The goal isn't to stop caring about school. It's to stop letting school be the only thing that determines whether they're enough. Over time, clients tend to find rhythms that actually hold. A much clearer sense of what they're working toward and why it matters to them specifically, not just because someone else decided it should.
Nobody really prepares you for how disorienting it feels when the structure of school just ends. For a lot of the young adults I work with, graduation was supposed to feel like arrival. Instead it felt like free fall: suddenly no schedule, no built-in community, no clear idea of who they are outside of being a student. That's a real loss, and it doesn't get talked about nearly enough. Post-grad depression can look like numbness, like compulsive comparison, like a private panic underneath a totally functional exterior. Old patterns tend to resurface now without the familiar scaffolding of school to hold them in place. I help young adults grieve what they left behind, figure out what actually matters to them (not what looks good), and start building an identity that doesn't depend entirely on external achievement. A lot of clients describe this chapter of work as the first time they felt like they were living their own life.
Teenagers who have been through trauma don't always look like it from the outside. Some of my most resilient, funny, seemingly put-together clients are carrying things that have never had a safe place to land. Trauma doesn't have to be loud or dramatic to be real. Quiet wounds count too: chronic instability, relational hurt, experiences that shifted something fundamental about how they see themselves or the world. I work slowly and carefully with trauma. Safety is the whole foundation. We go at the client's pace, always, and there's no rushing through this kind of work. The focus is on helping the nervous system release what it's been holding without overwhelming the person in the process. What I see over time is a slow but real reclaiming. Clients start to own their story in a new way: one that includes what happened to them without being defined by it. That shift is one of the most meaningful things I get to witness.

Who I serve

My practice serves clients in Pasadena and throughout the surrounding San Gabriel Valley communities, including South Pasadena, San Marino, Arcadia, Sierra Madre, Monrovia, Altadena, and La Cañada Flintridge, as well as Northeast LA neighborhoods like Highland Park, Eagle Rock, and Glendale. I offer in-person sessions at my office at 16 S Oakland Ave Suite 211 in Pasadena, and virtual sessions for anyone in California who prefers to meet from home.
Smiling woman with curly dark hair in a light floral blouse, outdoors with greenery in the background

Hi, I'm Cristina Lugo — teenager therapist in Pasadena, CA

I'm a Licensed Clinical Social Worker with over fourteen years of experience working with teenagers, young women, and adults in their 20s and 30s. I'm also a Certified EMDR Therapist, and I bring trauma-informed, culturally responsive care to every session. As a Puerto Rican-American therapist, I understand what it means to navigate multiple identities, generational expectations, and systems that weren't always built with you in mind, and I bring all of that into the room with me. My practice in Pasadena is the space I always wanted to exist: warm, honest, creative, and genuinely affirming. 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.