Therapist in San Diego, CA | EMDR, Art & Somatic Therapy
I work with Gen Z and young millennial clients who are navigating a lot at once, career uncertainty, relationship strain, and family patterns that quietly shaped how they handle stress long before adulthood. My practice is built for people who want real understanding, not just a sympathetic ear for an hour a week. I bring a trauma informed, culturally aware approach to every session, and I take your history seriously without treating your struggles as flaws to fix. Some of my clients are adjusting to a completely new chapter of life here, and others have lived nearby for years and are only now ready to look inward. Either way, you don't need a tidy narrative for our work together to matter.
A lot of my clients spend weekends wandering Balboa Park or catching up with friends around Pacific Beach and North Park, and some are current students or recent graduates navigating the intensity of UC San Diego. Others are active duty service members, veterans, or military spouses adjusting to life shaped by deployments, relocations, and a base schedule that doesn't leave much room for anything else. This is a coastal city with its own identity, distinct from the sprawl further north, and clients here often describe a specific mix of laid back surface energy and real underlying pressure. San Diego draws people building brand new lives just as often as people who've called it home for generations, and both groups end up in my office carrying more than they expected to.
Military culture and transition bring a particular kind of strain, deployments that reshape relationships, moves that uproot support systems, and an unspoken expectation to stay composed no matter what's happening internally. Add the disorientation of building a life somewhere far from family, or the pressure of academic and career competition around a major research university, and it's easy to feel unmoored even in a city known for sunshine and ease. I offer a space where none of that has to be minimized just because the setting looks relaxed from the outside. Clients tell me it's the first time they've felt like their actual experience, not just the postcard version of their life, was taken seriously.
How it works
My approach starts with your whole story
My approach isn't generic, and it isn't rushed. I rely on trauma informed care and EMDR as core tools, paired with real curiosity about the cultural, familial, and even institutional systems that shaped your coping patterns. A decolonial lens means paying attention to power and history, not just addressing symptoms as if they exist in a vacuum. I'd rather understand your full context than assume I already know it. Depending on what fits, sessions might weave together talk therapy, EMDR, somatic work, or creative approaches.
Book a discovery call
Getting started means an honest, human conversation, not a clinical checklist. I want to know what's actually been happening, what you've already tried, and what changing this would even look like for you. There's no need to perform having it together. From that first talk, we build a plan collaboratively, because you deserve a real say in your own care.
What ongoing work actually looks like
The clients I work with here build more than temporary coping skills. They develop tools that hold up under real stress, more clarity on what they actually want apart from what's expected of them, and a steadier relationship with themselves overall. A lot of them arrive skeptical that therapy can do much beyond a weekly check in. That skepticism tends to fade fast.
Explore my therapy services and specializations
Whether you're building a career, adjusting to a major life transition, or simply trying to figure out who you are outside of what everyone else expects, being a young adult right now takes a real toll.
In sessions, we slow that pace down together. We look closely at what's driving your anxiety or the relationship patterns that keep repeating, and build tools tailored to your actual life, not a one size fits all plan. You bring the details, we build the approach around them.
Over time, most clients notice they're carrying less tension day to day. There's more room to actually feel settled, instead of constantly managing everyone else's expectations of you.
Some experiences don't fade just because you understand them logically. If your body still reacts strongly to certain situations, tensing up, shutting down, spiraling, that's your nervous system still holding onto old protective patterns.
EMDR works directly with that. You don't have to describe every detail of what happened for it to be effective, which is a relief for people who've felt pressure to justify their pain to be believed. It helps your brain finish processing what's been stuck.
We move at whatever pace genuinely works for you, no exceptions. Clients often describe feeling more grounded afterward, like an old alarm system finally quieted down.
Some experiences resist language completely, especially the ones you've never had space to fully process. Art therapy doesn't require you to find the right words before you begin.
Working through image, color, or material lets feelings surface naturally, sometimes before you're even able to name them. What shows up in the work often communicates more clearly than a carefully constructed sentence.
No artistic skill or experience is required, and nothing you make is judged. It's simply another way into honest work, especially useful on the days when talking feels out of reach.
You can fully understand a pattern and still feel it living in your body anyway, the clenched jaw before a hard conversation, the shallow breath before a big decision.
Somatic work builds real time awareness of that physical experience, so tension or bracing gets noticed before it takes over completely. That awareness becomes something you can actively use, not just something you register afterward.
This pairs naturally with EMDR and talk therapy, giving you concrete tools to use between sessions, whether we meet in person or virtually.
PTSD doesn't always look like what people expect. Sometimes it's constant alertness for no obvious reason, avoiding certain places or situations without fully understanding why, or a memory resurfacing when you least expect it.
My approach puts safety and pacing first, always. We work in a way that lets you process what happened without needing to narrate every detail, and we never move faster than what genuinely feels manageable.
What tends to happen over time is a real, gradual shift. The past stops dictating the present so completely. It doesn't disappear, but it stops running things, and that change tends to feel like real relief.
Childhood trauma doesn't need to look dramatic to be real. A lot of my clients grew up in households where feelings were inconvenient, or where they learned early to manage everyone else's stability before their own.
This work moves slowly and deliberately, with safety as the actual foundation from the start. We go at your pace, helping your nervous system finally let go of what it's been holding without overwhelming you in the process.
Over time, clients begin to reclaim their own story rather than just surviving it. That includes what happened without letting it define the whole picture, and that shift is often one of the most meaningful parts of this work.
For some teens, individual sessions only address part of what they're carrying, and sitting with peers who genuinely understand changes the entire experience.
Group therapy helps teens feel less alone in whatever they're navigating, whether that's family transition, anxiety, or the pressure of constantly adapting to new schools or new homes. These groups are structured to feel safe, not like a performance in front of adults.
Many teens find it easier to accept support from peers their own age, and that connection often becomes just as valuable as anything said directly in the room.
I also work with teenagers who are already carrying more than adolescence typically requires, whether that's family upheaval from a move, a parent's deployment, or academic pressure that never seems to let up.
Teens tend to open up once they feel genuinely heard rather than managed. Sessions give them real language for what they're experiencing before it hardens into a pattern that follows them into adulthood.
This work meets teens exactly where they are, not where some generic milestone chart says they should be, whether we meet in person or virtually.
Who I serve
My practice serves clients throughout San Diego and nearby areas including Pacific Beach, North Park, La Jolla, and Coronado, as well as communities across San Diego County. I offer in-person sessions in San Diego and virtual sessions for clients anywhere in California who prefer to meet from home. You can see the surrounding service area on the map 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 San Diego and the surrounding communities. As a Puerto Rican American therapist, I understand what it means to hold more than one identity at once, and to navigate systems, whether military, academic, or family, that don't always leave room for how you actually feel. My work in San Diego is built for people ready to stop managing appearances and start understanding themselves. This isn't about correcting what's wrong with you. It's about helping you reconnect with who you were before you learned to perform being fine.
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.