Individual Counseling in San Diego
Be heard, be happy, feel safe.
Are you feeling lonely or depressed? Do you feel like you sabotage your own efforts? Are you finding yourself in troubled relationships over and over? Don’t give up hope!
Individual Counseling San Diego, CA with Estes Therapy
As sunny as San Diego can be, we may still feel lost with our own conflicts. But you don’t have to face them alone. Estes Therapy provides individual counseling in San Diego, California, for individuals of all walks of life. Heal from past trauma, experience growth, and rise above your challenges with your licensed and experienced therapist here at Estes Therapy.
Individual Therapy Services We Provide in Estes Therapy
We offer different forms of individual counseling in San Diego, California, to address the challenges people face daily. People face conflicts in all phases of their lives. Wherever you are in life, we help you in your journey as your partner. Our collaborative approach in therapy services empowers clients to make practical and meaningful steps to overcome challenges and support their emotional and mental health. Additionally, most of our services listed below are available online for individuals who prefer the convenience of receiving therapy from the comfort of their own homes.
With adult individual counseling, we focus on self-discovery and personal growth as you navigate real-life struggles and build a path toward personal fulfillment. Healing from the past, getting support for a disorder and other health concerns, or simply managing work-life balance—we help you gain mental clarity and control.
We provide individual counseling for children and their parents to help them navigate emotional and behavioral issues. Through therapy tailored to developmental stages and individual needs, we help children better understand their thoughts and emotions, paving the way to better social skills, emotional resilience, and problem-solving abilities.
Estes Therapy offers teen individual counseling in San Diego, CA, to support adolescents’ personal growth and mental health. If they’re struggling with self-esteem, school grades, grief, or understanding their own emotions, we’re here to help them overcome their unique obstacles and equip them with skills to face the next chapters in their future.
The Estes Therapy team includes allies and members of the LGTQIA+ community who understands how queer identity impacts an individuals’ lived experiences. Through affirming therapy, we help you navigate mental health, relationships, and daily experiences to live authentically on your own terms and in your own time.
We provide military counseling for service members, veterans, and military spouses. Our licensed therapists are experienced with working with past military clients to heal from unresolved trauma, anxiety, depression, and other service-related emotional struggles.
What to Expect from Individual Counseling at Estes Therapy
Our methods of individual therapy are pretty simple. We’ll focus on the issues that are preventing you from making positive changes, working to help you strengthen your attachments to your loved ones, to heal from past hurts or traumas that are blocking your progress, and to improve your overall self-esteem.
In our individual counseling services, our therapist individuals use a combination of different therapeutic approaches, such as cognitive behavior therapy, emotionally focused therapy, and other forms of individual psychotherapy.
Here are the steps you can expect in our individual counseling process:
1. It Starts with a Free 10-Minute Matching Call
Your individual therapy journey begins with a 10-minute no-pressure call with our trained Care Coordinator. We’ll ask thoughtful questions about your preferences, cultural background, communication style, and life experiences to connect you with the right San Diego individual therapist—someone who genuinely understands your unique needs.
2. Building Trust and Understanding in the Initial Sessions
These first sessions focus on getting to know you—your story, your challenges, and your goals. Whether you’re facing depression, trauma, or relationship issues, your therapist will create a safe, welcoming space to begin identifying what you need to feel supported and empowered.
3. Creating a Personalized Treatment Plan
With a clearer understanding of your concerns, your therapist will create a customized individual treatment plan tailored to your goals and needs.
4. Midpoint Sessions: Coping Tools and Measurable Progress
As you move through your sessions, your counselor will provide practical coping tools to help reduce stress, manage emotions, and build resilience. We’ll regularly revisit your plan to ensure it aligns with your evolving goals and continues to meet your needs effectively.
5. Final Sessions: Reflecting on Growth and Looking Ahead
In the final phase of your individual counseling journey, we’ll reflect on your progress and assess your emotional growth. Whether you’re ready to move forward independently or wish to continue therapy to explore deeper layers, we’ll help you create a sustainable path forward—one that honors how far you’ve come.
Problems commonly addressed in Individual Counseling San Diego
At Estes Therapy, we cover a variety of issues and problems in San Diego individual therapy sessions.
Some of the more common issues are low self-esteem, anxiety, communication issues, severe stress (post traumatic or not), body image issues, life transitions, low mood or motivation, and even loneliness. All of these issues will continue to hold you back from truly living your best life if not treated properly, or not treated at all.
Some problems are short-term situations that can be easily addressed in a few therapy sessions, while other difficulties run deeper with more lasting effects (childhood wounds, trauma, phobias, etc…) and may require more attention. Together, you and your therapist will work as a team in each session to explore the issues in your life that are preventing you from enjoying satisfying relationships and blocking your personal growth, and collaboratively create a plan for your treatment.
- Anxiety
- Struggles with Substance Use
- Body Image
- Codependency
- Communication Issues
- Depression
- Severe Stress
- Trauma and Childhood Wounds
- Low Mood/Motivation
- Life Transitions
- LGBTQIA Issues
- Divorce and Breakup Counseling
- And More…
Anxiety Counseling
When feelings of dread or constant worry occupy your days, it can be hard to go about your normal life. Your anxiety might even get so bad that you feel nervous without any specific stressor – Being nervous just becomes your “normal” state. Anxiety can lead to physical symptoms, such as trouble sleeping, sweating, nausea, or trouble breathing. In some cases, it might even escalate to a panic attack. Do these symptoms sound familiar? Seeking anxiety counseling in our San Diego office, or through Telehealth with one of our many experienced therapists, can be a part of the solution.
Our counselors are here to support you in decreasing your anxiety, working with you to develop coping techniques and offering strategies for dealing with fight-or-flight moments. Then, we work to get to the root of the issue for lasting change. We do all of this in our counseling process with no judgment, lots of compassion, and easy-to-understand tips and tools so that you can start to feel better at home.
Stop living with constant anxiety. Give us a call today and see if we can help!
Divorce & Break-Up Counseling
Whether you end a dating relationship, engagement, or marriage — the loss of a relationship is hard and can impact your mental health. If you are feeling lost, alone, or having a tough time dealing with all of the change that is taking place at once, it might be overwhelming.
You are not alone. Break up counseling is a mental health treatment that helps you work through and move past the painful emotions that come along with the end of a relationship, and find happiness and peace in your life again. In your counseling sessions, we help you make sense of your past dynamic with your partner and how to grow from it.
Coming to terms with the end of the relationship, saying good-bye, handling the financial blows, or sorting out the emotions after the nasty divorce or breakup doesn’t have to keep you in the dark place. There is hope and you can find yourself again! Going to counseling for a break up helps you grieve your loss and get back on your own two feet and work through the emotions of helplessness, confusion, and even betrayal. We are here to help you find happiness in your new life, establishing boundaries to protect your peace and help you focus on you.
Don’t go through the pain of a break up alone. Give us a call or send us a text to find the therapist that is the right fit for you!
Codependency Counseling
Do you get exhausted trying to deal with other people’s issues all the time? Do you feel like you get taken advantage of by certain people in your life? Or it feels as if you always absorb others’ feelings? If you recognize any of these habits you may have an issue with codependency.
Codependency is when you are dependent on others for your own mental well-being. This goes beyond seeking support. With codependency, the line between where you end and others begin is blurred. Those who are codependent often put their own needs, ideas, and opinions aside to focus on those of others in hopes of strengthening their relationship. In reality, this does more harm than good.
Changing these deeply ingrained thoughts, behaviors, and feelings is not easy. Individuals in codependent relationships would feel anxious in the unfamiliar. Therapy is a safe place full of support to aid you gently and safely on your codependency recovery journey. A therapist will hold you accountable to your goals, provide you tools to aid you in these goals, and help you learn skills to use now and in the future. You are worth it!
How Long Will Individual Counseling Last?
Each session of individual counseling can last 45 to 60 minutes. Cognitive therapy can involve difficult conversations and time to process new insights and adapt new skills, so the process can stretch from several weeks to a couple of months, in 6 to 12 sessions.
Depending on the complexity of their concerns, a client may even have more sessions with a clinician. Nevertheless, we tailor each individual’s mental health treatment based on their needs and strengths to help them achieve clarity, skills, and emotional resilience.
Do You Accept Insurance?
We do not accept insurance, but we do provide Superbills for people to submit to their providers for potential healthcare reimbursement.
Start therapy solo or start together
As relationship and marriage counselors, we work with many couples of all marital statuses, genders, and sexualities, as well as monogamous or consensually non-monogamous locally. Our professional help in San Diego, CA, is not just beneficial for married individuals, it can also benefit any couple or co-parents to better your mental health. There are many signs when it’s time to start looking for help so don’t ignore them.
Whether you’re working on yourself or working with your partner, it all starts with a free 10-minute matching appointment with our Care Coordinator.
All the Ways Therapy Helps Yourself and Others
Here you can browse the different ways we help couples and individuals in San Diego county, California. We provide in-person/face-to-face counseling sessions and virtual/telehealth sessions.
Individual Counseling
Couples/Marriage Counseling
Premarital Counseling
LGBTQIA+ Counselng
Military Counseling
Infidelity and Affair Counseling
Child and Teen Counseling
Affordable Counseling
Online Therapy (Telehealth)
Schedule a free 10-minute matching appointment today and start your journey to healing.
Your conversation with our trained matching expert will make sure there is a perfect fit for your therapist and you (and your partner). Click or call to get started
Meet our San Diego Area Relationship Therapists
Think of us as your consultants in recovery. We are the neutral third party that can help you untangle the emotions and figure out what’s really going on.
We want everyone, including children, to walk in our door and get the necessary tools. Our psychotherapy sessions are relaxed, collaborative, and effective for both individuals and couples. We want to hear your story. Each of our licensed marriage and family therapists is dedicated to ensuring you’re in a comfortable space to feel safe and supported when you tell your story.
With the help of an Estes therapist in San Diego, you and your partner can heal with empathy and move forward with lasting results. We’re not here to put a band-aid on any different issues. We’re here to get to the root of the issue to facilitate lasting change and success in your goals with couples therapy.
Wondering Which Therapist is Right for Your Individual Counseling? Our Matching Appointment Can Help
When you can meet each of our therapists in our Meet the Team, you can also schedule a matching appointment with us. Our Care Coordinator will ask helpful questions in a 10-minute phone call to help us match you with a therapist you feel comfortable with. For example, a client may feel more comfortable with someone who can speak Spanish or someone who is Asian-American like them. Or maybe their doctor recommended a therapist trained in some form of cognitive therapy. With our matching appointment, we make things more convenient for you!
Meet our Founder, Jennine Estes Powell
It’s been nearly 20 years since I first became interested in studying psychotherapy. I began practicing scientific approaches to psychotherapy in 1997, and I have been hooked since then.
I earned my Master’s Degree in Marriage and Family psychotherapy in 2004, and am currently licensed as a Marriage and Family Therapist MFT (LMFT #47653) with the Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS).
I focus my practice on empirically based and proven research methods such as emotional-focused therapy (EFT), eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), and cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).
I’ve seen these techniques consistently get results, and I truly believe they are the most effective at creating positive, long-term change.
Have a question about fees or insurance?
It is common to have questions before you start therapy. Get all of your questions answered by visiting our Frequently Asked Questions page.
