6 Los Angeles Teen Counselors [No Waitlist]
If you're a teen who's tired of being misread—or a parent watching your kid pull into a place you can't quite reach—you're in the right place. Teenage years are layered and loud, and they can be easier to navigate with someone outside of home and school. At Therapy on Fig, our teen counselors offer empathetic support for teens who need a safe space to express themselves. Meet our team here to find the right fit and reach out when you’re ready to connect.
Being a teenager is hard enough.
Between figuring out who you are and wanting to be understood, parents, teachers, and friends often misunderstand you. You feel stuck, lonely, and angry. Add in layers of being biracial, struggling with body image, being highly sensitive, neurodivergent, and moving to new schools or communities; the challenges can quickly compound. Your parents just don't seem to understand you. You feel like they choose to see the worst in you and fail to recognize that your experience is uniquely different from theirs. You may often be grounded or reprimanded for things you feel are normal. The values of your home don't mirror the values you experience at school. It feels like you are living a double life, expected to chameleon your personality depending on where you are, and nobody at school or home seems to understand fully. You know you don't deserve to be punished for just being you.
You don't have to live in overwhelm, loneliness, and sadness.
Parenting a teen can be challenging, too.
The child who used to climb into your lap has become someone you're still getting to know—quieter at the dinner table, eyes on their phone, bedroom door closed a little longer each week.
You're not sure whether what you're seeing is normal adolescent behavior of pulling away or something that needs attention, and the weight of having to guess is exhausting.
Add in the layers of raising a biracial teen, a highly sensitive teen, a neurodivergent teen, or a teen in a world that looks nothing like the one you grew up in, and the questions multiply.
You feel worried, helpless, and sometimes lonely in your own house. You've tried patience, you've tried being firm, and neither seems to land. You wonder if your teen sees you as the problem, or whether you're quietly passing down patterns you didn't ask for. You love your teen fiercely, and you still feel shut out.
You don't have to carry this alone, and neither does your teen.
Therapy for adolescents can help your teen feel known, and can help your whole family find each other again.
Jump to a therapist
Grace Chan: Good fit for teens who shut down when they sense no one will understand them
Rachel Kwon: Good fit for BIPOC teens caught between cultural worlds and family expectations
Emily Gaston: Good fit for queer teens and teens processing grief and loss
Michael Hung: Good fit for creative and sensitive teens, or teen athletes navigating body image issues
Gabriella Giorgio: Good fit for late-identified autistic teen girls worn out by masking
Janelle Malak: Good fit for teens navigating disconnection from family members
Our therapists have multiple specialty areas, so if you’re not sure which therapist is right for you or your teen, please contact us so we can help.
Meet our Los Angeles therapists for teens
Grace Chan
Good fit for teens who shut down when they sense no one will understand them
Many of the teens I work with have learned to go still in rooms where it feels unsafe to take up space: teens who carry their family's unspoken rules, their community's unspoken grief, and a self that feels too layered to translate on command. As a Malaysian-Chinese first-generation immigrant, Third Culture Kid, and oldest sibling, I know what it's like to feel reduced to one digestible identity. My work with teens weaves Internal Family Systems, creative arts therapies, and Brainspotting to create a space where they truly express themselves.
Credentials: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #142670
Specialty areas: Creative teens in entertainment-industry households, BIPOC teens with religious trauma, Third Culture Kids
Rachel Kwon
Good fit for BIPOC teens caught between cultural worlds and family expectations
As a second-generation Korean American and native Angeleno, I know the particular weight of adolescence in two cultural worlds, where family loyalty and the wish to belong to yourself don't always agree. I work with highly sensitive and neurodivergent BIPOC teens who feel unseen at home and over-explained at school. Using IFS, Brainspotting, and attachment-informed care, I help teens name what's been inherited, honor what's theirs, and feel witnessed for who they actually are—not who they've had to perform as.
Credentials: Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist #149091
Specialty areas: Neurodivergent and highly sensitive teens, BIPOC adolescents, teens impacted by family mental illness and trauma
Emily Gaston
Good fit for queer teens and teens processing grief and loss
Losing a parent young taught me how isolating grief can feel in a culture that often overlooks it, and my grounding in queer community has shaped how I hold space for teens exploring identity, chosen family, and more expansive ways of being. I work with queer and questioning teens, and with teens navigating the quiet, complicated layers of grief: the loss of a person, a relationship, a version of themselves, or a future they thought was theirs. My approach is IFS-informed and depth-oriented, trusting each teen's pace and their own innate capacity for healing.
Credentials: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #155211, Associate Professional Clinical Counselor #19502
Specialty areas: Teens navigating family-system trauma, adolescents experiencing grief and loss, queer teens
Michael Hung
Good fit for creative and sensitive teens, or teen athletes navigating body image issues
My practice of Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and trauma-informed strength training shapes my work as a therapist, giving me a unique lived understanding of the role of somatics in healing. I work with creative and highly sensitive teens, and with teen athletes whose relationship to their body feels tenuous. Maybe they’re struggling with disordered eating, injury, performance pressure, or the shame of not being "enough." No matter the shape of your teen’s particular challenges, I use IFS and somatically-based, trauma-informed care to move at the pace that feels right for them.
Credentials: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #154058
Specialty areas: Teen creatives/musicians and entertainment-industry families, teen athletes struggling with their relationship to their body, adolescents experiencing depression/anxiety
Gabriella Giorgio
Good fit for late-identified autistic teen girls worn out by masking
As a late-identified autistic person, I remember what it was like to spend adolescence masking for safety and belonging and wondering why connection left me so depleted. I work with teen girls who are burning out from social performance and self-monitoring, and who sense "something is off" but can't quite name it. Our work gently unpacks the role of masking, rebuilds self-trust, and identifies nervous-system-honoring accommodations so teens can feel more sustainably themselves at school, at home, and with friends.
Credentials: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #140682
Specialty areas: Highly masked autistic teens, highly sensitive teens, anxious perfectionists and people-pleasers
Janelle Malak
Good fit for teens navigating disconnection from family members
As a partner in a multiracial, neurodiverse relationship, I've come to understand how attachment injuries and ruptures rarely announce themselves. They show up as the silence you learn to live with, the holiday you stop asking about, the relative whose name you've stopped saying out loud. I work with teens navigating disconnection with a parent, sibling, or extended family member, whether the cutoff is recent or has shaped them for as long as they remember. Informed by IFS, EFT, and attachment theory, I hold space for the grief, guilt, and identity questions that come with a family tie that isn't simple.
Credentials: Associate Marriage and Family Therapist #144798
Specialty areas: Teens navigating difficult family dynamics, teens in entertainment industry households, anxious creatives
What sets our practice apart from other Los Angeles teen counseling providers
IFS focus: Every clinician on our team is trained or highly informed by Internal Family Systems (IFS), a trauma-informed, experiential approach that goes deeper than standard talk therapy.
No waitlist. Teens can typically be seen within a week or two of booking a consultation, which matters when a family has worked up the courage to reach out.
In-person and virtual options. We offer in-person sessions in our Highland Park office on North Figueroa, along with virtual sessions so your teen can get support in the way that feels best for them.
Weekend availability. We have Saturday and Sunday availability, so therapy doesn't have to compete with school, sports, or family logistics.
Therapists with lived experience. Our team is BIPOC-majority, neurodivergent-affirming, and includes therapists who are themselves highly sensitive, late-identified autistic, queer, or children of immigrants. Teens tend to feel that resonance quickly, which can help them feel comfortable opening up.
In-network therapy. Select therapists are paneled with Cigna and Aetna, and we provide monthly superbills for out-of-network PPO reimbursement. Our Mentaya benefits checker can estimate your reimbursement before you commit.
FAQs about teen therapy
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Common reasons a teenager might seek a therapist for teens at Therapy on Fig include:
Exploring identities and making sense of their identities
Finding belonging and acceptance for who they are
Experiencing loss and grief
Dealing with academic pressures, underachieving at school, tests, and sports performance anxiety
Struggling with body image and disordered eating and relationship with exercise
Recent or chronic anxiety, depression, or low self-esteem
Conflicts within families, such as with siblings and parents
Social anxiety, difficulty fitting in and making friends
Being bullied or bullying
Working through challenging and intense emotions
Understanding boundaries and setting healthy boundaries with self and others
Being a highly sensitive and empathic teen
Being a neurodivergent teen such as having ADHD, autism, giftedness, and twice-exceptional
Being part of the LGBTQIA+ community, queer, coming out to family and friends
Recovering and healing from trauma and abuse
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Therapy for adolescents can help you explore who you are and know you are accepted and wanted.
Your mental health deserves care. Navigating multiple and shifting identities is difficult. Trying to fit in and not loving your body is hard. Shape-shifting and code-switching between home and school is isolating. You can make sense of it all through therapy and know that your experience makes sense. You can learn to trust yourself and know that you belong. Teens notice that they experience better academic performance, more harmony with family members, increased self-esteem, and stronger emotional regulation through therapy. They also gain ways of expressing and communicating with peers, bringing them more peace and joy.
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Therapy for teens in person in Highland Park, Los Angeles, CA, or virtually anywhere in California with us means a safe space where you can be seen and heard in your unique experience. We will protect and honor your privacy while working with your parents to build understanding for you. We will support you in effectively expressing and advocating for yourself so you feel more and more confident in your ability to solve problems and authentically relate to your peers and family. You'll have the space to know your anger, confusion, identity struggles, and experiences of discrimination make sense. You will build coping skills for times of overwhelm and anxiety and sadness overtake you.
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At Therapy on Fig, our therapists recognize that every teen is unique, and we tailor our approach to meet each teen's inner wirings, identities, and history. Our approach is non-pathological, which means we believe every "negative" or disliked behavior or emotion is a part of you that deserves to be understood. We are conscious of the family, cultural, and societal systems teens live in. We help teens make sense of their experiences while learning how to most effectively and authentically navigate these systems without harming themselves. We use IFS (Internal Family Systems) as our primary modality and weave in mindfulness, CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), Narrative, and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy) as needed. We offer solutions-oriented therapy sessions for teens who resonate with having concrete steps to take home, although that is required.
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It depends on the teen and what they're experiencing. With older teens, most of the work happens one-on-one, with periodic parent check-ins focused on themes and recommendations rather than session specifics. With younger teens, or when parent-teen dynamics are the focus, we often involve parents more directly. We talk this through at the consultation so everyone feels clear about what to expect before starting.
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Yes. We see teens in person at our Highland Park office on North Figueroa, including evening and weekend availability that works around school, sports, and family schedules. We also offer virtual sessions for any teen living in California, which some families prefer for heavier academic loads, limited transportation, or teens who open up more easily from their own room.
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Yes, therapy for teens is typically covered by insurance. At Therapy on Fig, we're in-network with Cigna and Aetna. For families with PPO plans from other carriers, we provide monthly superbills you can submit for potential out-of-network reimbursement. Many families find that their out-of-network mental-health coverage is more generous than they expected.
Start working with a Los Angeles teenager therapist today
If your teen is struggling, know that help is available. At Therapy on Fig, we are here to guide your family through this journey with understanding, expertise, and care. Contact us today to schedule a consultation and learn more about our therapy for adolescents in Highland Park, CA.
Let's work together to help your teen find peace, confidence, and healing.
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