About Patch Counseling
Patch Counseling, Rancho Bernardo, San Diego
Patch Counseling is a Rancho Bernardo-based therapy practice serving pre-teens, teens, emerging adults, and adults throughout San Diego County and online across California.
Since establishing our practice in Rancho Bernardo in 2018, we have worked closely with individuals and families in our community. This has given us firsthand insight into the academic, social, professional, and family pressures that can make different stages of life increasingly difficult to manage.
Our Philosophy
We don't believe struggling means you've suddenly become less capable. Sometimes, what life is asking of you has changed.
Each stage of development and major life transition brings new expectations, responsibilities, relationships, and shifts in identity. The strategies that worked before may not work as well when a teen enters a more demanding school environment, a young adult leaves home for college, or an adult takes on a new career, relationship, parenthood, caregiving, or another significant change.
These periods can also bring existing challenges with ADHD, anxiety, trauma, perfectionism, or stress to the surface.
At Patch Counseling, we help clients understand what has changed, recognize the strengths they already have, and develop practical strategies for what they need now. Therapy isn't just about reducing symptoms. It's also about developing a stronger understanding of yourself and learning how to respond when life asks something different of you.
How We Work
Our therapists are trained in both psychotherapy and Clinical Art Therapy and integrate evidence-based approaches including CBT, DBT, mindfulness, and EMDR based on each client's needs and goals.
Sometimes therapy involves learning concrete skills for managing emotions, executive functioning, communication, or stress. Other times, the work involves processing a difficult experience, examining patterns that are no longer serving you, or making sense of a changing role or identity.
Our approach is grounded in three values: compassion, collaboration, and creativity.
Compassion means understanding your experience without reducing you to a diagnosis or assuming that struggling reflects a lack of effort.
Collaboration means therapy is something we do with you, not to you. Your goals, feedback, strengths, and experiences shape the direction of treatment.
Creativity means there isn't one right way to approach a problem. We adapt therapy to the individual, drawing from both evidence-based treatments and Clinical Art Therapy to find approaches that make sense for you.
Patch Counseling is LGBTQ-affirming and committed to providing culturally responsive care that considers how identity, culture, family, and lived experience influence the way we understand ourselves and the expectations we carry.
Rooted in Our Community
Our team is familiar with schools throughout Rancho Bernardo, Poway, and surrounding San Diego communities, including the academic expectations and support systems available to local students.
For pre-teens and teens, we work not only with the young person but also with parents when appropriate, helping families support increasing independence, improve communication, and better understand what their child may need at home and at school.
Getting Started
Finding the right therapist should feel straightforward. Schedule a complimentary 15-minute phone consultation to ask questions, learn more about therapy at Patch Counseling, and see if we’re a good fit.