Shine a Light Counseling Center

Mar 2024

Shine a light is a counseling center in Watsonville and Santa Cruz mainly. They are generally pretty overbooked, even though they have A LOT of therapists. All of the therapists are pre licensed, meaning they are new and still working on their hours, but this factor is what makes them so an affordable and needed. My experience was mediocre, I got to talk about the things I needed to talk about, but the therapists didn't have the training necessary for my issue, and they filled my slot with another patient. I would try another therapist, but there don't seem to be any available!

Aug 2023

I left my contact info & a brief message regarding my college age son. I received a call back from Sherri. She spent about an hour with me on the phone. She was patient and kind, listened to what I had to say and offered some stellar advice and insights as to what my son might be going through.

Oct 2018

I have been going to Shine a Light for a while now and I'm really happy with this place! The Center offers individual and couples therapy and also sliding scale fees which is nice. They're open 7 days a week from 8am-9pm so their hours work perfect for me. The therapist I've seen there has been amazing so far. I would definitely recommend this place. On top of the obvious positives such as it being affordable, flexible in hours, and having great therapists, this center is also queer friendly! I identify as queer and polyamorous and I didn't have to waste any time explaining any terminology to get my therapist up to date. Might be a non-revenant factor to most, but for me it made a world of a difference! The center also has a bulletin board in the office with resources to important things such as queer youth groups, pregnancy resources, eating disorder help, etc.