Mental health counseling at Shanti Orange County is built around listening first, then helping you move toward stability, connection, and hope.
Who Counseling Serves
Our mental health team works with adults, teens, and couples across Orange County and statewide via telehealth. Many clients live with HIV or are affected by someone's diagnosis; many others come for depression, anxiety, trauma, relationship stress, or major life changes. You do not need an HIV diagnosis to receive counseling at Shanti.
Therapists include masters- and doctoral-level clinicians supervised and trained in community mental health. Intake matches you based on language, schedule, clinical focus, and whether you prefer in-person or video sessions.
What Counseling Looks Like
A typical course of therapy includes:
- Weekly or biweekly sessions (about 50 minutes), adjusted as you progress
- Collaborative goal-setting: you define what "better" means
- Evidence-informed approaches adapted to your culture, identity, and strengths
- Coordination with case management when HIV navigation or benefits help is also needed
Counseling is not a lecture. It is a confidential relationship where you can speak openly about stigma, family, work, substance use, intimacy, and survival, without being rushed to a single "fix."
In Person and Telehealth
Laguna Hills office: 23461 South Pointe Dr., Suite 100, with free parking and access during business hours for scheduling.
Telehealth: Licensed for all of California. Useful if you live far from South Orange County, have mobility limits, or need flexible timing.
Cost and Insurance
Shanti accepts many insurance plans, including CalOptima, for eligible services; intake verifies your specific coverage. If you are uninsured, ask intake about $65 sessions with unlicensed therapists (supervised) or $100 with licensed therapists. Fees are discussed before your first billable session so there are no surprises.
How Counseling Connects to Other Programs
Counseling often works alongside:
- HIV case management for medical appointments, housing, and benefits
- Support groups such as Círculo Latino or the clinician-led weekly HIV therapy group
- Psychological testing and evaluation when a formal evaluation is needed for school, work, or treatment planning
Your therapist can coordinate with these teams when you want integrated care.
Getting Started
- Call (949) 452-0888 or email [email protected]
- Complete enrollment paperwork (often sent within 24 hours)
- Attend your first session, about one hour, no long-term commitment required upfront
Read First visit for the full intake path, or explore Programs & services to see how counseling fits our four active programs.
Ways We Work Together
Counseling at Shanti Orange County is not a single format. Depending on what you bring, the work takes one of several shapes:
- Individual counseling. A personalized approach to psychotherapy, working through anxiety, depression, substance use, and fear of disclosure.
- Couples counseling. Structured strategies for communicating through difficult situations rather than around them.
- Group counseling. A facilitated space to share experiences with people who understand the terrain.
- Teen and family counseling. Support for young people and for the adults caring for them.
Most people do not know which one they need when they call. That is what intake is for.
What the First Session Is Actually Like
About an hour with a counselor who listens, asks questions, and helps map next steps. No commitment. You are not signing up for a year of anything, and you are not expected to arrive with your problem neatly summarized.
The practical sequence before that session: you reach out, intake asks a few questions, enrollment paperwork typically arrives by email through Simple Practice within about a business day, you complete it, and we usually contact you within another day or two to schedule. Most callers are seen within one to two weeks, though timing can vary.
Confidentiality, Plainly
Conversations between you and your counselor are private and protected. That protection is the reason the room works at all, and it is worth understanding before you start rather than testing it mid-session. If you have specific questions about what gets documented, who can see it, or what happens with records if you want them shared with a school or physician, ask at intake. Releases follow confidentiality rules and you control most disclosures.
The Chronic Illness Thread
Shanti Orange County began in 1987, at the height of the HIV crisis. That history is not decoration. It means our clinicians are specialty-trained in chronic disease and illness navigation, and that counseling here understands what it is to manage a body and a diagnosis at the same time as a life.
For people living with chronic illness, counseling can also reduce the stress load that compounds physical symptoms, and can rebuild the connection that illness tends to erode.
Where and When
In person at 23461 South Pointe Dr., Suite 100, Laguna Hills, with free parking on site. Telehealth is available throughout California. Office hours are Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm PT.
Call 949-452-0888 or email [email protected]. All services are LGBTQ-affirming, and our team works in English, Spanish, Farsi, and Hindi.
