Hillcrest
It is possible to be two minutes from the office and still put this off for a year.
University Avenue, the Hillcrest sign, the Sunday farmers market, and the historic center of the city's LGBTQ+ community. The office is a short walk or a two-minute drive south.
Telehealth Monday through Friday, in person one Sunday a month
The Place
What it is actually like here
Hillcrest runs along University Avenue north of Bankers Hill, marked at its middle by the Hillcrest sign over the street. It is dense, walkable, and busy in a way the blocks south of it are not, with the Sunday farmers market pulling people in from across the central neighborhoods every week.
It is also the historic center of San Diego's LGBTQ+ community, and it still functions as one. That matters for a therapy page because it changes the question people arrive with. Fewer people write to ask whether I will be affirming. More of them write already assuming it, and wanting to know what else I actually do.
At a Glance
- Shelley Davidescu, LMFT, 17 years in practice
- Telehealth Monday through Friday across California
- In person one Sunday a month in Bankers Hill
- Free 15-minute consultation
Individual sessions are $210, or $325 for 90 minutes. Couples sessions are $225, or $345 for 90 minutes.
Full fees and policiesGetting Here
Getting to the office
The office is at 2560 First Ave, Suite 202, a few blocks south of Hillcrest. From University Avenue you come south on First, Fourth, or Fifth, and you are there in two or three minutes by car.
On foot it is a reasonable walk from most of southern Hillcrest, and it is downhill on the way there, which people usually notice more on the way back.
Parking near the building is metered or time-limited on weekdays and easier on Sundays. Since in-person is one Sunday a month, most people arriving from Hillcrest find a spot on the street without circling.
It is worth reading the schedule honestly before you book. Most of my work is telehealth, Monday through Friday. In-person sessions are limited to one Sunday a month at the Bankers Hill office, and those slots fill ahead of time.
Why People Write From Here
The pressures particular to this place
Proximity is not the reason people start. I hear from people who have walked past this block for years before writing. Being close to help makes it easier to keep deciding that this week is not the week, because the barrier was never distance in the first place.
A lot of what comes in from Hillcrest is relationship material rather than symptom material: an anxious-avoidant cycle that has run through three relationships, a partner who is patient and getting tired, family of origin strain that resurfaces every holiday. For LGBTQ+ clients, affirming care means the hour is not spent on orientation or gender as a topic unless you want it to be, and none of it needs explaining first.
There is also a quieter version specific to a neighborhood with a strong social identity: the feeling of being surrounded by community and still lonely inside it. Being in the right place does not automatically mean being known there, and the gap between those two things brings people in more often than anything else on this page.
Where to Start
Four places this usually begins
Couples Therapy
Couples of every configuration, including the ones who have been together long enough that the argument has a script.
Anxiety Therapy
Social anxiety and the low continuous hum of being around people constantly.
Attachment and Relationship Patterns
For the pattern that keeps repeating with different people and the same ending.
Trauma Therapy
Family of origin strain and older material that resurfaces on a schedule.
Questions
Answered plainly
Anything not covered here is worth asking on the free 15-minute consult.
Related Reading
Are you LGBTQ+ affirming?
Yes. In practice that means you are not explaining yourself to me before the work can start, and that I see couples of every configuration. There is a page on this in more detail under Who I Work With.
How far is the office from Hillcrest?
A few blocks. From University Avenue it is roughly a two or three minute drive south on First, and a walkable distance from most of southern Hillcrest.
How often can I be seen in person?
In-person sessions are limited. I hold one Sunday a month at the Bankers Hill office, and those slots are booked ahead. Everything else runs by secure video, Monday through Friday. Most of my clients are telehealth clients from the first session onward, and the work is not a lesser version of the room.
Is telehealth as useful as sitting in the room?
For the work I do, yes, and for a lot of people it is more practical. Anxiety work, EMDR, and couples work all translate to video. What matters more than the format is whether you have a private hour and a door that closes. If you do not have that at home, we will talk about where else the hour could happen.
Free 15-Minute Consult
Fifteen minutes to find out whether this is the right work.
Tell me what is going on and where you are in California. I will tell you honestly how I would approach it, and whether I am the right person for it.
In person in San Diego, and by telehealth across California.