La Jolla
Most people up here choose the video session, and they are usually right to.
UC San Diego, Scripps, the Torrey Pines biotech mesa, and Prospect Street. A twenty-minute drive down Interstate 5, which is why most La Jolla clients choose telehealth.
Telehealth Monday through Friday, in person one Sunday a month
The Place
What it is actually like here
La Jolla covers a lot of ground: Prospect Street and the village at the water, UC San Diego and Scripps up the hill, and the research and biotech buildings along the Torrey Pines mesa above it. The population is a mix of academics, clinicians, scientists, and people whose work has a grant cycle or a trial timeline attached to it.
The office in Bankers Hill is roughly a twenty-minute drive south on Interstate 5, longer at the wrong hour. That is real, and it is why I will say the honest thing here rather than the marketing thing: the majority of my La Jolla clients choose telehealth and stay with it.
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 here, and why most people do not
If you do want the in-person day, the route is Interstate 5 south to the Bankers Hill exits, then to 2560 First Ave, Suite 202, near West Maple Street. Twenty minutes with clear roads, considerably more during a commute window.
In-person is one Sunday a month, so the drive is a Sunday drive rather than a weekday one, and the freeway and the parking are both far easier than they would be midweek.
For most people up here the arithmetic does not favor the drive. A weekday video session takes an hour. The same session at the office takes closer to two and a half, and that difference is usually what determines whether therapy survives a busy month.
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
The academic and research pressure here has a specific shape. Grants, publication cycles, tenure clocks, trials that either work or do not. Long horizons with hard checkpoints tend to produce a particular anxiety: not panic, but a background dread attached to a date that is eighteen months away and never stops being the next thing.
The clinical population on the mesa carries something different. Long shifts, real stakes, and a professional culture where being the one who is struggling feels dangerous. I do not report to licensing boards, sessions are confidential under California law, and I will tell you plainly if what you are carrying needs psychiatric care I do not provide.
The third group is the one that is doing well and cannot enjoy it. Successful, respected, financially fine, and quietly flat. That flatness usually turns out to be less about the work than about how long everything else was postponed while the work got built.
Where to Start
Four places this usually begins
Anxiety Therapy
For the background dread that attaches itself to a deadline eighteen months out.
Stress and Burnout
For long shifts, grant cycles, and a pace that has no natural stopping point.
Next-Level Performance
For high performers who want the output without the private cost of producing it.
EMDR Therapy
For a specific event that talking about carefully has not changed.
Questions
Answered plainly
Anything not covered here is worth asking on the free 15-minute consult.
Related Reading
Should I come to the office or do telehealth?
Most people in La Jolla choose telehealth, and I think that is usually the right call. The office is a twenty-minute drive south on Interstate 5 and in-person is one Sunday a month, so telehealth is what makes a consistent weekly rhythm realistic.
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.
I work in a hospital or a lab. Is this confidential?
Yes, sessions are confidential under California law. I do not report to licensing boards and I do not write reports for employers. I go over the ordinary legal limits on confidentiality with you in the first session.
Do you offer evening sessions?
Sessions run Monday through Friday during the day. I am not going to promise evening availability that I cannot reliably hold, so it is worth asking about the current schedule on the consult.
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.