Megan Hernandez

Megan Hernandez is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist practicing at Megan Hernandez Counseling in Santa Cruz, where she sees clients in her office as well as by telehealth across California. She works with teens, young adults, and adults navigating neurodivergence, trauma, anxiety, depression, and the transitions that reshape how people think, feel, and move through their lives.

Her clinical path started in a residential treatment center supporting teens with high-acuity needs — suicidal ideation, self-harm, family conflict, and co-occurring substance use — where she learned how much stabilization depends on trust, safety planning, and concrete skill building. While completing her Marriage and Family Therapy degree she worked with a community-based agency serving individuals on the Autism spectrum and their support systems, deepening her understanding of how executive functioning differences shape daily life and how environment and prevention strategies affect mental wellness. Most recently she has practiced in a private practice setting.

Megan's work with neurodivergent clients — diagnosed or self-identified — is explicitly affirming. She holds that neurodivergence is not something to be fixed, and offers practical strategies built around each client's own goals rather than shaping their thoughts or behavior to be more neurotypical. Her trauma work makes room for single-incident trauma, childhood wounds, and the harder-to-name sense that something is simply off.

She describes her style as eclectic, pulling from several modalities to meet each client where they are: DBT and CBT for emotional regulation, self-talk, and coping skills; EMDR and Brainspotting for processing trauma held in memory and in the body; and Internal Family Systems for parts work that builds self-compassion and internal balance. Clients can expect curiosity, transparency, humor, and — at times — some gentle challenging.

Megan is EMDR trained (Level I and Level II, 2023) and Brainspotting trained (Level I, 2026). She holds a Master of Arts in Marriage & Family Therapy and Professional Clinical Counseling from Brandman University and a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from CSU Monterey Bay. She offers a free 15-minute phone consultation to see whether the fit is right.