Julian Cabezas, LCSW | He/Him
Psychotherapist seeing clients in California & New York ·
I work with individuals and couples, with specialties in sex therapy, intimacy concerns, and perinatal mental health. Many of the people I see are managing more than one thing at once: a history of abuse in a past relationship, growing up with a parent who struggled with addiction, ADHD’s impact on initiation and follow-through, or the quiet exhaustion of being the eldest child who learned to manage everyone else’s needs first. I don’t treat these as separate from sexual or relational struggles — they usually are the struggle, underneath the surface.
I also support parents and expecting parents through the perinatal period — pregnancy, birth, postpartum, and beyond. This includes postpartum depression and anxiety, birth trauma, fertility struggles, and the identity shift of becoming a parent (sometimes called matrescence or patrescence), which can bring up old family-of-origin material even for people who felt settled before. For couples, I also work with how a new baby reshapes intimacy, desire, and connection — a transition that’s rarely talked about honestly, and rarely as simple as “things will go back to normal.”
I’m an affirming, active provider for trans, nonbinary, and queer individuals, couples, and parents. I take seriously the work of understanding how gender identity, gender euphoria and dysphoria, and cultural background shape desire, body image, connection, and the experience of parenthood — you shouldn’t have to educate your therapist on who you are. I also bring cultural attunement to interracial and cross-cultural relationships and families, where expectations and shame often show up differently for each person.
Clinically, I draw on two primary approaches. I use EMDR to help process specific memories and triggers — from past abusive relationships, birth trauma, or earlier family experiences — that keep activating in moments of vulnerability, even when you know you’re safe now. With couples, I also use IFS (including IFIO, its couples-specific model) to help partners understand the protective parts that show up during conflict or disconnection. With individuals, IFS work centers on building a relationship with your own parts, so you can approach your history — and your relationships — with more curiosity and less self-judgment.
I move at a pace that respects your nervous system, not just your timeline. Lasting change tends to come from feeling safe enough to be honest, not from pushing faster than your body can metabolize.
Whether you’re doing this work alone, alongside a partner, or through the transition into parenthood, if you’re looking for a therapist who can hold the full complexity of your history, not just the presenting concern, I’d welcome a consultation call.g for a therapist who can hold the full complexity of your history, not just the presenting concern, I’d welcome a consultation call.