Julian Cabezas, LCSW

Psychotherapist seeing clients in California & New York · he/they

I have a focus on complex trauma with people, it wasn’t the specific goal when I started being a therapist but quickly realized that the majority of the people I worked with had intense, persistent and severe trauma histories. Which made sense lots of the people I was working with were coming from living outside of what the norms were for society.

Even if now they didn’t feel like an outsider, at some point in life there was times that kept them isolated from others. This could have been because of who they were in love with, who they had sex with, what clothes they had access to, what languages the family spoke or didn’t, or because of the body they had and what that meaning others made about that. Another way people felt isolated was because they couldn’t talk to people about what was going on or didn’t have people to talk to about what was going on. Like when people were in abusive households, homes with addiction, places where they needed to be high achievers and did whatever they could to keep up that reputation or when they couldn’t find words to describe what was going on.

So what I often see is people come in to therapy with me saying they are depressed or have anxiety, overtime we sometimes find out that the traumatic roots have been there for a while and they have just created many survival mechanisms to navigate the world. Trauma is thrown around a lot so sometimes people also are so desentized to the wording that they can have a inner critic that says things like “stop complaining” or “it wasn’t really that hard”. I have compassion for this inner critic and try to assist people, when they want, to get to know how it was created and what it’s protecting them from feeling.

I am a queer chicano man who has been supporting the LGBTQ community since I was a kid, coming out whether in support groups, AIDS advocacy, or just talking to my family about what it means to be allies. I think my identity is something that has helped me have empathy for people who feel misunderstood but also how powerful it can be to have a community that supports you.

Internal Family Systems is my primary framework. Dr. Sand Chang wrote a really great easy to use workbook to help people use IFS, but the descriptions of the book kind of break down the process: “people often learn to hide, split off, or exile parts of ourselves—not because there’s anything wrong with us, but because we live in a world that hasn’t always welcomed our truths.”

So it’s find of like family therapy but you are the whole family in one body. Makes sense why it’s hard to get things done with so many different impulses and value systems within us.

I am a nerd, so I love to learn. Since therapy is a special interest of mine, I find myself in various trainings every year.

A few things I have training in with IFS: Gottman Method, Emotionally Focused Therapy, Imago, EMDR, Somatic Experiencing, Brainspotting, sex therapy, and ketamine-assisted psychotherapy.

I work with individuals and relationships. My practice has developed particular depth around ethically non-monogamous people, people of the global majority, LGBTQI communities, addiction, allies, neurodivergent communities, disability justice, latine communities, therapy for therapists, and non-birthing partners with perinatal and postpartum depression/anxiety/trauma/life transition.

I am someone who also likes to move around a bunch so I encourage us to move around in session if needed or use the floor to stretch out. Definitely not a requirement but for my clients with ADHD not having to be a statue really feels good.

If some of this resonated with you, let me know that you’d like to connect in the contact form.