About Us | New Growth Counseling

In-person Appointments in Carlsbad

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Welcome to New Growth Counseling

Seeking therapy is an act of tremendous courage.
It means you’re ready to move toward change, even when change feels uncertain or difficult.
At New Growth Counseling, we’re here to honor that bravery — and to walk alongside you as you grow into the next version of yourself.

Our Story: Rooted in a Vision for Growth

New Growth Counseling was founded in 2003 by Jussi Light with a simple but powerful vision:
to build a counseling practice that attracts therapists who are committed to lifelong learning, personal growth, and professional excellence.

From the very beginning, New Growth was designed to be different.
Here, therapy is not a static profession — it’s a living, evolving practice.
Therapists are expected to continue growing long after they earn their degrees and licenses, expanding their skills, challenging their assumptions, and striving toward deeper understanding year after year.

Evidence-based methods are the foundation of our work.
Every therapist at New Growth is trained in research-backed approaches like EMDR, EFT, and Internal Family Systems.
But we believe that expertise must be alive and dynamic — not a credential gathering dust.

To that end, we meet weekly for clinical consultation, supporting one another, strengthening our interventions, and making sure each client benefits from the collective intelligence of the entire team.
We also engage in monthly intensive trainings, where we drill down into evidence-based models, challenge ourselves to expand, and hold one another accountable to continual improvement.

Most importantly, we listen.
Through Feedback-Informed Therapy (FIT), we actively incorporate our clients’ voices into the therapy process, adjusting and evolving based on real-world results — not assumptions.
At New Growth Counseling, therapy is a collaboration, and the client’s experience is central to how we work.

Our Approach: Learning, Collaboration, and Client-Centered Growth

Therapy at New Growth isn’t a one-size-fits-all process.
Each therapist brings a wealth of training, but we never stop learning, and we never stop collaborating.

Every client at New Growth benefits not just from the skill of their individual therapist, but from the shared expertise of the entire team.
Through structured weekly case consultations and monthly training intensives, we refine our skills, expand our understanding, and ensure that therapy is as efficient, effective, and personalized as possible.

We take a structured, results-driven approach to therapy:
– Goals are defined collaboratively with the client.
– Progress is monitored regularly through client feedback.
– Adjustments are made in real time, based on what’s actually working.

We recognize that clients invest time, energy, and financial resources into their therapy.
We honor that investment by making every session count.

At New Growth, we don’t believe therapy should be endless.
We believe it should be transformative.

What Makes New Growth Different

At New Growth Counseling, you’ll find something rare:
real, relatable humans who also happen to be highly trained therapists.

Our team members have walked their own journeys through growth and healing.
Every therapist here has been on both sides of the therapy experience — as a professional and as a client.
This dual perspective creates a unique blend of clinical excellence and genuine empathy.

What sets us apart:
– Advanced Clinical Training: Our therapists are trained in EMDR, EFT, IFS, Attachment-Based Therapy, CBT, and other evidence-based models.
– Weekly Collaboration: Our team meets weekly to discuss cases (confidentially) and enhance therapeutic effectiveness.
– Cash-Based Model: Because we are fully client-funded, our focus is 100% on creating meaningful results, not on meeting insurance quotas.
– Feedback-Driven: We don’t guess at what’s working — we ask, listen, and adapt based on your real-time experience.
– Respect for Your Time: Therapy here is structured to produce real change in a reasonable time frame. We work toward clear goals and measurable progress.

At New Growth, you’re not just another client.
You’re a person on a powerful journey — and we take that seriously.

The Meaning Behind “New Growth”

Growth is a process — and it’s rarely neat or easy.

The name “New Growth” evokes the early, tender stages of transformation.
It reminds us of springtime, when small buds, shoots, and leaves begin to appear — fragile at first, but destined to become strong branches and sturdy trunks.
In nature, growth is visible: it starts small, but given time, care, and the right conditions, it transforms landscapes.

Therapy is the same.
It begins internally — sometimes invisibly — with new insights, new patterns, new hopes.
Over time, these inner changes blossom into outward shifts in mindset, relationships, and daily life.

Growth can be difficult.
It can feel frustrating, slow, even painful at times.
At New Growth Counseling, we understand these challenges intimately.
Our mission is to support you through them with effective, efficient methods grounded in research and refined through experience.

You bring the courage.
We bring the tools, the support, and the unwavering belief that change is not only possible — it’s inevitable when nurtured well.