Sal Avila is an Associate Marriage and Family Therapist (AMFT) and Associate Professional Clinical Counselor (APCC) at Tonalli Therapy & Consulting, seeing clients in-person in Orinda and virtually throughout the Bay Area and California. He works with children, teens, and young adults navigating trauma, anxiety, depression, identity, and life transitions — offering therapy in both English and Spanish.

What Sal Specializes In

Sal works with young people and adults navigating:

• Trauma & PTSD (including EMDR therapy)

• Anxiety and depression

• Academic pressure, performance anxiety, and burnout in teens and young adults

• Identity development and cultural belonging

• Acculturation stress and intergenerational dynamics

• Life transitions and grief

• Systemic and racialized stress

• The pressure of being "the strong one" in your family or community

• Immigration evaluations

Sal has experience working in school settings supporting pre-teens and adolescents — and he continues to work in schools with high schoolers today. This gives him a firsthand understanding of the pressure young people carry around academic performance, identity, and belonging. He knows what it looks like when a teen is struggling beneath the surface, and how to create a space where they can actually talk about it.

How Sal Works

Sal uses a trauma-informed, integrative approach that combines:

• EMDR therapy to help process and reduce the impact of difficult experiences

• Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) to identify and shift unhelpful patterns

• Relational therapy to explore how your relationships and environment shape you

• Cultural humility and identity-affirming care to honor your full story

• Collaborative, client-centered sessions paced to feel right for you

The result is therapy that feels relevant and grounded — not one-size-fits-all — with real focus on understanding your patterns and building tools for lasting change.