Alia Adlakha has built Insight Therapy as a reflection of both personal history and deep professional experience.
Growing up in Santa Barbara fostered an early awareness of how powerful support systems can be in moments of crisis, while also revealing the quieter, often unseen struggles families and individuals carry behind closed doors.
That dual perspective continues to inform her therapeutic approach, which is grounded in compassion, presence and a deep respect for each person’s lived experience.
Early in her career, Adlakha worked extensively with youth and families throughout Santa Barbara County, including roles at AHA! and the Community Counseling and Education Center, and as a school-based therapist at Dunn School in Los Olivos.
Through leading groups, offering psychoeducation, running after-school programs, and providing individual therapy, she connected with hundreds of clients from diverse backgrounds.
These experiences sharpened her understanding of community-based mental health needs and reinforced the importance of early intervention, prevention and relational support.
They also planted the seed for creating a group practice devoted to helping people feel seen, supported and empowered, a place where healing is not only clinical but deeply human.
Adlakha’s perspective on mental health is further shaped by her family’s legacy. Her father was a founder of Pacifica Graduate Institute, an institution known for its focus on depth psychology, mythology and the inner life.
Growing up around that environment nurtured a respect for curiosity, imagination and listening beyond surface level symptoms.
Childhood memories of playfully imitating the role of a therapist and an enduring love for meaningful conversation reflect how naturally this path unfolded.
Today, those values are woven into Insight Therapy’s culture, from its emphasis on soul-centered work to the thoughtful design of its space, including the Healing Coast Art Exhibit featuring the Channel Islands, which reinforces a sense of calm, reflection and connection to place.
Clinically, Adlakha specializes in trauma-informed care, anxiety, depression, family systems, and the impact of screen use and digital stress on mental health.
Experiences sharpened her understanding of community-based mental health needs and reinforced the importance of early intervention, prevention and relational support.
With a strong foundation in child development and emotional regulation, she approaches therapy with both structure and empathy, helping clients understand not only what they are experiencing, but why.
This framework guides Insight Therapy’s mission to support people in reconnecting with themselves, strengthening relationships, and finding balance in an increasingly overwhelming world.
Insight Therapy works with children, adolescents, adults, couples and families. The practice offers a wide range of modalities, including acceptance and commitment therapy, eye movement desensitization and reprocessing trauma-informed therapy, internal family systems, somatic and mindfulness-based approaches, attachment-focused work, and play-based therapy for children.
Language access is another cornerstone of the practice, with services currently offered in English, Spanish, Armenian and Russian.
Accessibility remains a central priority, with insurance options, sliding-scale opportunities, and a continued commitment to making high-quality mental health care approachable, inclusive, and deeply rooted in genuine human connection.