About Us
Why P2C Exists
We wanted to build a place where all people would feel welcome and where they would experience their own dignity and humanity.
The CEO, Dustin Shultz, was a pastor before he was a therapist. Evangelical upbringing, undergraduate degree in ministry, then work in the churches that raised him.
The longer Dustin read the Gospels, the more one pattern kept surfacing. Jesus ministered to the people at the edges; the ones society had turned its back on. But he didn’t see the same focus in the church he grew up in.
So many faith communities have abandoned those basic principles of compassion and inclusion.
Dustin chose to leave his church community and devoted himself to creating a refuge for people at the margins.
Two Paths to the Same Mission
Dr. Kaneeza Lafir reached the same commitment from another direction.
Born and raised in Sri Lanka, in a culture where mental health went undiscussed and emotional pain stayed hidden, she has spent more than 30 years in the United States. “I know what it feels like to be seen through broad cultural assumptions rather than as a whole person. That made me even more committed to understanding the uniqueness of each individual.”
Kaneeza was Dustin’s supervisor from his first day as a clinician and his mentor every day since. He still calls her the biggest voice in his head, ahead of any theorist he reads. Much of that supervision happened on foot.
They walked, they talked, and the conversations went deep fast, because both had spent a long time on the outside of groups where they were supposed to belong. Out of that, they started dreaming out loud about what they could build.
Two Heartbeats
People need a champion. Someone willing to be in the darkness with them and help them move toward the light.
We are that champion in two ways.
The first is low-cost counseling delivered in the community where the marginalization happens. Serious, depth-oriented therapy, reaching families that most of the market has priced out.
The second is developing the next generation of clinicians. We train them inside an organization whose foundation is simple: you belong, you are human, you have dignity.
Those two heartbeats run on the same pulse. A supervised session provides care to a family and forms a clinician in the same hour. Kaneeza, who has trained and supervised many of the people here, describes what that does: “When we show up for our trainees, they learn how to show up for their clients.” Her frame for it is that supervision mirrors therapy, and growth happens inside a relationship where someone feels seen, understood, challenged, and supported.
The clinicians we form go on to touch lives we will never see. That is the part of our impact that reaches furthest.
How the Clinic is Built
Twelve providers practice here across three license tiers: licensed therapists, associates accruing hours toward licensure, and master’s-level trainees. Six of our clinicians are supervisors. Clinical operations run under our Clinical Director, Dr. Kelly Granger.
Every pre-licensed clinician carries their caseload under close, ongoing supervision. That structure is the quality commitment. Work gets examined weekly by someone senior, which means a family sitting with an associate or a trainee is getting the attention of more than one clinical mind.
Many of the people on this team have known, trained, or supervised one another for years, and in some cases for decades. Each keeps their own practice. They come here for the same reason.
We see clients from age ten through adulthood, individually, as couples, and as whole families, in Tustin, in Newport Beach, and online anywhere in California.
Our Team
Dr. Kaneeza Lafir
Founder
Dustin Shultz, LMFT
Chief Executive Officer
April Twenhafel, LMFT
Chief Operating Officer
Dr. Kelly Granger
Clinical Director
Eila Alvarez
Melissa Hodge
Amy T.
Kyle H.
Lauren H.
Heather
Soul Sanctuary
Soul Sanctuary is our outreach initiative, led by April Twenhafel, LMFT, our Chief Operating Officer. It works directly with churches and faith communities across Orange County.
April came to therapy through that world. She spent three years in a church community care department doing outreach and crisis counseling, kept meeting people who needed more than she was trained to give, and went back for a master’s in marriage and family therapy so she could go further with them.
The way it runs is straightforward. We make contact with a church, meet as partners, and people from that community come to us through a normal intake. Some are seen at our offices. Some are seen by a therapist who goes to the church campus.
Between faith communities and mental health care there is a long-standing stigma in both directions. Soul Sanctuary exists to work on it from both sides at once.
What We Never Do
Prepare to Change Child and Family Counseling does not discriminate, exclude, or treat any individual or family differently on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, religion, sex (including pregnancy), sexual orientation, gender identity or expression (the patient’s preferred gender will be respected, and the patient will be referred to by their name and pronoun of choice).
Every individual will be treated with dignity, compassion, and respect.
Start Where You Are
The first conversation runs 20 minutes and costs nothing. Bring whatever you are carrying, in whatever shape it is in.
We will listen, ask a few questions, and give you a straight answer about whether this is the right place for you.
Office are in Tustin and Newport Beach, plus we offer online sessions throughout California and serve ages ten through adulthood.
Start With a Conversation
Twenty minutes, free, no obligation. Tell us what is going on, and we will tell you honestly whether this is the right place for you. If it turns out we are not, we will point you toward somewhere that is.
Two offices, Tustin and Newport Beach, plus online sessions anywhere in California.