California Teen Center is an Upscale,
Doctor-Owned IOP in Yuba City.
The California Teen Center Difference
Small groups run by doctors. At California Teen Center, group therapy sessions have 5 kids or fewer. This small, intimate setting means that every child gets far more attention here than at other centers. Some of our groups are run by doctors (Sayeh Beheshti, MD or Lauren Armstrong, PsyD). We have groups run by licensed therapists as well. Our doctors know every child and every parent personally.
The “doctor-owned” difference. California Teen Center is owned by a medical doctor, a highly trained psychiatrist. Come and experience the “doctor-owned” difference. You’ll have doctor access every day you’re here.
We get great results! At California Teen Center, we treat patients with moderate to severe mental illness. If your child is coming off a psychiatric hospitalization or a suicide attempt, please call us first. We are not afraid of acute cases, and we can get your child healthy again without you having to ship them out of town to a residential facility. If you want your child to stay home and attend school while recovering from a crisis, call California Teen Center.
About California Teen Center
California Teen Center is owned and operated by Dr. Sayeh Beheshti. Dr. Beheshti has many years of experience specializing in treating a wide range of behavioral and developmental disorders commonly seen in teenagers.
At California Teen Center, we focus on creating a safe, nurturing space to help children, adolescents, and their families. Our center specializes in providing children and teens with a range of mental health services in a way that is minimally disruptive to their daily lives.
We are committed to empowering kids to live full, happy lives by treating all underlying mental health issues. We treat patient between the ages of 8-19 struggling with depression, anxiety, trauma, self-esteem and body image disorders, and a range of other mental health and developmental disorders.
Our goal is to enhance the everyday lives of teens and their families through our quality clinical care and comprehensive range of services, all in a welcoming, family-like environment.
Our Team
We are committed to helping your teen
With many years of combined experience working with adolescents and families, our team of highly skilled, compassionate clinicians is here to help. Learn more about each of the California Teen Center team members.
Dr. Sayeh Beheshti
Owner & Medical Director
Doctor Beheshti is a medical doctor and psychiatrist with previous experience at the
UCI Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Center. Dr. Beheshti has a philosophy of treating each patient as an individual with unique needs and circumstances. She firmly believes the best way to formulate an ideal treatment modality for adolescents is through establishing a strong therapeutic relationship with them and their parents, and understanding their needs within the context of their biological, psychological, and spiritual makeup as well as the environmental and social context in which they live in. Dr. Beheshti is our full-time psychiatrist and is only available at California Teen Center.
Dr. Lauren Armstrong
Clinical Director
Dr. Lauren is a highly passionate licensed clinical psychologist with a PsyD from Pepperdine University, and has been working with children and adolescents for the past ten years. She is an expert in working with the most challenging psychological presentations such as trauma, self harm, mood dysregulation, aggression, and other unsafe or maladaptive coping mechanisms. Dr. Lauren always believes in her patients, even when everyone else has stopped believing in them. She never loses hope, and tirelessly works with patients and their families on improving their relationships, coping skills, and positive change.
I first met Dr. Beheshti in 2006. She is smart, kind, and easy to talk to and was easily one of my favorite components of a high-quality mental health program I was enrolled in. As a dual diagnosis patient with a long history of anxiety and depression, managing the medical component of my progress has been critical to being able to grow as a person and move past my issues. I left the treatment center after six months, and I decided to keep seeing Dr. Beheshti while I tried to get my life back together. Within a few years, I was back in school, working, had built meaningful relationships with my family, and had real friends. I felt like a person again.
My family and I have been working with Dr. Sayeh Beheshti for the past 10 years. Dr. Beheshti began seeing my youngest daughter as she was struggling with adapting to high school. We were included, with my daughter’s and Dr. Beheshti’s invitation, to work together as a family. We quickly learned that Dr. Beheshti was the rare psychiatrist who combined a thorough and comprehensive knowledge of pharmacology with a deft, sensitive and supportive approach to therapy. When my daughter required a more intensive program, Dr. Beheshti helped us find and select a program that has greatly benefited my daughter.
After I severely injured myself and elected to prematurely retire, I started working with Dr. Beheshti to help me work through the anxiety and depression that followed my somewhat involuntary life change. Again, Dr. Beheshti brought to our therapy her insightful and growth-focused therapeutic approach and a conservative, yet creative, psychiatric drug therapy. Our work together has truly made my transition to my new life an enjoyable and satisfying experience.
You might be surprised to learn that it is with much difficulty that I pen this endorsement because, quite simply, there exist an infinite quantity of marvelous proclamations to be made about the outstanding, esteemed Dr. Beheshti. She is a remarkable practitioner with whom I have known and worked for the past decade. Meeting this brilliant, compassionate, tremendously experienced psychiatrist has not only been one of my greatest fortunes, it has also evolved into one of the most impactful, positively life-affecting relationships of my life. Dr. Beheshti approaches real life issues with real life solutions. Her always unpretentious, never judgmental, perpetually positive style of treatment affords her clients the opportunity to delve to the core of any matter with which they’re dealing, proactively and effectively address it, and move forward. There are many qualities that distinguish Dr. Beheshti as unique and wonderfully different from her peers, including the innovative, individualized techniques she uses to engage each client through their own specific looking glass — that lens through which a person sees themself and the world around them — instead of requiring them to look through hers. Words fail to adequately express the relief that comes upon knowing that another person sees and feels things as you do. Dr. Beheshti’s rare willingness to see the world from her client’s mindset, not to mention her capacity for doing just that, is something which I consider to be one of the most beneficial, effectual outcomes of working with Dr. Beheshti. Her gentle and subtle, yet candid and enthusiastic way of adopting each client’s individual perspective allows her to quickly identify that which exists beyond the surface; a barrier most mental health practitioners fail to breach even after years of interaction with their clients. Her skill is further enhanced by the vast repertoire of tools, tools for dealing with any situation with which life presents a person, that she has developed and honed across years of practice in multiple, varied clinical settings; a toolset that Dr. Beheshti works diligently to assure quickly becomes the client’s own so that outside of her care, the client is functionally equipped to confront and deal with triggering situations. Finally, the reader might be wondering why, when attesting to the accomplishments of a psychiatrist, the word “patient” is nowhere to be found. Its absenteeism is thoughtfully intentional and a reflection of the fact that I have not once felt like Dr. Beheshti’s patient. Instead, I have always felt I am her friend, a member of her family, and someone not only very cared for, but also gratefully in the care of an extraordinary doctor.
Payment Options
Health Insurance
We accept PPO insurance from Blue Shield of California, United, Cigna, Aetna, Anthem, and Blue Cross Blue Shield. There are some smaller plans we also accept, so if your insurance is not listed, please give us a call to check. We do not accept Medi-CAL.
Cash Pay
California Teen Center accepts checks and credit cards to make your payment easy. Payment will be processed once a month, at the beginning of each treatment episode.
High Deductible?
If your insurance plan has a high deductible, call us and we can arrange a payment schedule that is reasonable and will not cause a financial hardship.