Volare Counseling Rethinks Mental Health Treatment
Volare Counseling is advancing a whole person approach that connects mental health, medical perspectives, relationships, and practical support.
By
Aug 26, 2026
When someone seeks mental health care, the path forward can sometimes feel fragmented. A therapist may address one concern, a physician another, and a specialist a third, leaving the individual to connect the pieces. Volare Counseling is taking a different view. Led by Andrea Cruz, MA, LMFT, the integrative group practice is developing a model that considers the person as a whole rather than defining care around a single diagnosis or symptom.
For Volare, that philosophy begins with recognizing that emotional wellbeing does not exist separately from everyday life. Sleep, nutrition, movement, relationships, work, stress, finances, medical concerns, routines, and environmental factors can all form part of the circumstances surrounding a person's wellbeing. Its approach brings behavioral health, medical perspectives, functional medicine informed thinking, and practical support into a broader conversation about individual needs.
Moving Beyond A One Size Fits All Model
Volare's approach to therapy is designed around personalization. Its clinicians may draw from multiple evidence-informed approaches depending on an individual's goals, history, circumstances, and clinically appropriate needs.
Those approaches can include Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Dialectical Behavior Therapy, Internal Family Systems informed approaches, somatic and nervous system informed practices, trauma focused approaches including EMDR when appropriate, mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and humanistic and existential approaches.
The range reflects Volare's belief that no single therapeutic framework necessarily addresses every person's experience. Instead, clinicians can consider different perspectives while maintaining professional training, supervised clinical experience, and continuing education.
That philosophy is particularly relevant to a healthcare landscape in which people can experience overlapping emotional, physical, relational, and environmental challenges. Volare does not suggest that every concern has one underlying cause. Instead, its model encourages clinicians to examine the broader picture and determine when additional medical assessment, treatment, or referral may be appropriate.
Connecting Mental And Physical Perspectives
One of the defining elements of Volare's model is its multidisciplinary structure. The practice includes mental health clinicians, a Nurse Practitioner, and a physician, allowing medical perspectives to become part of the conversation when appropriate.
Its functional medicine informed perspective may consider areas including sleep and recovery, nutrition and lifestyle, stress, energy and fatigue, hormonal and metabolic considerations, medication and supplement considerations, medical history, physical symptoms, and environmental factors. Volare also makes clear that this perspective does not replace conventional medical care. Instead, it can provide another lens for identifying concerns that may warrant medical attention or collaboration with other qualified professionals.
This emphasis on collaboration extends beyond Volare's internal team. With appropriate consent and within professional scope, the practice can collaborate with therapists, physicians, Nurse Practitioners, psychiatrists, primary care providers, somatic practitioners, spiritual professionals, and other qualified specialists. When an issue falls outside its scope, the practice emphasizes referral rather than attempting to provide every answer itself.
Andrea Cruz's Vision For A More Connected Practice
Andrea Cruz's professional experience has shaped the philosophy behind Volare Counseling. A Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist, Clinical Director, and CAMFT Certified Clinical Supervisor, Cruz has worked across mental health, trauma, addiction, crisis care, residential treatment, and community based services. Her experience includes leading multidisciplinary teams, developing treatment programs, strengthening crisis response systems, and supporting clinicians.
Cruz holds a Bachelor of Arts in Theater Arts from California State University, Long Beach and a Master of Arts in Counseling Psychology from National University. She has been a licensed Marriage and Family Therapist since 2021 and became a CAMFT Certified Clinical Supervisor in 2024. Her academic interests have included humanistic psychology, environmental psychology, and holistic approaches to living. She also presented research at the American Psychological Association Conference in 2016 examining environmental psychology and Indigenous lessons on holistic living.
Her mission centers on helping people move from simply surviving their circumstances toward greater insight, resilience, confidence, and purposeful living. At the same time, Cruz's vision extends to the professionals delivering care. Volare is being developed as a group practice intended to support clinicians, coaches, and medical professionals through collaboration and a more sustainable practice environment.
A Former Client's Perspective
The impact of Cruz's approach is also reflected in the experiences of people she has worked with. One former client described Cruz as someone who created “a safe space” to look inward and do meaningful personal work, while introducing tools such as mindfulness and a holistic approach to mental health. The former client said they felt “really connected and heard” during their sessions and credited Cruz's guidance with inspiring them to pursue a career in the mental health field.
Reflecting on Cruz's lasting influence, the former client added that the tools she introduced are ones they continue to use in everyday life, describing her impact as deeply meaningful and expressing lasting gratitude for what they learned through their work together.
A Broader Conversation About The Future Of Care
Volare's model represents an attempt to bring greater connection to an experience that can otherwise feel divided among multiple providers and systems. Its focus is not on replacing established medical or mental health care, but on bringing appropriate perspectives together around the individual.
The practice also incorporates group experiences. Volare describes its small, structured circles as opportunities for participants to experience shared understanding, accountability, and connection. Groups are deliberately kept small, with facilitators trained in the Volare protocol and progress checkpoints incorporated into programs.
For a national audience increasingly interested in how mental health care can become more personalized and coordinated, Volare offers a distinct perspective: the individual should remain at the center of the care model.
Volare Counseling Recognized for Integrated Mental Health Care
Volare Counseling has been recognized by Evergreen Awards as the Best Integrated Mental Health and Wellness Provider in Long Beach, California of 2026, honoring its integrative approach to mental health, multidisciplinary philosophy, personalized care, and commitment to supporting the whole person.
The recognition reflects the qualities at the center of Volare’s model, including therapeutic versatility, whole-person care, multidisciplinary collaboration, group support, clinical leadership, professional development, and the ability to support people across different circumstances and stages of life.
For Volare Counseling, the distinction reinforces its broader philosophy: bringing clinical care, wellness perspectives, professional collaboration, and practical support together while keeping the individual at the center of care.
Explore Volare And Andrea Cruz
Readers interested in learning more about the people and practice behind Volare Counseling can explore the following official profiles and social channels:
Volare's message is ultimately straightforward. Mental health does not happen in isolation, and care does not have to be approached that way. By bringing clinical expertise, medical perspectives, practical considerations, and collaboration into a broader framework, Volare Counseling is working to create a model that reflects the complexity of real life while keeping the person, rather than the diagnosis, at the center.
