Therapy for Anxiety
When your mind won't stop running - and you're exhausted from trying to keep up.
Individual therapy for women whose anxiety has turned into late-night "what ifs," a harsh inner critic, and the quiet conviction that it's your job to hold everything together. In-person in Palo Alto & virtual throughout California.
The part no one prepares you for
You've read the books. You know what you "should" do. And still - your mind keeps spiraling.
From the outside, you look like you've got it together. You're thoughtful. You're capable. People rely on you.
But inside, your mind rarely stops. You replay conversations at 2am. You rehearse what you'll say before you say it. You read into tones, texts, and silences. You're the friend who apologizes after someone else is rude.
And when something actually goes wrong, your whole system goes offline - racing thoughts, tight chest, the urge to fix it or disappear.
You might recognize yourself in any of this:
You lie awake replaying what you said, what they said, what you should have said.
You feel responsible for keeping everyone else comfortable - even when you're the one falling apart.
You second-guess every decision, then second-guess the second-guessing.
Your inner critic is louder than any kind voice in your life.
You can't stop thinking about it - whatever "it" is this week.
You're "fine" to the people around you, and quietly exhausted to yourself.
The thinking isn't the real problem. The exhaustion underneath it is.
The part no one sees
Overthinking is often framed as a bad habit - something you could just stop doing if you tried hard enough. So you've tried. You've journaled. You've downloaded the apps. You've read the self-help books. You've made pros-and-cons lists that only made things worse.
And still, it comes back. Because anxiety and overthinking aren't character flaws. They're old strategies - protective parts of you that learned, somewhere along the way, that staying three steps ahead kept you safe.
The cost adds up quietly:
You're successful on paper and depleted in your body.
You've been dysregulated for so long that calm feels foreign, maybe even suspicious.
You know your patterns are keeping you stuck - and knowing doesn't make them stop.
You wonder what it would feel like to actually trust yourself.
You don't need another productivity hack or mindset reframe. You need a space to slow things down and understand what your anxiety has been trying to do for you all along.
You can't think your way out of a nervous system that's been running on high for years.
My approach to anxiety therapy is grounded in Internal Family Systems (IFS), Somatic IFS, and polyvagal theory. That's a mouthful - here's what it actually looks like in session.
We get curious about your anxiety, instead of trying to silence it.
The part of you that overthinks didn't show up for no reason. It's been doing a job - often since long before you had the words for it. Together, we slow things down enough to understand what it's been protecting you from, and what it needs now.
We look underneath the pattern.
Most of the anxiety that runs your life was shaped by something earlier - a belief you learned, a role you took on, a moment you decided it was safer to think than to feel. We honor where it came from and help it finally rest.
We work with the body, not just the mind.
Anxiety lives in your nervous system, not only in your thoughts. Using somatic work and practices grounded in polyvagal theory, we build real capacity for emotional regulation - not as a technique to perform, but as a felt sense you can actually return to.
We go at your pace.
Therapy here isn't about pushing through or pulling yourself together. It's collaborative, steady, and paced so you never have to perform or prove anything. You don't need to have it figured out before you come in.
A quieter mind. A steadier body. A life that feels like yours again.
Clients don't usually describe the change as dramatic. It's more like the noise slowly turning down. The loop that used to hijack your afternoon softens. The inner critic gets quieter, or at least less convincing. You notice your own reactions a beat earlier - and find that you have a choice.
Over time, many women notice:
Less reactivity in the moments that used to spin you out.
More room to breathe in your own body, not just your schedule.
A kinder, more honest relationship with yourself.
The ability to set boundaries without a week of guilt afterward.
More trust in your own decisions - and less need for outside reassurance.
A clearer sense of what actually matters to you, underneath the noise.
You might also be exploring
Where anxiety often shows up next
Therapy for Life Transitions
If your anxiety is wrapped up in a bigger life shift - divorce, empty nest, a career you've outgrown, or simply a life that no longer fits - start here.
Relationships & People Pleasing
If your anxiety mostly shows up in relationships - fawning, over-functioning, shrinking to keep the peace, or staying in dynamics that aren't good for you - there's more on that here.
Frequently asked
Questions women often bring to the first call
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If you've been wondering that, it's already bad enough. You don't need to be in crisis to benefit from therapy. Many of the women I work with look fine on paper and feel quietly depleted inside. That's exactly who this work is for.
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Those tools can help, but they're often aimed at managing the surface of anxiety rather than understanding the parts of you creating it.
Our work together focuses on the deeper question - where did this pattern start, what has it been protecting, and what does it need now - so change happens from the inside out, not through more willpower.
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We might, when it's relevant. Many anxious patterns trace back to early experiences and the beliefs we learned about ourselves. But this isn't about digging through the past for its own sake. We follow what comes up, at your pace.
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That's a very normal experience for the women who end up in my office. The free consultation call exists for exactly that reason - low-stakes, 15 to 20 minutes, no pressure. You don't need to be certain before you reach out.
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Internal Family Systems (IFS) is a gentle, non-pathologizing model that sees anxiety and overthinking as protective parts of you - not problems to fix. You don't need any background in it. I'll walk you through everything as we go.
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Never. Everything we do is collaborative and invitation-based. If body-based practices aren't a fit for you - for any reason - we'll focus on other doorways in.
Ready to feel more grounded?
The first step is a conversation.
A free 15 minute consultation call - a chance to share a little about what's going on, ask me anything about how I work, and see if it feels like a fit. No commitment, no pressure.
In-person in Palo Alto · Virtual sessions throughout California