Anxiety Therapy in Berkeley & San Francisco

Does Anxiety Run Your Life?

Maybe it starts the moment you wake up—that knot in your stomach, the tightness in your chest. Your mind immediately begins spinning through everything that could go wrong today. You replay conversations from yesterday. You rehearse conversations that haven't even happened yet. The what-ifs pile up faster than you can push them away.

Or perhaps your anxiety shows up as panic—sudden waves of terror that seem to come out of nowhere. Your heart races. You can't catch your breath. You feel like you're dying or losing your mind. And afterward, you're left exhausted and terrified it will happen again.

Maybe you avoid things. Social situations that used to be fine now feel impossible. You turn down invitations, skip events, take longer routes to avoid certain places. Your world gets smaller and smaller, but the anxiety doesn't go away—it just finds new things to attach to.

Types of Anxiety I Can Help With

Anxiety shows up differently for different people. You might recognize yourself in one or several of these:

• Generalized Anxiety (GAD): Chronic worry about multiple things—work, health, family, money, the future. Your mind never shuts off. Even good days feel fragile because something could always go wrong.
• Panic Disorder: Sudden, intense episodes of fear with physical symptoms—racing heart, sweating, trembling, feeling like you can't breathe or like you're having a heart attack.
• Social Anxiety: Overwhelming fear of judgment or embarrassment in social situations. You worry people are scrutinizing everything you say and do. Sometimes you avoid social situations altogether.
• Health Anxiety: Constant worry about your health, googling symptoms, needing reassurance from doctors, interpreting normal body sensations as signs of serious illness.
• Performance Anxiety: Intense fear before presentations, tests, performances, or any situation where you'll be evaluated. The anxiety itself often interferes with your performance.
• Phobias: Intense, irrational fear of specific things—flying, heights, enclosed spaces, certain animals, needles, blood. The fear is disproportionate but feels very real.
• OCD: Intrusive thoughts that won't go away, leading to repetitive behaviors or mental rituals to try to ease the anxiety.

Whatever form your anxiety takes, please know: it's treatable. You don't have to live like this.

Why Anxiety Happens (And Why It's So Hard to Control)

Anxiety isn't logical. That's why telling yourself "there's nothing to worry about" doesn't work. Your thinking brain knows you're probably fine. But your nervous system is operating from a different place entirely.

Here's what's actually happening: Your brain has an alarm system (the amygdala) designed to detect threats and activate your fight-flight-freeze response. This system saved your ancestors from predators. It's supposed to turn on when there's danger and turn off when the danger passes.

But with anxiety, this system has become oversensitive. It's sounding alarms for things that aren't actually dangerous—a work email, a social gathering, leaving the house, uncertainty about the future. And once activated, your whole body responds as if you're in real danger: heart racing, muscles tense, breathing shallow, mind hyperalert.

The good news? You can retrain this system. That's exactly what we do in anxiety therapy.

How Anxiety Therapy Actually Works

Effective anxiety treatment isn't about "just relaxing" or "thinking positive." It's about understanding what's happening in your nervous system and giving you concrete tools to work with it.

Here's My Approach:

1. Understand Your Anxiety Pattern
We start by mapping out how anxiety shows up for you specifically. What triggers it? What physical sensations do you notice? What thoughts run through your mind? What do you do to try to cope? Understanding the pattern is the first step to changing it.

2. Learn to Calm Your Nervous System
I'll teach you practical techniques that actually work to bring your body out of fight-flight-freeze mode: breathing exercises that engage your parasympathetic nervous system, grounding techniques to pull you out of spiraling thoughts, and somatic practices to release tension you're holding in your body.

3. Change Your Relationship with Anxious Thoughts
Instead of trying to fight anxious thoughts or make them go away, we learn to observe them without getting caught up in them. We identify thinking patterns that fuel anxiety (catastrophizing, mind-reading, all-or-nothing thinking) and develop more balanced perspectives.

4. Face What You've Been Avoiding (Gradually and Safely)
Avoidance gives temporary relief but makes anxiety worse long-term. Together, we'll create a plan to gradually face the situations you've been avoiding—at a pace that feels manageable. Each small step builds confidence and proves to your nervous system that you can handle it.

5. Address Underlying Issues
Sometimes anxiety is connected to deeper things—past trauma, attachment wounds, perfectionism, unprocessed emotions. Using Internal Family Systems (IFS) and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT), we explore what your anxiety might be trying to protect you from and heal those underlying vulnerabilities.

What You'll Gain from Anxiety Therapy

My goal isn't to eliminate anxiety completely—some anxiety is normal and even helpful. The goal is to:

• Reduce the intensity and frequency of your anxiety
• Stop panic attacks or make them much less frequent
• Learn to recognize anxiety early before it spirals
• Have practical tools to calm yourself in the moment
• Stop avoiding things that matter to you
• Sleep better without worry keeping you up
• Make decisions without getting paralyzed by "what if"
• Enjoy your life instead of constantly bracing for disaster

In other words: anxiety might not disappear completely, but it will stop running your life.

Common Questions About Anxiety Therapy

"How long does it take to see results?"

Many people notice some relief within the first few sessions as they learn grounding techniques and start understanding their anxiety patterns. More significant, lasting change typically happens over 3-6 months of consistent work. Everyone's timeline is different.

"What if talking about my anxiety makes it worse?"

We don't just talk about anxiety—we work with it actively and build skills to manage it. I'll teach you techniques to calm your nervous system before we explore difficult territory. You're always in control of the pace.

"Will I need medication?"

That's not something I can decide for you—I'm a therapist, not a psychiatrist. But I can help you think through whether medication might be helpful and connect you with a psychiatrist for evaluation if that feels right. Many people benefit from both therapy and medication, especially for severe anxiety.

"What if I have a panic attack during a session?"

That's okay. I'm trained to help you through it. In fact, experiencing anxiety in session gives us an opportunity to practice calming techniques in real-time. You're safe here.

"Can anxiety really get better, or will I always be anxious?"

Anxiety can absolutely get better. I've seen people who couldn't leave their house become able to travel freely. People who had daily panic attacks go months without one. People who worried constantly learn to have anxious thoughts without them taking over. Change is possible.

What to Expect in Your First Session

In our first meeting, we'll talk about:

• How anxiety shows up for you specifically—symptoms, triggers, patterns
• What you've already tried and what's helped (or hasn't)
• Your goals for therapy—what would "better" look like?
• Any relevant history—family history of anxiety, past trauma, medical factors
• Practical details about how we'll work together

I'll also teach you at least one grounding technique before you leave, so you walk out with something practical you can use right away.

Investment in Your Well-Being

Session fees are $250 per 50-minute session. I offer a limited number of sliding scale spots for those with financial need. I'm in-network with select insurance plans, and can provide superbills for out-of-network reimbursement.

Most people start with weekly sessions. As your anxiety becomes more manageable, we might move to every other week. Many people notice significant improvement within 3-4 months of consistent work.

Take the First Step Toward Relief

I know reaching out when you're anxious can feel overwhelming. Your mind might be giving you all sorts of reasons to wait—"Maybe it'll get better on its own," "What if I can't afford it," "What if the therapist thinks I'm overreacting."

But here's the thing: Anxiety rarely gets better on its own. And the longer you wait, the more it can take over your life.

You deserve to feel calmer. You deserve to sleep through the night. You deserve to say yes to opportunities instead of avoiding them because of anxiety.

I offer a free 20-minute phone consultation. No pressure, no commitment. Just a conversation about what you're experiencing and how I might be able to help.

Call me at (415) 722-4699 or fill out the contact form below.