Services / Therapy for anxiety
Your anxiety is trying to tell you something.
Anxiety has a way of following you into every room, even the good ones. Most of the people I see for anxiety have been carrying it for a long time, often while looking completely fine. In session I’m steady and unhurried. We’ll get to know what your anxiety is responding to, at a pace that feels okay to you. In person in Newport Beach and Fullerton, or online anywhere in California.
Request a free consultation →Anxiety doesn’t always announce itself as anxiety.
Many of the people I work with have been anxious for so long that it feels like just who they are. It doesn’t have to be. Anxiety is a pattern that developed for reasons, and those reasons are worth understanding.
What anxiety can look like
How I work with anxiety
Understanding it, rather than silencing it.
My work draws on psychodynamic and attachment-based principles, where anxiety is understood to have a specific relationship to underlying feeling. When a deeper feeling begins to rise, particularly one that has been historically dangerous to experience, anxiety is what intercepts it. Rather than focusing on just soothing it, we go a layer deeper: what is your anxiety signaling, how did your experiences shape your nervous system’s sense of what is safe, and what feelings might be living just under the surface.
Beneath anxiety, there is almost always something else: grief that never found a place to land, anger that felt too dangerous to express, longing that carries an old memory of loss. The goal isn’t to make you someone who never feels anxious. It’s to develop a different relationship with anxiety, one where you can hear what it’s trying to say, rather than just trying to make it stop.
Anxiety often shows up in individual therapy. Read more about Nikole, or browse all services.
My approach →Who I work with
Composed on the outside.
Bracing underneath.
What to expect
Our work together
In early sessions we get to know you: the anxiety, your relationships, your history, when it shows up, and what your life has looked like around it.
As we get to know you better, we explore more of the patterns, stories, and relational histories that may be running the show. This is where meaningful work happens.
Over time, anxiety can become less in charge. You may find yourself responding rather than reacting, sitting with uncertainty without as much dread, and staying in touch with what you want underneath the worry.
Who you’d be working with
Spin cycle welcome.
Anxiety can make a person very good at seeming fine, and very good at adhering to unstated expectations, too: prepared, polite, a little apologetic about taking up space. The tangle of it all is welcome here. I’m calm, I’m curious, and I’m here for you. If your mind goes blank or you lose the thread halfway through a sentence, that’s okay. Sometimes that’s just what we need.
More about me →Anxiety therapy
Frequently asked questions
Can therapy actually help with anxiety?
Yes. Research on psychodynamic therapy, including Jonathan Shedler’s review of the evidence, has found it effective for anxiety, with benefits that tend to last after therapy ends. What helps depends on what’s driving your anxiety, which is one of the things we’d explore together.
What if my anxiety isn’t "bad enough" for therapy?
Anxiety doesn’t have to be debilitating to be worth addressing. If it’s affecting your relationships, your work, your ability to rest, or the life you want to pursue, that’s enough. A lot of people wait until anxiety has gotten very loud before seeking help. You don’t have to wait.
What does depth-oriented anxiety therapy focus on?
We explore the feelings, relationships, and history the anxiety grew up around, and what it may be protecting you from. For people whose anxiety keeps coming back despite everything they’ve tried, understanding what it’s responding to can open up something new.
Will we talk about my past?
Often, yes, though not in a way that feels disconnected from your present life. Attachment-based therapy is interested in how early experiences shaped the patterns you’re living out now. For many people, understanding where their anxiety was formed, and what it was originally responding to, can be what makes change possible. We always follow your pace and readiness.
Do you work with driving anxiety?
Yes. Fear of driving is a familiar shape for anxiety around here, given how much of Orange County life happens on the 405, the 55, and the 91. It can look like avoiding freeways, taking the long way, white-knuckling every merge, or arranging your week so someone else drives. Most people arrive having tried to talk themselves through it. In depth work we get curious about when it started, what the road came to stand for, and what rises up in you in those moments, alongside the very practical hope of getting you back behind the wheel.
How long does anxiety therapy take?
That depends on the depth and roots of the anxiety. I typically work with people in longer-term therapy of at least six months, because this kind of work takes time. Some people notice significant shifts within a few months; for others the work unfolds more gradually. How you’re feeling about the work is an ongoing, collaborative conversation between us.
Do you offer online anxiety therapy in California?
Yes. I offer telehealth sessions for anyone located in California through a secure video platform. Online anxiety therapy works very similarly to in-person sessions, and many clients find it equally valuable.
Next steps
Anxiety doesn’t have to run the show.
If you’re ready to understand what yours is really about, I’d be glad to hear from you. Reach out for a free 15-minute phone call, no pressure. Offices in-person in Newport Beach and Fullerton, or online throughout California.
Request a free consultation →