Find your way back to yourself.

Anxiety Therapy in Santa Rosa, Ca.

You’re tired of constantly striving and overdoing, yet still worrying that it is never enough.

It’s like you feel you have to keep yourself busy or else you’ll fall behind.

All of those intrusive thoughts, those loud annoying voices of your inner critic, perfectionist, and worrier are hijacking your life.

You are never good enough, never satisfied, always comparing yourself to others. The internal struggle is real. You just never seem to get a break from the mental chatter, from all of your responsibilities.

You feel burned out at work. You are finding yourself feeling easily triggered with more and more people. Everything just feels like too much. TOO MUCH.

You’re tired of dealing with the nagging neck and back pain, clenched teeth and a sore jaw, stomach aches and digestive issues.

You feel trapped in your body, trapped in your life. And you wonder if ‘This is all there is’.

Maybe you have tried all the things.

You do supplements, smoothies and self-help books. You do yoga and your 10,000 steps. Maybe you have already been to therapy and looked at your childhood and dysfunctional family patterns.

And some of what you have already done has helped a bit and even made you feel somewhat better for a little while. Unfortunately, though, it is fleeting and temporary.

The experience of alarm, the debilitating chronic stress cycle that seems to run your life always inevitably returns.

You still find yourself running on the hamster wheel to stay afloat. You still have a hard time catching a breath. You still continue to feel like your life is out of balance. Nothing you have tried thus far has actually transformed your anxiety and chronic stress in any significant way, and you’re wondering if real change for you is even possible.

Sound like you?

Struggling with a sense of unease and restlessness.

Tired of comparing yourself and your life to others.

Ready to stop feeling like you are not good enough.

Wishing you could quiet the constant mental chatter.

Here’s what we’ll do together

Body-centered Therapy can help you find balance and a calmer, more vital home inside of yourself.

How anxiety develops

Our nervous systems are designed to keep us safe. This means that your anxiety and chronic stress patterns originally developed out of survival strategies. When you were young it was how your nervous system brilliantly figured out how to protect you when you were feeling unsafe and unsupported.

These early adaptive survival responses that you developed served a vital function at one time.

These survival responses were essential at one time. Yet currently those same strategies, however useful they may have been in certain situations, are limiting your life today.

It is as if you are still reacting from this survival state of alarm, as if the danger from your past traumas are still occurring in the present.

What happens in your body when anxious

Our autonomic nervous system is comprised of the Sympathetic State (fight, flight or freeze) and the Parasympathetic State (rest and digest). We need both of these states to be rhythmically working harmoniously in partnership together in order for us to be healthy, regulated and responsive to life.

When our Sympathetic State is in balance it helps us thrive.

Healthy stress is actually necessary for our well-being. We rely on the energy that comes from stress to mobilize us in our life so that we can live a healthy fulfilling joyful life.

The problem arises when stress turns from healthy vital energy to a type of chronic stress response.

A chronic stress response is where the Sympathetic part of our nervous system is in complete hijacked mode. This is where there isn’t enough balance or flexibility alongside the Parasympathetic State - thus giving rise to anxiety and panic.

It’s as if the chronic Stress Response becomes the default mode never turning off. The stress hormones, cortisol and adrenaline, just keep pouring into the system causing inflammation and dis-ease.

How we will transform your anxiety

In order to actually shift the experience of anxiety and chronic stress we have to work with your body and nervous system, because this is where the chronic alarm is set on default mode. In order to shift this we have to restore your rhythms, and bring in more energy from the rest and digest, safely connected Parasympathetic State.

The way to transform your patterns of anxiety and chronic stress is to bring in more regulation, safety and support into your system so that you are no longer operating out of your early adaptive survival responses.

What the process looks like

In sessions together I will guide you through a creative process where we will map your different nervous system states bringing deeper awareness, compassion and insight into the habitual learned survival patterns that lead you down the spiral of stress and overwhelm.

I will guide you to turn your attention inward so that you can bring deeper awareness to all the various anxious stressed-out parts.

Through curiosity and compassion we can explore the functions that these survival strategies have served for you.

Together we will explore how you are feeling, sensing, noticing different parts of your body and your breath as we turn our attention towards these anxious and stressed-out voices.

Using imagery, mindfulness, gentle movements and breath awareness

We will discover new options, new patterns of movement, thoughts, and behavior in which these parts of you can start to safely embody.

This somatic process enables your nervous system to re-wire your anxious stressed-out patterns.

Newer healthier and more vital neural connections form as you start to embody a felt-sense of support, safety and regulation.

This process offers a whole new way of coming home to yourself.

This somatic journey will enable you to create new experiences of calm and connection, greater ease and joy in yourself and in your life.

At the end of the day, I want you to know:

You are strong enough to shift the cycle of chronic stress and anxiety. With the right support and process you can reconnect with yourself and teach your nervous system a whole new way of Being.

What we’ll work on

Imagine a life where…

  • Your relationships feel deeply satisfying - you can fully express yourself and get your needs met.

  • Work doesn’t feel draining or unmanageable anymore.

  • You’re connected to yourself, feeling lighter, more spacious and in a pleasurable flow with your life.

  • Your past no longer holds your system hostage - you have shifted out of survival mode and into thriving mode.

Change is possible.

Change is possible.

Questions?

FAQs

  • Yes. This approach is extremely effective no matter where you are starting from in relation to your body. If you are open to remaining curious in exploring and shifting your relationship to your body/mind even if it may be challenging at times - Transformation happens.

    Safely with support at a pace that feels just right for you, we will listen and connect to the innate wisdom of your body and it’s cues as we embark on re-shaping your nervous system for lasting change.

  • Yes, transforming your anxiety is really possible through online work. There are always advantages to working in-person, but there are also a significant number of advantages of working online. Since Covid many people have discovered that they actually prefer it as well.

    People appreciate the convenience of online therapy, not having to leave their home or office, get in their car and deal with traffic. They find that this actually alleviates a lot of extra stress when arriving to therapy as well as transitioning after the session.

    Safety is one of the key components to working with your nervous system when shifting the patterns of chronic stress. Having sessions in your own environment orients you to an experience of familiarity, comfort and safety which can truly support the changes and facilitate the healing process.

  • Some people find that they can make significant shifts in their anxiety within the first 3-4 months of working weekly together.

    For other people they may notice more gradual changes in their nervous system. Their patterns of chronic stress gradually shift as they uncover deeper layers, and by 6 -12 months feel that their relationship to themselves and their anxiety has significantly transformed.