What brings most people here.
Social Anxiety
"I rehearse conversations before they happen and replay them for days after."
Not just shyness, but a constant background calculation of how you're being perceived, and a nervous system that treats a work meeting or a group text the way it might treat real danger. Therapy can help you understand how your inner critic or tendency to avoid is trying to protect you, and loosen the grip anxiety has on your social life.
People Pleasing
"I don't want to, but I can't say no...I'd feel so guilty."
You're the reliable one, the calm one, the one who reads the room before anyone asks you to. Underneath the competence is usually exhaustion, quiet resentment, and a hard time knowing what you actually want. This work isn't about caring less, but rather learning to tolerate other's reactions when you set a boundary.
Childhood Trauma
"I can't believe something that happened so long ago is still affecting me."
This doesn't always mean one dramatic event, although it can be. Often, it's years of emotional neglect, parentification, instability, or having to be "the strong one" too early. It leaves a nervous system on high alert long after the situation that caused it is over. We work at a pace your system can actually tolerate.
Recent Trauma
"Something happened, and I don't feel like myself since."
A breakup, a loss, an accident, an assault, a diagnosis — something recent enough that it still feels raw and disorienting. EMDR can be a great intervention for recent trauma, as it can help your brain and body feel settled again.
Relationship Anxiety
"I'm afraid I'll say the wrong thing and they will leave. I'm also afraid I'm in the wrong relationship all the time."
Overanalyzing texts, monitoring a partner's mood, apologizing before you've done anything wrong, or picking fights to test whether they'll stay — these are old survival strategies showing up in a present-day relationship. We look at where the fear actually comes from, so you feel empowered to communicate your needs without the fear of losing connection.
Highly Sensitive People
"I feel different from other people sometimes. I get overwhelmed easily and other people seem to be fine."
If you've always run on a higher setting than most people around you — more affected by criticism, more overwhelmed by noise or crowded rooms, more attuned to other people's moods than your own — you may be a highly sensitive person. It's not a disorder, but it does mean your nervous system needs a different pace and a different kind of care than most generic advice accounts for. Often, people with ADHD or Autism may experience high sensitivity to emotions or stimulation.
These rarely show up alone.
In practice, people don't experience just one of these. The woman who can't say no at work is often the same one who can't relax in her family. The social anxiety and the childhood experience of "not wanting to be a burden" are frequently the same root.
In addition to anxiety and trauma, I also enjoy working with women who are neurodivergent, and feel as though their experience in a neurotypical world has contributed to shame, fear, and negative beliefs about themselves.
Instead of treating each label separately, we start with what's actually happening for you. Depending on your goals, EMDR or IFS may be a better fit for you.
