Anxiety Therapy in San Diego
Understanding Anxiety
Anxiety is more than just worry. It’s the constant tension in your shoulders, the racing thoughts before sleep, the feeling that something bad is about to happen, even when everything seems fine on the outside. For many, anxiety isn’t just situational; it’s something that’s been with you for as long as you can remember.
Where Does Anxiety Come From?
While anxiety can be triggered by everyday stress, for many people, it’s deeply rooted in past experiences. Often, anxiety is a response to complex trauma. Complex trauma is when difficult, overwhelming experiences that may have left you feeling unsafe, unseen, or unheard. These could be childhood wounds, family dynamics, or relational betrayals that shaped the way your nervous system responds to the world.
When those early experiences go unresolved, your body learns to stay in protection mode, always scanning for danger, even when you’re safe now. Over time, this leads to chronic anxiety, perfectionism, people-pleasing, or emotional numbness.
How Therapy Can Help
Therapy provides a safe space to gently unpack the roots of your anxiety. This is not about “just thinking more positively”, it’s about healing the parts of you that learned anxiety was necessary for survival.
At our practice, we integrate:
Trauma-informed care to help your nervous system find safety again.
Mindfulness and somatic techniques to help you connect with your body and ease anxious thoughts.
Attachment-based healing to explore the relationship patterns that shaped your sense of self.
Inner child and parts work to honor the younger parts of you that needed protection and help them feel supported now.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) looks at what beliefs you have formed about yourself, others, and the world and helps you notice those patterns and gently challenge the stories your mind is telling you.
Can EMDR help with my anxiety?
Absolutely! EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) can help heal why those thoughts and reactions show up in the first place.
If your anxiety is rooted in past trauma, painful memories, or experiences where you felt powerless, EMDR works to rewire how those memories live in your nervous system. Instead of feeling hijacked by anxiety, EMDR helps your brain file the past where it belongs, so you can live more fully in the present.
With EMDR, you’ll work to:
Process old experiences that still trigger anxiety
Feel safer in your own body and environment
Build new, empowering beliefs about yourself
Create lasting change at both the emotional and nervous system level
Healing is Possible
Anxiety doesn’t have to run your life. Together, we’ll work to help you move from survival mode to a place of calm, clarity, and confidence. You deserve to feel safe in your own body and mind.
Let’s work together
Interested in working together? Fill out some info and we will be in touch shortly! We can't wait to hear from you!