Anxiety & Overthinking
When Anxiety Starts Running the Show
Many people who struggle with anxiety and overthinking in San Francisco appear highly functional on the outside. They work hard, take care of responsibilities, show up for other people, and often look like they have things together. Internally, however, life can feel much more exhausting. Thoughts rarely quiet down. Decisions become difficult. Rest feels strangely uncomfortable. Relationships may become places of worry, self-doubt, or endless mental replaying after conversations have already ended.
For many people, anxiety is not only panic or obvious distress. Sometimes it looks more like constantly managing yourself — staying productive, staying prepared, staying vigilant, staying one step ahead of disappointment or uncertainty. Over time, this can become lonely and exhausting.
Therapy can become a place to slow things down enough to understand not only the anxiety itself, but what may be happening underneath it.
Common Experiences
Anxiety and overthinking can show up in many different ways. You may recognize yourself in some of these experiences:
• Constant mental replaying after conversations or interactions
• Difficulty relaxing, even when nothing is wrong
• Feeling responsible for anticipating problems before they happen
• Perfectionism, self-criticism, or difficulty making decisions
• Relationship anxiety or fear of disappointing others
• Trouble sleeping because your mind will not slow down
• Feeling exhausted by how much energy it takes to keep functioning
• Looking high-functioning externally while privately overwhelmed
• Difficulty turning off work, responsibility, or self-monitoring
• Feeling disconnected from yourself despite appearing successful
My Approach
My style is warm, thoughtful, and deeply engaged. Together we pay attention not only to symptoms but also to the emotional patterns underneath them — the ways anxiety, overthinking, perfectionism, or self-monitoring may have become necessary ways of coping.
Often anxiety is not simply something to eliminate, but something to understand. We explore how worry developed, what purpose it serves, and what emotional experiences may be difficult to slow down enough to feel.
Over time, many people find they become less governed by anxiety and more able to tolerate uncertainty, relationships, rest, and emotional life itself.
Next Steps
If this sounds familiar, therapy can become a place to better understand what anxiety may be trying to communicate — and to feel less alone with it.