Anxiety and Depression Therapy Online in California
Your Mind Rarely Lands Where Your Feet Are
Your body sits at the dinner table while your mind is already at tomorrow’s meeting, next month’s bills and a conversation that hasn’t happened yet.
Then it doubles back to last week and goes over what you said and what you should have done.
Anxiety tends to live in the future, and depression tends to live in the past.
When most of your hours get spent in one or the other, the present moment gets very little of you.
Everyone Else’s Needs Keep Moving to the Front of the Line
Life gets too busy to find time for your own needs, so they wait.
Quietly, you start to resent the people you’re sacrificing for, and then you feel guilty for the resentment.
Pleasing everyone takes so much effort that your own voice gets harder to hear.
Without ever deciding to, you took charge of how everyone around you feels, which is a job nobody can ever finish.
Why You Snap Over the Small Things
Irritability is often the first sign, well before anyone uses the words anxiety or depression.
Count everything you’re keeping track of and the list gets long fast: everyone’s moods, how the holidays go and a picture of how life was supposed to turn out.
Every one of those pulls your attention away from the one place where you can actually do something, which is right now.
If being pushed this hard for this long has brought you to feelings of wanting to hurt yourself or die, you can say that out loud with me.
Stop the Train and Get Off
Mindfulness teaches us to stop the train and step off into the present moment, where neither anxiety nor depression has much room to breathe.
In session, we start small: noticing your breath, your feet and what’s in front of you while the worry keeps talking.
From there, I’ll help you enjoy the small moments again and take time back for yourself so you can recharge.
Think of me as your coach: we huddle, pick a strategy, you try it during your week, and we come back to see what happened.
Loosen Your Grip on How Things Should Go
Buddhist principles help us detach from our expectations, the ones we hold for ourselves and the ones we hold for the people we love.
I bring them in as practical, everyday tools, and you won’t need a spiritual practice of your own to use them.
Holding a plan loosely leaves more room to meet the day that actually shows up.
Sort What’s Yours to Control
Together we’ll look at the places where you’re trying to control someone else’s experience.
Then we’ll carve out the space and energy you’ve been spending there and give it back to you.
This is how you begin to own your feelings and choices and live more authentically inside them.
Give the Moment You’re In More of You
With practice, you’ll start to notice sooner when your mind has raced ahead to tomorrow or drifted back to last week.
The train will still come through, and you’ll get better at choosing whether to climb aboard.
Small things, like a walk where you notice the weather or a conversation where you’re really listening, start getting more of you.
Your own voice gets easier to hear, and the resentment has less to feed on.
Choose a Consult Time and Tell Me What’s Hardest
Setting aside time for yourself is already a step off the train.
Let’s start together to find the space for you to start breathing again.
If you’re a parent worried about your teenager, my teen page is written for you.
Call me at (626) 780-7158 or email strengththrubalance@gmail.com to pick a free consult time, share exactly what you’re struggling with and learn how I can help.
Let’s Get Started
Let’s get started in finding the balance between your struggles in life so that you can begin to feel the benefits of creating and nurturing the strength within you.
Let’s Get Started