Anxiety Therapy
For Overthinkers and Worriers
California & Virginia
Your brain doesn’t have an off switch.
You’ve tried everything. The meditation apps, journaling, exercise, telling yourself, “just stop thinking about it.” And maybe for 20 minutes, it works. Then your brain is back, picking up exactly where it left off, running the same loop from the top.
It’s exhausting to live in a mind that won’t rest. From the outside, people can’t tell. You look put together, you appear capable and on top of things. Because you are! Your anxiety makes sure of it.
This is what anxiety can look like for many adults:
It’s not always panic attacks. For a lot of people, anxiety looks like doing everything “right” but not being able to relax about it.
It can look like:
Replaying conversations in your head for days after they happen to make sure you didn’t say the wrong thing
Making a decision and then immediately second-guessing yourself
Saying yes when you didn’t want to because you can’t bear the thought of someone being upset with you
Laying awake at 2am not because anything is actually wrong… but because your brain has decided to revisit every unresolved thing from the past 6 months
It can also be that tension that you sit with all day. The clenched jaw. Shoulders that touch your ears out of tightness. Your body can hold anxiety when your brain seems like it’s “relaxed.”
The overthinking loop.
For some people, anxiety is very physical. For overthinkers, it mostly lives between the ears. Just your brain, running commentary on everything… all the time.
Your thoughts can circle without resolution. The same worries over and over again. You analyze, you plan, you prepare for every possible outcome, but none of this makes the feeling go away. The thinking doesn’t actually solve anything.
Anxiety likes to look for certainty in a world that doesn’t offer it.
Chronic rumination, or “overthinking” is an extremely common form of anxiety that often operates under people’s awareness. It’s draining to live with because on the surface, it feels productive. It can feel like you’re working on a problem.
There’s a difference between useful problem-solving and spinning your wheels. It can take time to learn how to tell the difference.
How did I become this anxious?
We aren’t born anxious. Yes, some people have a genetic predisposition. But for many adults, chronic worry and hypervigilance developed in response to environments where they had to be genuinely prepared and alert. Maybe parents were inconsistent, maybe approval was uncertain, maybe expectations were too high for a child to achieve. Either way, the safest place to be was one step ahead.
Those worry strategies made sense at the time. They may have even gotten you to where you are today (high achievers, anyone?). But a nervous system that learned to stay on high alert doesn’t automatically stand down just because the environment has changed.
For neurodivergent adults specifically, anxiety is often an additional layer to several other challenges. Social anxiety in particular can be deeply tied to a lifetime of not quite reading the room the same way as everyone else does. Or a lifetime of missing social cues, of being misunderstood, of learning that social situations require a level of effort and monitoring that other people don’t seem to need. That history leaves a mark, and its often anxiety.
If anxiety is showing up primarily through perfectionism and overachievement, my page on therapy for high achievers may also resonate here.
If you suspect your anxiety is connected to neurodivergence, you might also find my neurodivergent-affirming therapy page useful here.
What does anxiety therapy look like?
For overthinking and ruminating:
Understanding what your mind is trying to do when it loops, and building real tools for interrupting the spiral instead of white-knuckling it or falling into it.
For people pleasing and fear of conflict:
Anxiety and people pleasing are almost always connected. We look at where the fear of disappointing others comes from and what it would mean to make decisions based on what you actually want.
For social anxiety and fear of judgment:
The monitoring, the post-event processing, the rehearsing of conversations before they happen. We work on loosening the grip that other people's opinions have on your sense of safety.
For indecision and self-doubt:
If making decisions feels paralyzing, we look at what's underneath that, whether it's fear of getting it wrong, fear of being judged, or a nervous system that has learned to treat uncertainty as a threat.
For the body:
Anxiety lives in the body as much as the mind. Tension, sleep disruption, a heart that races at the wrong moments. We work on understanding your nervous system and building practices that support genuine calm rather than just distraction.
You don’t have to think your way out of this.
One of the great ironies of anxiety is that the more you try to think your way out of it, the more fuel you give it.
Anxiety is not a thinking problem. It’s a nervous system problem that responds to a different set of tools than your busy brain keeps reaching for.
That’s what we build together.
Working with Morgan
I work with adults who overthink things, worry more often than not, people please, and replay conversations over and over again.
Whether your anxiety shows up as a general worry, or a social anxiety, or the relentless OCD-type loop, this is the work I enjoy and know well.
My approach is warm, direct, and grounded in understanding your nervous system and your history.
Telehealth sessions are available across California and Virginia. In-Person appointments are available in Newport Beach, CA.
Ready to give your brain a break?
If you’re still unsure, common signs and symptoms of anxiety are:
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Tightness in your chest or stomach
Racing heart or shortness of breath
Restless or feeling “on-edge”
Fatigue, tension, or headaches
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Constant “what ifs”
Having trouble controlling how much or how often you worry
Difficulty concentrating
Difficulty making decisions
Feeling like your mind won’t stop “spinning”
Expecting the worst, even when things are okay
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Feeling irritable
Easily overwhelmed
Feeling scared or fearful, even when things aren’t all that bad
Feeling “detached” or “checked out” when you’re feeling stressed
Feeling stressed more often than not
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Avoiding things that cause stress or worry, such as certain people, places, or situations
Over-preparing or going beyond double-checking things
Taking extra steps to maintain control of situations
Looking for reassurance more often than not