Therapy for Anxiety and Perfectionism in Los Gatos and Across California

Calm the anxiety. Loosen the grip of perfectionism.

Even your best never feels good enough.

You’re the one who keeps it all together–until you can’t.

You’ve built a life full of achievement, responsibility, and expectations. But somewhere along the way, it started costing more than it gave back.

On the outside, things look fine.

But internally, you’re running on empty.

You might be feeling:

  • Constantly overthinking, second-guessing every decision

  • Driven to succeed, but never able to relax or feel “done”

  • Anxious over making a mistake, disappointing someone, or falling behind

  • Like you’ve lost touch with who you are underneath the performance

And the worst part?

You’re doing all the right things–but it’s still not enough to quiet the pressure inside.

It’s exhausting. It’s isolating. And it’s not sustainable.

puzzle symbolizing perfectionism, problem-solving, and mental overload

When anxiety and perfectionism take over, everything starts to feel harder.

What starts as “just trying to do your best” can quietly start to take a toll in every area of life.

They creep in everywhere:

    • You stay on top of everything — but you’re always bracing for something to slip

    • Feedback feels like a personal failure, no matter how gently it’s delivered

    • You “clock out,” but your mind keeps racing through the next deadline, the last mistake, the what-ifs

    • You’re driven to level up — but rarely give yourself credit for how far you’ve come

    • A single misstep replays in your head for days, long after everyone else has moved on

    • Taking a break feels like falling behind, and getting hurt feels like you're falling apart

    • You don’t want to burden anyone, so you pull back when you’re struggling most

    • You only feel safe being seen when you’re composed, helpful, or impressive

    • It’s hard to let your guard down when so much of your identity is tied to being “the strong one”

    • Your inner critic never lets up — pushing, comparing, second-guessing

    • Even joy feels fleeting when your mind won’t shut off

    • One small mistake can spiral into shame or self-doubt for days

    • You’re always wired — hyper-alert, tense, on guard — but underneath it, you’re exhausted

    • It feels like your worth depends on staying sharp, strong, or successful

    • Anxiety hijacks your sleep, tightens your chest, fogs your thinking, rattles your confidence

Over time, that constant internal pressure leads to burnout, loneliness, and feeling disconnected from the life you’ve worked so hard to build.

You don’t have to wait for a breaking point.

Imagine doing well and actually feeling well.

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Imagine doing well and actually feeling well. *

Through our work together, you’ll be able to:

Rest deeply without guilt or anxiety about falling behind

Build stronger, more authentic relationships by showing up as your true self

Feel worthy and confident beyond your achievements or results

Wake up feeling lighter, with less mental pressure weighing you down

Focus and perform without getting trapped in self-doubt or overthinking

Trust yourself to handle challenges without spiraling or burning out

woman and sunset representing peace after anxiety and self-pressure
small leaf representing resilience and emotional healing

How my approach supports your journey

Together, we’ll create a safe space to explore the thoughts, feelings, and patterns that keep anxiety and perfectionism stuck. Using proven, compassionate methods, we’ll help you:

  • Build awareness and acceptance of difficult emotions without getting overwhelmed or stuck

  • Uncover the hidden parts of yourself that fuel self-criticism and pressure, and learn to relate to them with compassion

  • Process past experiences that may be driving your anxiety or perfectionism beneath the surface

  • Develop practical skills to manage stress, reduce overthinking, and respond differently to challenges

  • Reconnect with your core values so you can pursue your goals with more clarity and meaning–rather than fear or “shoulds”

  • Strengthen your resilience to setbacks, so you can keep moving forward without burning out

This approach is tailored to your unique experiences as a high performer, honoring your strengths while guiding you toward greater peace and balance.

How ACT, EMDR, and/or IFS May Apply:

  • ACT helps you notice and accept anxious thoughts and perfectionist urges without getting stuck trying to fight or control them. Instead of chasing impossible “perfect,” you learn to focus on what truly matters–your values–and take meaningful action despite the anxiety. This shift reduces inner pressure and helps you build a more flexible, fulfilling life.

    Learn more ACT here

  • EMDR helps you process and release past experiences that fuel anxiety and perfectionism beneath the surface–like critical messages or stressful events you might not fully realize are still affecting you. By gently reprocessing these memories, EMDR reduces their emotional charge, making it easier to break free from patterns of self-doubt and relentless pressure.

    Learn more about EMDR here

  • IFS helps you identify the different “parts” of yourself–like the critical inner voice driving perfectionism or the anxious part trying to protect you. By getting to know and healing these parts with compassion and curiosity, you can reduce internal conflict and find more balance, calm, and self-acceptance.

    Learn more about IFS here

    • Quiet the constant overthinking and self-criticism

    • Understand where your anxiety and perfectionism come from–and how to soften their grip

    • Let go of the pressure to always get it right or hold it all together

    • Reconnect with who you are underneath the doing, fixing, and achieving

    • Set boundaries that protect your peace–without guilt or fear

    • Move forward with more self-compassion, calm, and confidence

Slow down the nonstop pressure. Quiet the overthinking. Finally feel enough.

FAQ

  • This is a valid fear! You’ve learned to function under pressure, anticipate every outcome, and push yourself to be better. But when the drive to get it right starts hijacking your peace, your sleep, your relationships, or your self-worth, it stops being a tool and starts being a burden. Therapy doesn’t strip away your ambition—it helps you access it without costing you everything else.

  • Not by forcing your brain to go quiet—but by helping you relate to it differently. In therapy, we slow the cycle down so you can start identifying the patterns: the loops of doubt, the fear of mistakes, the pressure to always be more. You’ll learn how to step back from the overthinking spiral and create space between you and your thoughts, instead of being ruled by them.

  • If you’ve learned to minimize your inner experience—telling yourself to “calm down” or “stop being so extra”—you’re not alone. High-functioners often carry anxiety quietly, masking it with competence or control. If your internal world feels overwhelming, exhausting, or like it’s running on constant alert…that’s not you being too much. That’s anxiety doing what it does best: convincing you to hide your needs. Therapy helps you make room for those needs instead of stuffing them down.

collage of driven adults in athletic, academic, corporate, and caregiving roles

How Burnout and Stress Might Show Up For You:

  • You push hard and aim higher, but the pressure to always be better, faster, stronger creates an inner critic that never shuts up. Even wins don’t quiet the anxiety, and perfectionism convinces you that anything less than flawless is failure.

  • You overthink every word, every email. every paper…driven by a fear of falling short in a world that demands constant achievement. Perfectionism shows up as procrastination or burnout, and anxiety whispers that you’re still not doing enough, not matter how much you’ve done.

  • You hold yourself to impossible standards in a world that never powers down…debugging your work and your self-worth in the same breath. Anxiety loops through your mind like code, and perfectionism tells you that one mistake could unravel everything.

  • You’re building something from nothing, and the pressure to be exceptional at everything all the time leaves little room for rest. Anxiety keeps you up at night second-guessing decisions, while perfectionism says it’s never the right time to pause or ask for help.

  • You’re the one everyone turns to, so there’s no space for doubt…but it’s there, under the surface, pushing you to work harder and hide the cracks. Perfectionism masks itself as professionalism, while anxiety makes it hard to ever truly exhale.

  • You’re in a world that equates visibility with value, so you over-deliver, overthink, and overextend…terrified that being anything less than perfect will make you irrelevant. Anxiety thrives in the spotlight and behind the scenes, feeding off the pressure to be “on” at all times.

  • You carry others’ lives in your hands, and perfectionism tells you that mistakes are unacceptable…even human ones. Anxiety lives in the in-between moments: the silence after a hard call, the fear of missing something, the guilt of never being “enough” for everyone who needs you.

  • You’re trusted with high-stakes decisions and long hours, and the fear of error fuels a relentless drive to be perfect. Anxiety becomes the background noise you’ve learned to live with, even as it chips away at your peace and performance.

  • You’re trained to be precise, persuasive, and in control…but perfectionism turns every case, every brief, every word into a measure of your worth. Anxiety hides behind your sharp thinking, keeping you wired and wondering when it might all fall apart.

  • You’re constantly managing needs—others’ first, always—and perfectionism whispers that anything less than selfless is failure. Anxiety floods the quiet moments, making it hard to rest even when things are calm, because your mind is already bracing for what’s next.