Therapy to help you come back to yourself
You may be capable, thoughtful, and good at taking care of what needs to be done. But underneath it, you might be exhausted from overthinking, holding everything together, or trying to be who everyone needs you to be.
I work with women who are ready to understand and shift the patterns that keep them anxious, overwhelmed, disconnected from themselves, or unsure of what they actually want.
individual therapy for women in california 
What Brings Women to Therapy with Me
There isn’t always one thing that brings someone to therapy. Often, anxiety, perfectionism, old experiences, relationship patterns, chronic stress, and losing touch with yourself are intertwined.
These are some of the places where our work may begin.
Anxiety & Overthinking
Your mind rarely stops. You replay conversations, anticipate what could go wrong, question your decisions, and put enormous pressure on yourself to get things right. Even when life looks fine from the outside, it can feel like there is always something you should be doing, fixing, or worrying about.
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Here we talk about:
racing thoughts
rumination
anticipating problems
difficulty relaxing
feeling responsible for preventing things from going wrong
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You’ve learned to pay close attention to what other people need, expect, or think of you. You may be very good at being dependable, accommodating, successful, or “easy,” but find it much harder to know when something isn’t working for you.
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Rather than simply helping you manage anxiety, we can begin looking at what keeps you second-guessing yourself and building a stronger sense of trust in your own perceptions, needs, decisions, and boundaries.
Trauma & Emotional Neglect
Sometimes you know intellectually that something is over, that you’re safe now, or that you don’t need to respond the way you once did. And yet your body seems to have a different idea.Past experiences and prolonged stress can continue to shape how you respond to conflict, closeness, uncertainty, responsibility, and even rest.
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feeling activated or shut down
being easily overwhelmed
feeling on guard
strong reactions that seem bigger than the present situation
understanding your patterns but still feeling unable to change them
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We can talk about years of carrying responsibility, adapting, pushing through, staying productive, or caring for others and what happens when the nervous system rarely gets to fully stand down.
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EMDR can help us process experiences that continue to feel emotionally “stuck,” while somatic work helps us pay attention to what is happening in the body and nervous system, not only the story your mind tells about it.
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Sometimes what you didn’t get is as important as anything you did.
Relationships & Boundaries
Maybe nothing is obviously wrong. You’ve built a life, relationships, or career that may even look quite good from the outside. But somewhere along the way, you became so accustomed to adapting, achieving, caring for others, or doing what made sense that you stopped asking a more basic question: What is actually true for me?
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Not necessarily dramatic self-sacrifice. More the accumulation of small moments in which someone overrides what she feels, wants, knows, or needs.
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You may have spent so long making decisions based on what is practical, expected, responsible, or best for everyone else that when someone asks what you want, you genuinely aren't sure.
Therapy can become a place to hear yourself again.
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Midlife, relationship changes, motherhood, career shifts, loss, identity changes, or simply realizing that the way you've been living no longer fits can create an opening to reconsider who you are now and how you want to live.
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You may notice changes in other people's moods almost immediately. You think carefully about how what you say might land, anticipate what someone else may need, or adjust yourself to avoid conflict or disappointment.
Being this attuned to other people can make you caring, perceptive, and deeply thoughtful. But when your attention is constantly oriented outward, it can become harder to hear what is happening inside you—to know what you feel, what you need, what you want, or what feels true for you.
Therapy can help you stay connected to other people without losing your connection to yourself.
You may already understand yourself. That doesn't always mean the pattern changes.
Many of the women I work with have already done a lot of reflecting. They can explain where their patterns came from. They understand why they people-please, overthink, shut down, stay busy, or have trouble trusting themselves.
And yet, when the old pattern gets activated, insight can disappear surprisingly quickly.
That’s why my approach goes beyond insight alone.
I integrate traditional psychotherapy with EMDR and somatic approaches so we can work with your thoughts and emotions, while also paying attention to the automatic responses and nervous-system patterns that can be harder to change through talking alone.
The goal isn't to become better at managing yourself.
It's to have more freedom to respond from who you are now, rather than from what you once had to do to feel safe, connected, or okay.
She's still there.
Underneath all of it.
This is the work of finding her.
A different kind of therapy relationship
I don't see therapy as a place where I sit back and silently analyze you. I'm engaged, curious, and collaborative. I'll help you notice patterns, make connections, slow things down, and pay attention to what is happening in the moment.
There may be times when we talk and make sense of things together, times when we use EMDR, and times when we pay closer attention to what your body is communicating.
You don't have to perform therapy well here. You get to show up as you are.
Individual Psychotherapy for Women
I offer individual psychotherapy for adults in California.
Sessions are available virtually throughout California and in person in Oakland through Nourish Osteo & Wellness, where psychotherapy is part of an integrative approach to whole-person care.
Therapy is individualized rather than based on a predetermined formula. Depending on what you're coming in with and what feels most useful, our work may include conversation and reflection, EMDR, somatic approaches, nervous-system regulation, and experiential work.
50-minute individual sessions
Virtual throughout California
In person in Oakland
The woman you were before you learned to carry all of this — she's not a distant memory. She's not who you used to be. She's who you actually are, underneath everything that accumulated. I'm here to help you remember her.
ROOT WITH ERIN
Frequently Asked Questions
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Individual therapy sessions are $250 for a 50-minute session. I offer a limited number of reduced-fee spots based on availability. We can talk about fees and what feels workable during your free consultation..
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I am an out-of-network provider and do not bill insurance directly. If your plan includes out-of-network mental health benefits, I can provide a superbill that you can submit to your insurance company for possible reimbursement. I recommend contacting your insurance provider to find out about your specific benefits.
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Finding the right therapist matters. I offer a free 15-minute consultation so we can talk briefly about what’s bringing you to therapy, what you're looking for, and whether my approach might be a good fit. It’s also a chance for you to ask questions and get a sense of how it feels to talk with me.
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Not at all. Some of the women I work with have experienced significant trauma, while others come to therapy because they’re anxious, overwhelmed, stuck in patterns they can't seem to change, or simply don’t feel like themselves anymore. You don't need to have a particular diagnosis or story for therapy to be worthwhile.
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The office location is 11881 Skyline Blvd, Suite G,
