overcome STRESS & TAKE BACK YOUR LIFE

Stress therapy in Santa Cruz & Across CA

As a professional or highly driven individual, you may find yourself striving for excellence, and managing multiple demanding responsibilities. While your ambition fuels your success, it can also lead to overwhelming stress, impacting both your personal and professional life.

Recognizing the Unique Stressors of Highly Driven Individuals

High achievers often encounter specific stressors, including:

  • Perfectionism: The relentless pursuit of excellence can result in an excessive pressure to achieve, chronic stress and anxiety.

  • Overcommitment: Balancing numerous responsibilities may lead to burnout, work-life imbalance, and decreased productivity.

  • Self-Doubt: Despite outward success, persistent feelings of inadequacy can cause chronic self-doubt.

  • Fear of Not Achieving Desired Outcomes: An intense aversion to making mistakes can hinder decision-making, creativity, and innovation.

STRESS IS DRAINING THE ENERGY RIGHT OUT OF YOUR LIFE…

  • Low energy levels from the constant need to be “on”

  • Sleep difficulties due to racing thoughts or stressful worries

  • Difficult relationships, as your mood & energy plummet from continued stress

Sound familiar?

  • Feelings of irritability, anxiety, sadness or overwhelm

  • Headaches, muscle tension, a racing heart or digestive issues

  • Difficulty concentrating, indecisiveness, and negative thought patterns impairing your performance.

Learn how to work with stress, rather than having it work against you.

Here’s what we’ll do together

Turn Stress Into Strength: How Therapy Can Help

You don’t have to do this alone—relief is possible, and I’m here to help.

I specialize in supporting professionals and high achievers in managing stress through tailored therapeutic approaches:

  • Research-Based Therapies: Using proven therapies including ACT, DBT, CBT, and Compassion-based approaches, I’ll tailor each session to meet your unique needs.

  • Mindfulness Techniques: By learning to develop mindfulness you can reduce stress and feel more calm & centered, improve focus & concentration, manage emotions more easily, enhance performance, and enjoy a greater sense of happiness & well-being.

  • Stress Management Strategies: You’’ll gain practical tools to shift your response to stress allowing you to function at your optimal level. You’'ll feel more in control which can lead to enhanced self-esteem and increase your stress resilience helping you bounce back faster from challenging situations 

  • Lifestyle Factors Assessment: We’ll also explore how lifestyle factors—like sleep, nutrition, movement, and relationships—might be influencing your stress, and find ways to support your overall well-being.

Take the Next Step

If you're ready to manage stress & unlock your full potential, I’m here to guide you on this transformative journey.

You matter & so does your well-being.

Questions?

FAQs

  • Stress is an emotional response to an external demand or pressure that requires you to react (urgent deadline, financial strain, or conflict with someone important to you).

    Stress is typically a short-term reaction that can assist you in handling challenges, including problem solving and motivating action. People under stress may experience irritability, anger, fatigue, muscle pain, digestive issues, and difficulty sleeping.


  • While stress can contribute to the development or worsening of anxiety disorders in susceptible people, not everyone who experiences stress will develop an anxiety disorder. Factors such as genetics, personality traits, past experiences, and coping skills all affect  how stress is perceived and managed.

    Effective stress management techniques can help prevent stress from becoming long-term anxiety.

  • Long-term stress can have a wide range of effects on our health. Here are some common effects of stress on the body:

    1. Weakened immune system and ability to fight off infections/illnesses.

    2. Increased blood pressure and risk for heart disease.

    3. Muscle tension, headache, neck and back pain. 

    4. Gastrointestinal issues includingstomachaches & other digestive problems

    5. Disrupted sleep patterns reducing deep restorative sleep, which can further impact overall health & well-being

    6. Development or worsening of mental health conditionssuch as anxiety disorders, depression, trauma, and burnout.

    The body's response to stress is complex and different for each person.  While short-term stress responses are normal and can be beneficial, long-term stress can have significant negative impacts on overall health and well-being.

    Managing stress with exercise, relaxation activities, mindfulness, adequate sleep, therapy, and support from others can help reduce these effects and promote better overall health.


  • The way you perceive stress can determine how stress impacts your health.

    Mindset training for stress can help reduce the negative impact of short and long-term stress.

    The added energy and focus stress provides can help with problem solving and mobilizing resources to overcome the challenge at hand.

  • I am trained in both nursing and therapy, which provides me with a deeper understanding of general health issues, neuroscience and the potential impact on mental health. Together we will also explore whether sleep, social connection, restorative time, nutrition or movement may be contributing to your current stress levels.  My approach is integrated, considering both physical and mental health factors, and focuses on lasting change.

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