Specialties
Therapy for Young Adults
For the stretch of adulthood when you’re expected to have it all figured out, and quietly suspect you don’t—which, for the record, is most of us.
Virtual therapy, California and Massachusetts
Your twenties and thirties can look wonderful from the outside: a career taking shape, relationships, independence, plans. From the inside, they can feel like constant comparison and second-guessing, with a low hum of anxiety about whether you’re doing it right. Being high-functioning doesn’t mean you’re not struggling. Sometimes it just means you’re very good at hiding it.
This is a stage of big questions—who you are, what you want, who you want to build a life with—and therapy can be a place to slow down and actually answer them. In our work together, we’ll look at what’s happening now and at the older patterns shaping how you respond to it.
The pressure of “having it together”
There’s a particular kind of exhaustion that comes from looking fine. You show up, deliver, answer the texts and keep the plates spinning, and no one would guess how much effort it takes. That kind of anxiety often goes unnoticed, because from the outside it looks a lot like success.
If that’s you, we’ll make room for the parts of you working overtime to hold everything together, and for whatever they’re trying to keep you from feeling. My pages on anxiety, stress and overwhelm and high-achieving and perfectionism burnout go further into this.
Who am I, actually?
Young adulthood is when a lot of identity questions come into focus: separating from your family’s expectations, figuring out your values, exploring sexuality or gender, choosing work that means something. It’s normal for this to feel exciting one day and paralyzing the next.
We’ll take those questions seriously without rushing to tidy answers. You are the expert of your own life, and part of my job is helping you hear your own voice more clearly underneath everyone else’s opinions. My page on self-esteem and identity work goes deeper.
Relationships, dating and family
Relationships carry a lot of weight at this stage—friendships that drift as lives diverge, dating that can feel like a second job, and family relationships that change as you become an adult in your own right. Old roles have a way of reappearing, especially around the people who knew you first.
If dating keeps stirring up anxiety or familiar patterns, my page on dating and attachment may resonate, and my post on situationships is a good place to start if you’re somewhere in a relationship with no name.
Building confidence that lasts
Confidence borrowed from an achievement or a compliment tends to fade as soon as the next challenge arrives. In our work together, the aim is to build something steadier: knowing what you want, being able to say it clearly, settling your nervous system when things get intense, and trusting yourself a little more each time.
Sessions are 45 minutes, weekly or every other week, entirely by video, which can make therapy easier to fit around work and a full life. My individual therapy page has more about how sessions work.
If you’re in your twenties or thirties and this page sounds uncomfortably familiar, you’re welcome to request a free 15-minute consultation. We’ll talk about what you’re carrying and whether we’re a good fit.
A few common questions
Is therapy worth it if nothing is seriously wrong?
It can be. You don’t need a crisis to start therapy. It can also be a place to understand yourself better, make decisions with more clarity, or change patterns before they become more entrenched. My guide on therapy for self-exploration says more.
How is therapy different from talking to friends?
Friends can be wonderful support, but they’re part of your life and have their own perspective. Therapy gives you a space that’s entirely about you, with someone trained to notice patterns and help you understand them—and who won’t be at the next birthday dinner.
Is this only for people in their twenties?
No. I work with adults, and much of what’s on this page applies whether you’re just out of school or well into your thirties. Questions of identity, relationships and direction don’t keep to a neat timeline.
How we work with this
This most often sits inside individual therapy. 45 minute sessions, weekly or every other week, entirely by video.
Related specialties
