Berkeley Therapist for College Students with Anxiety (also Online)
Is heavy stress and anxiety making it hard to feel steady, present, and focused as you move through the semester? Do you get stuck in loops of overthinking—worrying about grades, deadlines, money, or the future—while your body stays tense and on edge?
Or maybe your anxiety shows up more in social situations. You avoid gatherings. Or you spend too long replaying conversations afterward.
Sometimes anxiety doesn’t just make you worry—it forecasts disaster. It whispers worst-case stories like, “If this gets worse, I’m going to have to exit college,” and suddenly every choice feels loaded. That’s when fear takes the wheel, and the semester can start to feel shaky and fragile.
If that’s what’s happening for you, I know how disorienting and fear-inducing it can be. Anxiety can be loud, convincing, and hard to shut off. But it can get better. With the right support, it’s possible to feel more at ease, think more clearly, and stop living on the edge of “what if.”
Pushing Harder but Feeling Worse
Anxiety usually doesn’t just “go away.” It often shifts into habits that look normal on the surface, but quietly wear you down. You might get more perfectionistic, more irritable, or more checked out.
Sometimes it shows up as stress eating, impulsive choices, or leaning on alcohol or weed to take the edge off. Sometimes it turns into conflict in relationships, panic, or nights where your body is tired but your mind won’t stop.
Working with anxiety early can keep it from spreading into every corner of college life. It can help feel more like yourself again – more fully alive and excited about life.
If you’re ready for a clearer path forward, here’s how I work.
A Four-Step Approach to Anxiety Therapy for Students
With 13 years of experience supporting clients with anxiety, I bring a compassionate, practical approach to helping you feel whole again. My style is gentle, collaborative, deeply compassionate, yet active in guiding the work. I’m deeply familiar with the unique challenges of college life, drawing on my work with many UC Berkeley students locally and my clinical traineeship at SFSU’s Psychological Services Center.
From the start, we set clear, doable goals and keep track of what’s changing. That helps you stay oriented, even when life is busy and stressful. My clinical training goes beyond what many therapists receive, based on my formal training in Internal Family Systems (IFS), EMDR Therapy, Hakomi Mindful Somatic Therapy, and Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT).
Each of these modalities offers practical tools to help you shift longstanding patterns, heal emotional wounds, and reconnect with your confidence and calm—especially when anxiety keeps showing up in classes, deadlines, and social situations.
My four-step approach is designed to help you break free from anxiety.
Step One: We begin by uncovering and making sense of the root causes of your anxiety. Often, anxiety comes from internal conflicts—between your thoughts, emotions, and the pressures around you.
Step Two: Next, we’ll help you reconnect with the sturdiest parts of your personality that can stay grounded, even when anxiety is loud. You can think of these parts of you as an inner compass—steady, compassionate, and wise. They can become something you can lean on when college life feels overwhelming.
Step Three: When you’re ready, we’ll move into a structured phase of treatment. We’ll work directly with the things that trigger your anxiety, and help you learn to stay grounded and steady. We’ll track your progress together and adjust our focus as we learn what’s helping you most.
Step Four: Finally, we’ll make sure your growth carries into everyday life. You’ll build stronger emotional resilience, the ability to soothe yourself in stressful moments, and the confidence to navigate relationships with more skill.
Benefits of Therapy for Anxiety
Reduce the day-to-day anxiety that keeps pulling you off track
Strengthen your ability to steady your emotions and handle triggers
Boost motivation so your choices line up with what matters to you
Set healthier boundaries with school, work, and relationships
Make important decisions with more ease and confidence
Feel calmer and more present in social settings (less social anxiety)
Talk about emotional topics more openly and honestly
Improve focus, concentration, and mental clarity
Let go of coping strategies that help short-term but cost you later
Sleep more deeply and more consistently
Work through panic attacks with targeted, evidence-based support
Online Therapy for College Students in California
I offer online therapy throughout California. These virtual sessions are available statewide, including for clients in Berkeley. Because I’m based in Berkeley, I can occasionally meet in person when clinically appropriate and logistically feasible. You can read more here: online therapy in California.
Free Phone Consultation
It’s important for you to choose a therapist with whom you feel comfortable talking with, so I invite you to book a free, 20-minute phone consultation here.
Or, contact me directly to schedule a time:
tim@windingriverpsychotherapyservices.com
(510) 761-9818
You can ask any questions you have about anxiety therapy or my other Berkeley therapy services.
Using Aetna or Quest? I’m in-network—see Contact and Fees.
