Anxiety
Therapy

In Santa Barbara
& Online Throughout CA

It’s Hard to Relax When Your Mind Won’t Stop.

Maybe your mind is constantly running through what could go wrong.

You replay conversations, second-guess decisions, or get stuck trying to feel certain.

Maybe you know you're overthinking, but knowing that doesn't make it stop.

You want to feel calmer, trust yourself more, and enjoy your life without your mind constantly getting in the way.

Schedule a Free 15-Minute Consultation

This Might Feel Familiar

Anxiety can show up in different ways, but for many of the people I work with, it can look and feel like this:

Your mind jumps ahead, anticipating problems before they even happen.

You think things through again and again, hoping you’ll finally feel sure.

You second-guess yourself and worry about making the wrong decision.

You want to feel in control, but end up avoiding, putting things off, or over-preparing.

You seek reassurance, only to find yourself questioning things again later.

You Don’t Have to Stay Stuck in This

Anxiety has a way of making you feel like you need to think harder, prepare more, or finally figure things out before you can relax.

And sometimes that works, for a little while.

But then another worry shows up. Another decision feels important. Another what if needs an answer.

The things you do to feel less anxious can sometimes be the very things that keep anxiety going.

Therapy can help you understand that cycle and learn to respond differently when anxiety shows up, so you can feel more confident handling uncertainty without needing to have everything figured out.

You can learn to trust yourself, feel more present, and spend less of your life trying to make sure everything will be okay.

Book a Free 15-Minute Consultation

How Therapy With Me Helps

Licensed therapist Alex Goodman sitting in a Santa Barbara therapy office specializing in anxiety and overthinking

I’m Alex, a licensed therapist in Santa Barbara specializing in anxiety, OCD, and the patterns that can keep you feeling stuck.

My approach is warm, thoughtful, and active. We’ll take the time to understand how anxiety works for you: what sets it off, what keeps it going, and what happens when you try to make it feel better.

Then we work on changing those patterns.

Our work might include:

Getting out of cycles of overthinking and rumination
Making decisions without endless second-guessing
Facing things anxiety has made easier to avoid
Learning to tolerate uncertainty without needing an immediate answer
Building more trust in yourself and your ability to handle what comes

I use evidence-based approaches including CBT, ACT, I-CBT, and ERP, tailoring our work to what you're actually struggling with.

Therapy with me isn't about never feeling anxious. It's about feeling more capable when you do.

More About Alex

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Choose a time that works for you

Fee: $195 for a 50-minute session
Private Pay. Superbills available. HSA/FSA accepted.

Common Questions About Anxiety

Many people assume that if they think about something long enough, they will eventually arrive at certainty, confidence, or the "right" answer.
Unfortunately, anxiety rarely works that way.
Instead, the mind gets pulled into the same loops. Conversations get replayed. Decisions get revisited. Future scenarios get rehearsed. Hours can be spent trying to figure out something that never quite feels resolved.
Overthinking is often an attempt to feel more prepared, more certain, or more in control. While understandable, it usually leaves people feeling exhausted and stuck.
Part of therapy involves learning how to step out of those loops and develop a different relationship with uncertainty, doubt, and the urge to keep thinking.
This is one of the most common and frustrating parts of anxiety.
Sometimes there is no obvious crisis, emergency, or major problem to point to. In fact, life may look relatively stable from the outside. Yet internally, there can still be a sense that something is off.
The mind may continue scanning for problems, anticipating future challenges, or searching for something that needs to be fixed. The body may remain tense, restless, or on edge.
Anxiety does not always wait for a genuine threat to appear. Sometimes the nervous system becomes so accustomed to looking for danger that it continues doing its job even when there is nothing immediate to respond to.
Anxiety often creates a surprisingly deep sense of self-doubt.
You may question your decisions, your memories, your feelings, your relationships, or whether you handled a situation correctly. Even after making a decision, it can be difficult to stop revisiting it and wondering whether another choice would have been better.
Over time, this can make everyday situations feel much harder than they need to be.
One of the goals of therapy is not simply reducing anxiety. It is also helping you develop greater confidence in your ability to think clearly, make decisions, handle uncertainty, and move through life without constantly looking for reassurance that you are doing it right.
Therapy with me is collaborative, practical, and tailored to the person sitting in front of me.
While understanding where patterns come from can be helpful, I am also interested in helping you create meaningful change in the present. Together, we look at what may be keeping anxiety going, identify the patterns that are getting in the way, and develop tools that fit your life and goals.
I draw from approaches including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), and mindfulness-based strategies. More importantly, I focus on helping people better understand themselves, build confidence in their ability to navigate challenges, and create a life that feels bigger than anxiety.