Therapy articles for the examined life.
Thoughtful, plain-language essays about anxiety, depression, burnout, relationships, and what it can feel like to begin therapy.
When College Work Keeps Moving, but You Do Not
When competence hides a growing distance from your own life—and a smaller next step may be enough.
Read the article → Trauma therapy · consultationWhat Happens in a Trauma Therapy Consultation?
A calm, practical guide to fit, pacing, privacy, and what you can ask before beginning.
Read the article → Trauma therapy · beginning careHow to Choose a Trauma Therapist
Practical questions about training, approach, safety, fit, insurance, and the first consultation.
Read the article → Stanford · beginning therapyChoosing an Off-Campus Therapist Near Stanford
A practical guide to fit, privacy, insurance questions, and how to use a consultation without having to tell your whole story.
Read the article → Depression & functioningCan You Be Depressed and Still Function?
Why competence does not rule out depression—and how to distinguish persistent distress from occupational burnout.
Read the article → Stanford graduate studentsWhen Graduate School Becomes Your Whole Identity
Burnout is harder to name when the work is also your community, future, self-worth, and proof that you belong.
Read the article → Stanford PhD studentsWhen Everyone Else Seems to Be Gliding
On duck syndrome, impostor feelings, and the pressure to appear effortless while carrying more than anyone can see.
Read the article → Graduate school & avoidanceWhen Your Dissertation Has Stalled
When a project becomes fused with shame, fear, or self-worth, productivity advice alone may not reach the problem.
Read the article → Stanford postdocsWhen the Next Position Does Not Answer the Question
On career uncertainty, isolation, and the transition from training into a life that is not only a next step.
Read the article → Trauma therapyDo I Have to Tell My Trauma Story in Therapy?
How treatment approach, pacing, collaboration, and choice shape what you discuss—and what to ask before beginning.
Read the article → Burnout & life transitionsWhen Achievement Stops Being Enough
Success arrived. The promised feeling did not. On burnout, depression, and the questions that emerge when achievement stops organizing a life.
Read the article → AnxietyWhy Smart People Can't Think Their Way Out of Anxiety
Intelligence can describe a pattern brilliantly while leaving the body and nervous system exactly where they were.
Read the article → DepressionDepression as Descent
A depth-oriented view of withdrawal, meaning, and why going under is not always the wrong direction.
Read the article → RelationshipsThe Argument Beneath the Argument
Why recurring conflict is rarely only about the subject being discussed—and what the repetition may be protecting.
Read the article → Beginning therapyWhat Happens in the First Three Therapy Sessions
A practical account of fit, pacing, questions, and what you do—and do not—need to arrive prepared to discuss.
Read the article → Depth psychologyWhat Your Symptoms Are Trying to Tell You
A symptom can be painful and still carry information about what has not yet found another way to be expressed.
Read the article →Considering therapy in Palo Alto?
A free fifteen-minute conversation is a chance to ask practical questions and get a sense of whether working together might fit.
Request a consultationPractical guides for choosing care
Consultation preparation · In-person and online arrangements · Care options explained · Search all guides