The people who reach out to me don't usually start with the word "anxiety." They say things like "she won't go to school anymore" or "I keep turning down opportunities and I don't know why" or "something changed, and I can't figure out what." They describe what's been happening, and they're hoping someone can help them make sense of it.
I'm Brooke Sundin, a licensed marriage and family therapist and the founder of Light Minds Child and Family Therapy in Los Angeles. I've spent over ten years working with families in exactly this situation, and more often than not, what they're describing is anxiety. Not the occasional nerves-before-a-test kind of anxiety, but the kind that quietly takes over and makes the world feel smaller than it actually is.
I wrote this post to walk you through what anxiety actually looks like in the people I work with, how therapy for anxiety helps, and what to look for when you're searching for the right therapist. I'll also recommend a few colleagues in Los Angeles whose work I respect, because finding someone who genuinely fits what you need is what matters most.
What Anxiety Actually Looks Like
Most of the teens and young adults I work with don't look anxious in the way people expect. They're functioning. They're going to school, showing up to work, getting through the day. But underneath, something is off, and the people closest to them can usually feel it even when they can't name it.
In Teens
The teenager who seems fine on the surface but has a stomachache every Sunday night before the school week starts. The one who rewrites a text message fourteen times before sending it, or who used to love soccer but quit because the pressure of games became unbearable. Some teens get irritable and short-tempered, and their parents assume it's attitude. Others become perfectionists, pouring hours into assignments not because they love learning but because anything less than perfect feels catastrophic.
I work with teens who avoid raising their hand in class because the possibility of being wrong feels physically threatening. Teens who have a hard time falling asleep because their brain won't stop replaying conversations from the day, scanning for evidence that they said the wrong thing. These are bright, capable kids whose anxiety has convinced them they're not. If that sounds familiar, I wrote more about how this connects to self-esteem.
In Young Adults
For the young adults I work with, anxiety often shows up during transitions. The recent college graduate who is paralyzed by the question of what comes next (I wrote more about this in my post on the quarter-life crisis). The 22-year-old who turns down job interviews because applying feels pointless when they're certain they won't get hired. The young adult who moved to a new city and hasn't left their apartment in three weeks because everything outside feels overwhelming.
What I see over and over is that anxiety tends to look like certainty. They don't say "I'm scared." They say "I already know this won't work out." That quiet conviction is what makes it so hard to push through, because it doesn't feel like fear to them. It feels like a fact.
In Parents
And then there are the parents. The mom who lies awake at night wondering if her daughter's anxiety is her fault. The dad who doesn't know whether to push his son to go to school or let him stay home. Parents navigating their own anxiety about their child's anxiety, caught in a loop of wanting to protect them while knowing that too much protection can make things worse. This is one of the patterns I work on most in parent coaching, and it's more common than most families realize.
Anxiety looks different at every age, but the thread that runs through all of it is the same: avoidance. The world gets smaller. The things that used to bring joy or connection start falling away. The good news is that this pattern is not permanent. Once you can see it, you can start to change it.
How Therapy Helps
When someone comes to me feeling stuck, the first thing I want them to know is that being stuck is not a permanent state. It's a signal. And working through anxiety is less about eliminating it entirely and more about changing your relationship to it so it stops running the show.
Here's how I approach that work, and what you can expect if we work together.
CBT: Changing the Patterns
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is the foundation of how I work. CBT starts from a straightforward premise: the stories your brain tells you about a situation shape how you feel about it and what you do next. For someone with anxiety, that often means a pattern of catastrophic thinking ("If I speak up in class, everyone will judge me"), followed by avoidance ("So I just won't"), followed by relief that reinforces the cycle ("See, I was right not to try").
In session, we slow that cycle down together. We look at the thought, test whether it holds up, and practice responding differently. It sounds simple, and the framework is. But doing it consistently, especially when your brain has spent years reinforcing the opposite pattern, takes real work. That's what we do together.
ERP: Facing the Fear Gradually
Exposure and Response Prevention is one of the most effective treatments for anxiety and OCD, and it's a significant part of my training. ERP works by helping someone face the situations that trigger their anxiety, gradually and at their own pace, without falling back on the avoidance behaviors that have been keeping them stuck.
For a teen who avoids school presentations, that might start with reading a sentence out loud in session. For a young adult with OCD, it might mean sitting with an intrusive thought without performing the compulsion that usually follows. We build up slowly, always at your pace. The goal is never to overwhelm. It's to help you discover, through your own experience, that you can handle more than anxiety has been telling you.
Independence Therapy: Building Confidence Through Doing
I've recently started incorporating Independence Therapy into my work with younger clients, and I didn't expect how quickly it would click for some of them. The model, developed by Dr. Camilo Ortiz through Let Grow, shares some DNA with exposure work but puts the child in the driver's seat.
Here's what that looks like in practice. I sit down with a kid and we brainstorm together: what's something you'd like to try doing on your own? It might be walking to a friend's house, ordering their own food at a restaurant, or figuring out a problem without asking a parent to solve it. The activity has to feel a little uncomfortable, and it has to be their idea. That part matters more than anything else.
What I keep seeing is that when a child picks something they actually want to do, follows through, and realizes they handled it, the confidence that comes from that is different from anything I could give them in session. It also starts to shift a pattern I see in a lot of families where parents, out of love, have been stepping in before their child gets the chance to struggle and succeed on their own.
ACT: Making Room for What Matters
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy takes a different angle. Instead of trying to control or eliminate anxious thoughts, ACT helps you create distance from them. You learn to notice a thought like "I'm going to fail" without treating it as a command. The focus isn't on making anxiety go away. It's on building a life around what actually matters to you, even when anxiety shows up.
I trained at the ACT Institute, and what I appreciate about this approach is how well it works for young adults who are navigating identity and direction. When someone is stuck because they're waiting to feel "ready" or "sure" before taking action, ACT helps them move forward anyway.
SPACE: Working with Parents
One of the things that sets my practice apart is the work I do with parents through the SPACE program, which stands for Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions. I'm certified through the Yale Child Study Center, where the program was developed.
What drew me to SPACE is that it gives parents a way to help even when their child isn't ready or willing to come to therapy. Instead of waiting, parents learn to change how they respond to their child's anxiety, and that shift alone can start to break the cycle.
A lot of the parents I work with have fallen into a pattern of doing whatever it takes to keep their child from getting upset. Driving a different route so their teen doesn't have to pass the school, answering the same reassurance question for the tenth time. It comes from a good place, but it keeps the anxiety in charge. SPACE helps parents respond differently, with support and steadiness, so their child can start building their own ability to sit with discomfort.
For families where the teen or young adult isn't open to therapy yet, this can be a meaningful starting point.
How to Find the Right Anxiety Therapist
If you're searching for an anxiety therapist in Los Angeles, here are a few things worth considering as you evaluate your options.
Ask about their specific training in anxiety. Not all therapists treat anxiety the same way. Someone with training in ERP or CBT will approach it differently than a therapist who primarily uses talk therapy. There's nothing wrong with talk therapy, but anxiety responds best to structured, evidence-based approaches that include some form of behavioral work. Ask what modalities they use, and don't be afraid to ask where they trained.
Look for specialization, not just familiarity. Many therapists list anxiety on their profile, and most therapists have worked with anxious clients. But there's a difference between a therapist who treats anxiety among thirty other issues and one who has built their practice around it. Specificity matters.
Pay attention to how the consultation feels. Most therapists in Los Angeles offer a free initial phone call. Use it. Notice whether they listen more than they talk, whether they ask about your specific situation rather than giving a generic pitch, and whether you feel heard. The therapeutic relationship is one of the strongest predictors of progress, so finding the right fit really does matter.
Ask about their experience with your specific population. A therapist who specializes in teens may not be the best fit for a 40-year-old with generalized anxiety, and vice versa. If you're looking for someone who works with adolescents or young adults specifically, ask how much of their caseload falls in that age range.
I genuinely want you to find the right person, whether that's me or someone else. The most important thing is that you connect with a therapist who has the training, the experience, and the approach to meet you where you are.
Signs Light Minds Might Be a Good Fit
Every therapist has a specific population and approach where they do their best work. Here's what mine looks like, so you can decide whether it lines up with what you're looking for.
You're looking for a therapist who specializes in teens, young adults, or parent support
My practice is built around these three groups. I work with teenagers navigating anxiety, social pressure, and OCD. I work with young adults (18 to 26) who feel stuck in transitions. And I work with parents who want to understand how to support their child without reinforcing the anxiety cycle. If your situation falls into one of those categories, this is the work I do every day.
You want evidence-based treatment, not just talk therapy
If you've tried therapy before and it felt like venting without direction, a structured, skills-based approach might be what you've been missing.
You value telehealth flexibility
I provide telehealth therapy to clients across California, Florida, and Utah. For teens and young adults especially, the option to do therapy from home can remove a significant barrier.
You want a therapist who involves parents when appropriate
Through the SPACE program, I work directly with parents as part of the treatment process. This doesn't mean the teen or young adult loses their confidential space. It means the family system is part of the solution. When parents learn to respond differently to anxiety, the whole dynamic shifts.
If this sounds like what you're looking for, I'd love to connect.
Other Anxiety Therapists in Los Angeles
Finding the right therapist is personal, and I'm not the right fit for everyone. If what I described above doesn't quite match what you're looking for, here are three colleagues in Los Angeles whose work I respect.
Chelsea Sarai, PsyD
Chelsea is a psychologist and the founder of Brentwood Therapy Collective. I appreciate how direct and genuine she is with her clients. She takes a psychodynamic approach, which means she's looking at the deeper patterns underneath anxiety, not just the surface symptoms. If you're someone who wants to understand the "why" behind what you're feeling, she's worth reaching out to.
Regina Petterson, PsyD
Regina is a psychodynamic therapist whose work I respect. She's been practicing in Los Angeles for over two decades, and she's particularly thoughtful about connecting present-day anxiety to the experiences that shaped it. She sees clients both in person and online.
Charlotte Haigh, LMFT
Charlotte brings together a wide range of modalities in her work, from EMDR to mindfulness to Internal Family Systems. What stands out to me is how she meets each client where they are and pulls from whatever framework serves them best. She's also great about pointing clients toward tools they can use on their own between sessions.
Getting Started
Searching for a therapist when you're already dealing with anxiety can feel like one more impossible task on the list. I get that. I've been there, both as a clinician sitting across from someone who almost didn't make the call, and as someone who has navigated her own anxiety.
You don't have to have it figured out before reaching out. You don't need to know exactly what's wrong or what kind of therapy you want. You just have to be willing to start.
Whether you're watching your child pull away from the things they used to do, your young adult sounds certain nothing will work out, or you're a parent trying to figure out what's happening and how to help, these are the patterns I work with every day. They don't have to stay this way.
If anything in this post sounds like what you or your family is going through, I offer a free 15-minute consultation where we can talk about what's happening and whether working together makes sense.
