San Diego Anxiety Therapist

Anxiety | Social Anxiety | Panic Attacks | & Other Issues

Are you finding it difficult to control your anxiety?:

Racing, circular thoughts: "What if" thinking and worst case scenarios.
Physical symptoms: heart palpitations, sweating, shaking, blushing, headaches, digestive troubles, difficulty sleeping.
Intrusive thoughts that are scary, repetitive, and hard to talk about with others.
Intense and prolonged worry.
Avoiding people and situations as a way to manage intense feelings.

Are you finding it difficult to control your anxiety?:

Racing, circular thoughts: "What if" thinking and worst case scenarios.
Physical symptoms: heart palpitations, sweating, shaking, blushing, headaches, digestive troubles, difficulty sleeping.
Intrusive thoughts that are scary, repetitive, and hard to talk about with others.
Intense and prolonged worry.
Avoiding people and situations as a way to manage intense feelings.

Other Issues

Anxiety Therapy Serving San Diego

Though much of my work is focused on anxiety, I have experience working with a wide range of challenges:

Expat Issues / Cross-Cultural Adjustment
Sadness & Depression
Career/Workplace Issues
Anger
Relationships / Divorce / Breakups
Parenting/Step-Parenting Issues
Life Transitions

Common Questions & Concerns

"I have friends to talk with. How is therapy different?"

Having a social support system is crucial to our mental health. At the same time, talking to a therapist is a much different experience than getting support from friends.

First, often times friends give advice and try to be fixers. Though well intended, advice usually lands flat. Instead of fixing, we're usually looking for understanding and acceptance. Second, friends aren't always the best listeners. Often times they try to help by relating what we're going through with a similar situation they've experienced. Third, it's hard to go to friends on a regular basis for the same challenges. We risk burning them out.

Therapy is not about me giving clients advice. I don't know what's best in someone else's life. Instead, my training and experience is in helping clients increase self-awareness, uncover helpful and unhelpful patterns in their lives, and assisting them in clarifying their struggles and desires. Through this process, many people find change to be more possible and choosing which direction to take in life becomes more clear.

"Do I have to have a mental health condition to come to therapy?"

Not at all. People utilize therapy for a number a different reasons. Some people come for one session to get support before making an important decision. Other people come for assistance in managing and to recover from a mental health condition.

I place less emphasis on diagnosis and more emphasis on understanding why you're coming to therapy, what sort of change you're looking for, and to assist you in making lasting change.

Other FAQ's

What to expect

Our first session will be focused on what brings you to therapy and to see if we're a good fit.

I will also go over confidentiality and my limits to maintaining confidentiality. I can help answer any questions or concerns you have.

Though my main concentration in private practice is on anxiety and expat issues, I have experience serving clients dealing with a wide-range of issues. I still may be able to help.

If I don't have the experience or knowledge, or Telehealth is not appropriate for your issues, I can assist in finding a therapist who can help.

Clients see the most progress when they attend sessions consistently.

Generally, once per week is best. This allows you time to process our sessions and experiment with new things during the week.

Less frequent or inconsistently attending sessions tends to be more about putting out fires, than long-term changes.

If your schedule does not permit you to attend sessions on a regular basis, I strongly encourage you to either wait until you have the time or really challenge yourself to make the time. The more consistent you are, the more positive changes you'll see, the less time you'll spend in therapy, and the more money you'll save.

Your length of time spent in therapy is dependent on a number of variables:

The issue you're addressing
Severity of symptoms
How long you've been experiencing symptoms
Consistency of attending sessions

There are no guarantees therapy will work. And often times things tend to get worse before they get better. This is because by looking more closely at our issues, we stir them up.

At the same time, most people find therapy to be helpful.

Clients often report relief and changes anywhere between 5 to 20 sessions.

Occasionally, clients will want to explore other areas in their lives and stay in therapy longer.

Research has shown that online therapy is very effective. At the same time, it requires a few extra steps on your part to make sure our time spent together is productive.

To ensure high-quality care, it's important that you have a fast and stable Internet connection. I highly recommend not using 4G or WiFi. Instead, plug your Internet cable directly into your computer.

It's crucial to find a quite, confidential, and comfortable space to have your session.

Please take steps to decrease the chance of interruptions or distractions during our session. This includes finding child care or asking others to give you privacy. Please turn off your cell phone ringer and other electronic devices.

Not all issues are suitable for online therapy. In the first 1 to 3 sessions, we will work together to identify core concerns. If teletherapy is not appropriate, I can assist in getting you connected to other services.

I use Doxy.me for sessions. Doxy.me is an encrypted, HIPAA compliant platform.

Why O'Sullivan Counseling?

California Trained & Licensed

Brian O'Sullivan, LMFT is a Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist from California

Okinawa counseling for Military and SOFA status

DoD Experienced

Brian has extensive experience working within the military and DoD civilian community, both as a clinician and other professional roles.

Confidential

Your story remains yours. Confidentiality is at the core of therapy. We'll go over this in detail in our first session.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

Brian is trained in using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, the gold standard in the treatment of anxiety.

Secure Records

Email, videoconferencing, and any electronic records transferred or stored online use HIPAA level encryption.