Anxiety Therapy in Sacramento
Your body has been trying to tell you something. It's time to listen.
Nobody knows that anxiety has taken over your life. You hustle to keep it all together but inside you feel like an imposter who's losing control. You work your ass off to do what others appear to do so easily, and somehow it's still not enough. Everyone around you seems to manage the stress and enjoy life while you secretly meltdown in the bathroom.
You’re alone with it all, and that part is so exhuasting.
Your nerves are frayed. There are weird sensations you can't quite explain, a tightness in your chest, a restlessness in your limbs, a hum of dread that shows up without warning and won't let you settle.
Your body feels like it's constantly bracing for something, even when everything around you looks fine. You can't fully relax. You can't fully exhale. The overwhelm swirls like storm clouds around your head and no matter what you do, you can't seem to outrun it.
You feel disappointed and angry at yourself, and guilty for not doing a better job of handling things. The emotional weight of it sits heavy, and the physical weight of it sits heavier. Some days your body feels like the enemy, signaling alarm when there's no visible threat, keeping you on edge when all you want is a moment of peace. You’re afraid people are starting to notice something is off with you. You can feel it in the way you move through your days, stretched thin and secretly unraveling. And you know it's time to try something new.
Something is still alive in you
The fact that you're here means something. It means part of you hasn't given up. It means you're still looking for a way through, even when the overwhelm makes that feel impossible.
Underneath the exhaustion and the guilt and the frayed nerves, there is someone who wants to feel at home in their own body. Someone who wants to stop white-knuckling through the day and actually breathe. That longing is real. And it matters.
You didn't end up here by accident.
I’m Colleen King, Somatic Anxiety Therapist in Sacramento
I'm Colleen King, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and Somatic Experiencing Practitioner offering anxiety therapy in Sacramento, CA. I help overwhelmed adults foster the capacity to be present in their body with clarity, ease, and self-acceptance through trauma-informed, somatic therapy.
Most of the people I work with are high achievers. They're capable, driven, and exhausted. They've spent years pushing through, performing, and holding it together, and they're quietly burning out from the inside. They come to me because the usual strategies, working harder, thinking their way out, pushing through the discomfort, have stopped working. Or maybe they never really worked at all.
What I offer is something different. Instead of just talking about what's happening in your life, we pay attention to what's happening in your body. Anxiety doesn't only live in your thoughts; it lives in your nervous system. It lives in the tightness in your chest, the restlessness you can't shake, the way your body stays braced even when the threat has passed. Somatic Experiencing is a gentle body-based approach that works directly with those physical patterns, helping your nervous system learn that it is safe to settle.
Lasting change doesn't come from understanding your anxiety intellectually. It comes from your body actually experiencing something different. Many clients find that this is the first time a therapeutic approach has reached the part of them that talking alone couldn't touch.
I bring warmth, directness, and a collaborative spirit to this work. We can be silly or cynical, or cuss and cry, as we move through what you've been carrying quietly for so long. I follow your lead. We move at your pace, in a way that fits how you learn and what you need.
How anxiety therapy in Sacramento works
Anxiety therapy with me is not about fixing what's broken or managing symptoms indefinitely. It's about helping you understand why your body and brain have been on high alert, and giving you real tools to shift that pattern from the inside out.
Together we work on things like:
Recognizing rising anxiety before it tips into panic
Noticing the subtle physical cues that signal stress and overwhelm
Calming anxious sensations in your body using somatic techniques
Relieving the guilt and shame that drive relentless striving and perpetual self-criticism
Exploring what motivates you and what gets in your way, whether that's perfectionist expectations, over-reliance on yourself, or losing track of your own needs while focusing on everyone else's
Learning how to maintain your drive and ambition without using fear and anxiety as fuel
Clients report experiencing in session what it actually feels like to move from anxious, ashamed, or overwhelmed to something quieter. A sense of ease. Greater insight. Real self-acceptance. The quality of your relationships often shifts too, because when you know who you are without the anxiety, you finally feel comfortable being yourself.
This is not about becoming a different person. It's about coming back to yourself.
You don’t have to keep running on empty, let’s get started
Change is possible. Not the kind that asks you to push harder or think more positively, but the kind that happens when your nervous system finally gets to exhale.
If you're ready to get off the anxiety hamster wheel and onto solid ground, I'd love to connect. Schedule your free 15-minute phone or video consultationthrough my calendar. It's a low-pressure way to ask questions, get a feel for whether we're a good fit, and take one real step toward feeling like yourself again.
You’ve been feeling this way for a while and are ready to get past it. We’ll meet for weekly appointments to dive in, create anxiety therapy goals, and jumpstart your progress toward relief. You don’t have to be in therapy forever, but you do need to take action to see what your life can be like without anxiety running the show.
Somatic therapy for anxiety that lives in your nervous system, not just your head.
Providing online therapy in California or in person at my Sacramento therapy office
Frequently asked questions about anxiety therapy in Sacramento
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If you've been feeling stretched thin, overwhelmed, or like your body is constantly bracing for something even when life looks fine on the outside, anxiety therapy might be exactly what you've been looking for.
You don't need to be in crisis to reach out. If anxiety is quietly running your daily life and the usual strategies aren't working anymore, that's enough of a reason to explore it.
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Somatic Experiencing is a gentle and effective body-based approach to healing that works with the nervous system directly rather than focusing primarily on thoughts and words. Traditional talk therapy can be incredibly valuable, but anxiety doesn't only live in the mind. It lives in the body as physical tension, restlessness, a chest that won't stop feeling tight, a sense of dread that has no clear source. Somatic Experiencing helps your nervous system learn, at a felt level, that it is safe to settle. Many clients find it reaches something that years of talk therapy alone couldn't get to.
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Sessions are collaborative and client-led, which means we follow what's most alive for you on a given day. We might talk through what's been happening in your life, slow down and pay attention to what you're noticing in your body, or work through a specific pattern that keeps showing up. I bring warmth and directness to the work, and there's room to be real here, whether that means laughing, crying, or saying the thing you haven't said out loud yet. Nothing about this is rigid or clinical. It's a real conversation between two people trying to figure out what will actually help you.
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This depends on what you're working on, how long you've been carrying it, and what feels right for you. Some clients notice meaningful shifts within a few months. Others find that deeper patterns benefit from longer work. I don't believe in keeping people in therapy longer than they need to be, and I don't believe in rushing either. We talk about pace and goals openly throughout our work together so you always have a sense of where you are and where we're headed.
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I offer both in-person therapy in Sacramento and online therapy throughout California. My Sacramento therapy office is located at 949 University Avenue, Sacramento CA 95825, I’m on the second floor in a building right next to the Guy West Bridge that spans the American River.
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I recognize that investing your time, energy, and financial resources into fostering improved mental health and overall well-being is a big commitment, and I truly appreciate the opportunity to join you on this journey. I also recognize and respect that economic privilege is variable, so I am working to be in alignment with my values of economic justice and equity, while also acknowledging the quality of care that I provide to all my clients.
I utilize a sliding scale tool based on three tiers of economic privilege.
The standard full fee for weekly therapy appointments is $200 per 50-minute appointment, and $300 per 75-minute appointment.
I am contracted with Medi-Cal HealthNet for people who are unemployed, underemployed, and/or disabled.
If your financial resources exceed qualifying requirements for Medi-Cal insurance coverage, and the ability to pay my full fee would create a hardship on your ability to pay for your basic needs, please contact me so we can talk about the sliding scale.
The first appointment is called an “Intake Assessment” where we’ll explore what’s happening with you now and what you envision will be different when you’re done with therapy. I may request you complete questionnaires about your experiences, challenges, and your successes. Together we will identify a clear direction and goals for your treatment.
My goal at the beginning of the therapy process is to ask a lot of questions and listen deeply to truly understand your therapy needs. It’s really important to me for you to feel heard, seen, validated, and comfortable with me, even if the therapy process itself is uncomfortable. Additional charges may apply for coordination of care outside our regular appointment times.
I am available for appointments Monday through Thursday from 9am to 6pm.
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That's a fair question, and it deserves a real answer. If previous therapy felt like it helped you understand your anxiety better but it didn’t help you shift how it feels in your body, somatic therapy can offer something different. We're not just talking about the anxiety; we're working with the part of your nervous system that's been running the show underneath all that insight. That's often where the missing piece lives.
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This is one of the most common things I hear. The drive that makes you successful is the same drive that makes slowing down feel threatening. But here's the thing: you don't have to give up your ambition to do this work. Part of what we explore together is how to maintain your drive without using fear and anxiety as fuel. Many high-achieving clients find that therapy actually improves their performance because they're no longer spending so much energy managing what's happening underneath.
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The goal is not to flatten your motivation or take away your ambition. It's to help you access who you actually are without the anxiety running the show. Most clients find they feel more like themselves, not less, as the work progresses. The relationships in your life often improve too, because you're no longer performing for others or hiding the parts of yourself you've been ashamed of. You become more familiar with your priorities, values, and what you find meaningful and use that as a guide instead of the anxiety.
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The first step is scheduling a free 15-minute phone or video consultation. It's low-pressure, no commitment, and designed to give you a real sense of whether we'd be a good fit. You've already done the hardest part by being here and considering it. The next step is just a conversation.
