Therapy for Young Adults with Anxiety in Encino, CA

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When Your Mind Won't Slow Down and You Can't Figure Out Why

You show up, you follow through, you take care of the people around you. From the outside, you look like someone who has it together. Inside, it feels nothing like that.


There is a voice that runs constantly. It second-guesses decisions you made three days ago. It tells you that a short reply from a friend means something.  You have been showing up for everything and everyone. But you’ve been operating in survival mode for so long that you’ve run out of fuel.


  • You avoid people, conversations, and texts because you worry about a possible confrontation
  • You cancel plans because being around people is too much
  • You lie awake replaying a conversation from six hours ago
  • The things that used to feel easy before now feel hard


If this feels familiar, you're not alone.

Move From Surviving to Actually Thriving

Everyone has anxieties and worries - that’s our body’s alarm system - and we need it, so that we know when there is danger! For some people, that alarm system short-circuits and it seems to come on ALL the time, even when there is no real danger. It feels like a nervous system that never fully powers down - it’s always scanning, always bracing, always preparing for something to go wrong.


Therapy for anxiety doesn't try to eliminate every worried thought. It helps you… understand where that anxiety is coming from, interrupt the patterns that are feeding it, and build real-world tools that work when you need them most.


For many young adults, anxiety didn't arrive out of nowhere. It developed over years of learning to read the emotional temperature of the room, take care of other people's feelings, and create stability, even when nothing felt stable. The anxiety you feel today is often a very logical response to an environment that required it.

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A Therapist Who Understands

License: LCSW 72275 (CA) / 149.014806 (IL)

I'm Malena Ally, and I've been working with anxious young adults for over 18 years. Anxiety doesn't just "come out of nowhere" and you aren't "overreacting." Anxiety is influenced by (1) genetics, (2) personality type, and (3) environmental factors. We work to change your environment and/or how you respond to your environment. Many of the people I work with grew up in a home where they had to "be seen and not heard" or "keep the peace" or just had high expectations placed on them.


What often stays hidden until we start working together: the exhaustion of never fully being off duty. Some part of you is always watching, always making sure everything is okay for everyone else.


In our sessions, you may find:


  • Help in identifying the thoughts and beliefs underneath the anxiety that keep you in a state of alarm.
  • A place to slow and be yourself, without having to take care of anyone else.
  • Evidence-based tools you can apply between sessions.
  • Support in healing the root of the anxiety and not just "fixing" the symptoms.
  • Patience with the process, and a pace that works for you.

What Young Adults Often Notice Through Anxiety Counseling in Encino

There is no single switch that turns anxiety off. What tends to happen is slower and more interesting than that a - gradual shift in how much space the anxiety takes up and how much of your own life you start to reclaim.

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More Presence

Some clients find it easier to be fully present.

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Less Performing

You may feel less pressure to be “fine” when you’re really not.

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Quieter Days

You may notice the mental noise taking up less room.

What the Therapy Process Feels Like for Anxious Young Adults

This work is about creating lasting change from the inside out. While your path will be your own, many young adults find that this process opens up new possibilities for relief and self-trust.

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Moving at Your Pace

Early sessions focus on building trust—no pressure to open up before you’re ready.

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Rewriting Unhelpful Thoughts with CBT

Once trust is established, we use CBT to identify and gently reframe thought patterns in ways that are accurate and kinder to yourself.

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Addressing Past Experiences with ART

For anxiety linked to past events, ART helps release their hold without sharing every detail, often providing relief in 1–5 sessions.

What Life May Feel Like When Anxiety Stops Running the Show

Sending a text without reading it five times first. Being in a conversation and actually listening, instead of monitoring your own tone of voice and facial expression simultaneously. Getting through a difficult interaction and not needing to replay it for three days afterward.



And something quieter than all of that: a sense of what you actually want. Not what you're supposed to want. Not the decision that will disappoint the fewest people. What you want.

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Getting Started With Anxiety Therapy in Encino

1.

Reach Out

Fill out the contact form or use the scheduling link. You don't need to have the right words.

2.

Free 15-Minute Consultation

We'll meet briefly by phone or video no charge, no paperwork. We both figure out if it feels like a good fit.

3.

Begin at Your Pace

If you'd like to move forward, we schedule your first full session and take it from there.

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What Young Adults Often Tell Me as Anxiety Therapy Gets Going

  • "I didn't realize how much energy I was spending managing what other people thought of me."

  • I thought I was just a good student or a hard worker - I didn’t realized that my perfectionism was driven by anxiety.

  • "The CBT homework felt annoying at first. Then I noticed it was actually working."

  • Many clients tell me that the biggest shift wasn't getting rid of anxious thoughts, it was learning to be less afraid of them.

Frequently Asked Questions about Therapy for Anxiety and People-Pleasing

  • How do I know if my anxiety is bad enough to need therapy?

    If anxiety is getting in the way of the life you want-friendships, school, work, sleep, basic daily-functioning it's worth talking to someone. You don't need to be in crisis.

  • Do you take insurance?

    I don't accept insurance directly. My fee is $250 for a 50-minute session. If you have out-of-network benefits, I can provide a monthly superbill for you to submit to your insurance company.

  • What is ART and is it different from regular talk therapy?

    ART works differently from traditional talk therapy. Instead of talking through a memory repeatedly, ART uses gentle bilateral eye movements to help your nervous system reprocess it without requiring full verbal disclosure. Most clients notice meaningful relief within 1 to 5 sessions.

  • Do you offer virtual sessions?

    Yes. I see clients in person at my Encino office and via secure telehealth video for anyone in California or Illinois.


Ready to Connect With an Anxiety Therapist in Encino?

You've probably been managing this alone for a while. You don't need to explain everything in your first message. The consultation is free, it's brief, and there is no pressure to commit to anything until it feels right.