Online Therapy in California for Anxiety, Trauma & Relationship Issues

Lasting Change Starts here

You're Not Alone in This

This Isn’t Traditional Therapy. And That Matters

You're looking to get to the root of the problem and achieve real change.

You’re Here Because

  • You've read the books. Listened to the podcasts. Maybe you've even been to therapy before. You're successful in many areas of your life, but when it comes to relationships, boundaries, and anxiety, you feel stuck in the same painful cycle.

Imagine if...

  • You trusted yourself.

  • You stopped apologizing for taking up space.

  • You could set boundaries without guilt.

  • Your relationships felt safe instead of exhausting.

  • You no longer carried the weight of your childhood into every new relationship.

Real change is possible - And you don't have to figure it out alone.

  • Many of the people I work with come to me after trying other approaches that didn’t quite get to the root of what they were experiencing. They may have spent years in therapy, done deep self-healing work, or been referred by a trusted therapist or doctor. If that resonates with you, please know you’re not alone, and there are still options.

You deserve real relief, and I’m here to help you find it.

Esma Verma, licensed clinical social worker, smiling in her therapy office
meet your therapist

I help clients break the patterns that keep them stuck

Hi, I’m Esma, a holistic therapist. My clients are thoughtful, capable people who are tired of surface-level solutions. They don't want someone to simply listen and nod. They want a therapist who can help them understand what's driving their patterns, and more importantly, help them create lasting change.

My approach is both direct, and nurturing. I won’t shy away from difficult conversations. I’ll help you get beneath the surface and start making real changes. You’ll feel supported and challenged with care and compassion. I believe both are necessary for growth.

I know why I do this... I just can't seem to stop

Insight Isn't Always Enough

One of the most common things I hear is, "I know why I do this... I just can't seem to stop."

Knowing where your patterns come from is important, but insight alone doesn't always create change. Healing happens when we work with the parts of you that learned those patterns in the first place—so you're no longer reacting from old survival strategies, but responding from a place that feels calmer, more grounded, and more like yourself.

My specialties

I help clients change patterns that keep them stuck.

  • Breaking Relational Patterns

    • People-Pleasing

    • Over-Functioning

    • Difficulty Setting Boundaries

    • Codependency

    • Love Addiction

    • Limerence

  • Complex Trauma & Childhood Wounds

    • Complex Trauma (C-PTSD)

    • Parentification

    • Enmeshment

    • Developmental Trauma

    • Emotional Neglect

  • Anxiety & Nervous System Healing

    • High-Functioning Anxiety

    • Health Anxiety

    • Relationship Anxiety

    • Chronic Overthinking

    • Hypervigilance

    • Nervous System Dysregulation

  • Unhealthy Relationships

    • Trauma Bonds

    • Fear of Intimacy & Fear of Being Alone

    • Situationships

    • Chronic Infidelity Patterns

    • Communication & Conflict

  • Dysfunctional Family Systems

    • Emotional Manipulation

    • Guilt-Tripping

    • Family Estrangement

    • Family Roles

    • Intergenerational Patterns

    • Breaking Generational Cycles

  • Attachment Healing

    • Anxious Attachment

    • Avoidant Attachment

    • Disorganized Attachment

    • Repeating Unhealthy Relationship Cycles

  • Childhood Wounds

    • Inner Child Healing

    • Mother Wounds & Mother Hunger

    • Father Wounds

  • Secure Love

    • Healing from Toxic Relationships

    • Moving On After a Breakup

    • Opening Up to Healthy Love

this is a place for you

Life Can Feel Different

I believe therapy should do more than help you understand yourself. It should help you create real change.

Over time, clients often notice changes that show up in their everyday lives. They may start setting boundaries without feeling as guilty, spend less time overthinking, trust themselves more, and feel calmer in their relationships. Many begin recognizing unhealthy patterns sooner, communicating their needs more openly, and making choices that feel right for them instead of always putting everyone else first.

Healing doesn't mean you'll never struggle again. It means those old patterns no longer run the show, and you feel more confident responding to life's challenges in a way that aligns with the person you want to be.

Therapeutic Modalities

A Holistic Approach

I don't use just one approach. I pull from multiple modalities based on what the moment calls for.

Brainspotting

A powerful, brain-body approach that accesses unprocessed trauma and emotional material by using your visual field to locate and process "brainspots" — points where the body holds activation. It bypasses the thinking brain to access what talk therapy often can't reach

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

ACT helps build psychological flexibility and move toward values-based living rather than fear-driven or reactive patterns.

Internal Family Systems

IFS works with the “parts” of you. The protector who people pleases, the inner critic who won’t shut up, the exile carrying old pain. We get to know them, understand their role and update them to the present.

CBT and DBT

Evidence-based frameworks that build concrete skills — identifying thought patterns, developing distress tolerance. I draw on these as needed, woven into the deeper relational work.

Somatic Therapy

Your body keeps the score. Somatic work means paying attention to what your nervous system is doing — the tightness, the numbness, the activation — and using that information as a doorway into deeper processing.

Relational Self-Awareness (RSA)

RSA helps you understand how attachment patterns, family systems, relational histories, and unconscious beliefs influence your relationships. This work supports greater accountability, differentiation, emotional intimacy, and self-awareness.

as you heal your relationships change

You're Not Attracted to What's Healthy Until It Feels Safe

One of the hardest parts of healing is realizing that we're not always drawn to what's healthiest for us—we're often drawn to what's familiar.

Whether you find yourself chasing emotionally unavailable partners, carrying the weight of everyone else's needs, or feeling guilty for setting boundaries with family, these patterns rarely develop by accident. They're often the ways your mind and body learned to find love, connection, or safety.

The good news is that familiar doesn't have to become your future. As you heal, your relationships begin to change—not because you force yourself to be different, but because what feels safe starts to change too.

Services

Break the patterns. Heal at the root.

resources

Practical Insights For Deeper Healing

Take the First Step

Imagine what becomes possible when old patterns no longer define you.

Your next chapter starts with a conversation