Licensed Depth Therapy and Clinical Hypnosis in Minneapolis–St. Paul
Therapy for Social Anxiety, Self-Doubt, and the Quiet Weight of Always Performing
Working with people who look composed on the outside and feel exhausted, self-critical, or invisible on the inside.
You Might Be Here Because…
You rehearse conversations before they happen and replay them for hours afterward
You feel drained after social interactions that seem easy for other people
You worry you're being judged, analyzed, or quietly misperceived
You avoid situations: speaking up in meetings, reaching out, reaching back, because the cost of engaging feels higher than it should
You can perform the role of yourself in front of others but rarely feel like you can just be yourself
You're told you seem confident, and you don't feel that way at all
Social anxiety often doesn't look like what people think it looks like. Many of the people I work with are thoughtful, capable, accomplished, and privately exhausted by the effort it takes to move through the world.
What's Underneath Social Anxiety
Social anxiety rarely begins as anxiety. It begins as attention, the careful monitoring of how you come across, whether you're being understood, whether you're saying the right thing.
Most often, that attention was useful at some point. It helped you fit in, avoid conflict, manage a difficult family or classroom, or keep yourself safe in environments where being misread had real consequences.
Over time, the monitoring becomes automatic. It runs in the background before, during, and after every interaction, scanning for judgment, tracking your own performance, rehearsing and replaying. What started as protection begins to feel like a second job.
Underneath the anxiety, there's usually something quieter and more specific. A fear of being truly seen. A belief that who you actually are isn't quite enough. A deep habit of performing a more acceptable version of yourself, often so seamlessly that even you forget you're doing it.
This isn't about becoming more confident. It's about becoming more yourself.
The Quiet Cost of Social Anxiety
Social anxiety rarely stays contained to social situations. Over time, it shapes the life around it.
People often notice:
Saying no to things you actually wanted to do
Staying on the edges of relationships that could have gone deeper
Second-guessing what you just said, for hours or days
Letting opportunities pass: a message left unsent, a meeting you stayed quiet in, an idea you didn't share
Becoming smaller in rooms where a version of you wanted to take up more space
A growing sense that your real self and your social self are two different people
What This Work Looks Like
1
We slow down what's happening underneath. Social anxiety is fast. The self-monitoring, the scanning, the rehearsing, all of it runs at high speed, often below awareness. Together we slow it down enough to actually see it: what you're paying attention to, what you're afraid of, and what the monitoring is protecting.
2
We build self-awareness that isn't self-criticism. Most people with social anxiety are already extraordinarily self-aware. The problem is that the awareness has turned inward as judgment. We practice a different kind of attention: curious rather than critical, honest rather than harsh, so you can see yourself clearly without punishing yourself for what you see. This is where self-compassion becomes practical, not just conceptual.
3
We work with authenticity, self-trust, and real-world tools. Much of social anxiety is a long habit of presenting a more acceptable version of yourself. We look carefully at where that started, what it's cost, and what it might mean to slowly reclaim the more honest version. Alongside this depth work, we develop practical tools: attention skills, self-compassion practices, and sometimes Clinical Hypnosis (also called Hypnotherapy) to reach the automatic responses that sit below conscious effort.
4
The goal isn't to eliminate anxiety. It's to stop living around it. Social anxiety often softens significantly with this kind of work. More importantly, it stops being the organizing principle of your life. The energy that was going into monitoring and performing can go into actually being present: with yourself, and with other people.
Who This Work Tends to Help Most
This approach works best for people who are ready to go beyond symptom management and look at the deeper patterns underneath social anxiety.
If you value creativity, honesty, and steady inner work over quick fixes or confidence drills, this may be a strong fit.
My clients tend to be thoughtful and capable: professionals, students, and accomplished people who present well in the world and still feel privately stuck. Many have tried other forms of help and are looking for something deeper, thorough, and more honest.
Coming Back to Yourself
This work is grounded, focused, and confidential.
Reach out to schedule a free 20-minute consultation.