Therapy in Los Altos, CA

Los Altos sits between Palo Alto and Cupertino in the heart of Silicon Valley's residential corridor, and many of its residents are current or former tech executives, founders, and senior professionals who built careers in the companies that shaped the industry. The psychological profile that emerges from decades in those environments is specific. The internal critic that developed when the standards were extremely high and the consequences of falling short were real. The driven part that learned to equate rest with falling behind. The part whose sense of worth is still running the equation it learned in a high-stakes professional environment even when the professional stakes have changed. IFS works with each of these parts directly rather than trying to manage their effects from the outside.

The school environment in Los Altos and the surrounding district creates significant pressure for families with children in the local schools. Parents who are managing their own anxiety about their children's performance alongside their children's actual experience of that pressure. The specific dynamic of parenting in a high-achieving community when your own unresolved achievement patterns are active and transmitting. Individual therapy works with the parent's internal experience -- the anxious part, the controlling part, the part that cannot tolerate uncertainty about outcomes -- which tends to shift the parenting dynamic in ways that direct advice about parenting does not.

Beyond the achievement-specific presentations, Los Altos adults seek therapy for the full range of concerns that high-functioning adults navigate. Anxiety that does not respond to the evidence that things are objectively good. Depression that coexists with financial security and professional recognition. Grief from losses -- relationships, health, parents, the version of the future that was expected -- that significant resources cannot prevent or fully buffer. Relationship patterns that have been under quiet strain for years. Individual therapy for adults 18 and older, working with what is actually driving the difficulty.

IFS parts work is particularly effective for the gap between external success and internal experience that is common among high-achieving adults in communities like Los Altos

EMDR processes the underlying experiences driving anxiety and stuck patterns at the level where they are stored rather than the level where they are understood

Telehealth means Los Altos residents access quality therapy from home without commuting

Marcus works with adults 18 and older across anxiety, depression, trauma, burnout, grief, relationship patterns, and the identity questions that significant life transitions generate

Private pay with superbills for PPO reimbursement -- $210 for 45 minutes, $280 for 60 minutes

Free 15-minute consultation before any commitment

Therapy starts with a free 15-minute consultation -- a direct conversation about what you are dealing with and whether working together makes sense. Most Los Altos clients arrive with significant self-awareness and clear language for what is not working. The first full session builds on that foundation, mapping the internal parts and patterns that are producing the difficulty and beginning to work with them directly. Sessions are 45 or 60 minutes via secure telehealth video, available Wednesday through Friday from home or anywhere in California.

IFS sessions work with specific parts of the internal system -- the achiever, the critic, the protector, the part that cannot let things be good enough, the exhausted part underneath -- with genuine curiosity about what each is protecting. For Los Altos clients this often means working with parts that have been highly functional in professional contexts and are now generating costs in personal and relational domains. The work is not about lowering standards. It is about building a different relationship with the parts that enforce them.

Most clients notice meaningful change within 12 to 20 sessions. For clients who have been successful at managing difficulty from the outside for a long time, working directly with the internal parts that produce the difficulty tends to move faster than expected because the existing capacity and self-awareness provide a foundation that most clients do not have.

Getting started is simple. Click the button below to schedule a free 15-minute consultation, or use the contact form to reach out with questions. I typically respond within 1-2 business days.