Hi, I’m Anne. I am a therapist in Orange County, California. I’m in a book club right now (Wayfairing), and we are talking about the problem of modernized mental health treatment. Have we gone too far to only treat people in the surface?
Symptom Management
Often we come to notice that we might benefit from going to therapy when we experience unwanted symptoms like anxiety, self-hatred, panic, unrelenting sadness, anger outbursts, etc. Hopefully through therapy, we can reduce these negative things while experiencing a new kind of flourishing that is much deeper. I think mental health treatment is way more than symptom management.
When I received seminary training soon after college, I was captured by the idea that everyone’s life has purpose, value, and worth. Since people are so worthy of purpose and meaning, it makes sense to me to treat people with hope and possibility. I believe humans are complex souls who are so alive they can’t metabolize cheap, quick fixes. Today as a therapist I find this truth compelling and am so inspired when clients take this truth on in their own life. I’ve seen real, deep change in the clients I serve as a therapist in Orange County.
Fast Food Therapy
If you’ve believed that quick fixes can do something for you, you’re not alone. It’s only human to want a fast-food version of healing and change. Instead, I wonder if you could find a new kind of relationship with yourself where you take your worth and value more seriously and make the kind of investment in you that takes time. Let’s get down to the roots rather than just trim the leaves on the top.
I’m convinced that depth-oriented psychotherapy, rather than behavioral interventions is the more healing path.
…Because you’re not a problem to be solved — you’re a person to be deeply known.
In depth therapy, we’re not just asking, “How do I make this anxiety stop?” We’re asking, “Why does this anxiety make sense?” Your symptoms — the panic, the harsh inner critic, the fatigue that won’t budge — aren’t random. They’re signals, messengers from your inner world pointing to places that need care, curiosity, and healing. Modern therapy often works like putting noise-canceling headphones on a smoke alarm. But depth therapy is about finding the fire, understanding why it’s there, and slowly, tenderly putting it out at the source.
Perhaps this approach is right for you. Let’s start a conversation and see together. You won’t face it alone.
