Stress, PTSD and Anxiety Therapists in Irvine, CA.

Licensed professional counseling for anxiety, stress, phobias, and panic in Irvine, California.


Carla DeFraine, Ph.D.
Anxiety Counselor

Carla DeFraine, Ph.D.

Licensed Psychologist

15615 Alton Pkwy., Suite 450, Irvine, California 92618 | 949-357-4206

Everyone feels anxiety at some point in their lives but when it starts to interfere with your life, counseling can help. Although anxiety can feel debilitating, it is treatable. People with anxiety don’t always share the same symptoms, they vary from person to person. Therapy will help you to reclaim your life and function in a chronically stressful world.

Katelin Hanhart, LCSW
Anxiety Counselor

Katelin Hanhart, LCSW

Licensed Clinical Social Worker

Available for Online Therapy

Much of anxiety and stress are related to the negative messages we send ourselves. We worry about what others think of us, what may happen in the future, and how we acted in the past; just to name a few. Because much of anxiety is based in our thoughts; a large portion of the work we do in this therapy is to challenge our thinking. By challenging our negative thoughts, we can experience a more positive shift in emotions and behaviors. We will also discuss and practice mindfulness strategies as a way to work on being more present in the moment and decrease the focus on negative repetitive thinking. Relief from anxiety is possible with effective skills.

Sara Fakhraei, M.S., LMFT
Anxiety Counselor

Sara Fakhraei, M.S., LMFT

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

Irvine, California 92618 | 1-949-302-2478

There’s a fine line between stress and anxiety. Both are emotional responses, but stress is typically caused by an external trigger. The trigger can be short-term, such as a work deadline or a fight with a loved one or long-term, such as being unable to work, discrimination, or chronic illness. People under stress experience mental and physical symptoms, such as irritability, anger, fatigue, muscle pain, digestive troubles, and difficulty sleeping. Anxiety, on the other hand, is defined by persistent, excessive worries that don’t go away even in the absence of a stressor. Anxiety leads to a nearly identical set of symptoms as stress: insomnia, difficulty concentrating, fatigue, muscle tensi

Brenda Gesell, Individual, Couples and Family
Anxiety Counselor

Brenda Gesell, Individual, Couples and Family

Gesell Psychotherapy

1000 Quail Street, Suite 275, Newport Beach, California 92660 | 714-421-1975

I specialize in helping people who struggle with never feeling quite “enough" and want freedom from shame and anxiety. The torment of living with an inner critical voice is exhausting. Achieving more is not the answer. Looking better and trying harder are not the solutions. You deserve to trust yourself and feel comfortable in your own skin. I would like to help you discover self-acceptance and find liberation from anxiety.

David Shapiro, David S Shapiro
Anxiety Counselor

David Shapiro, David S Shapiro

California Licensed Psychologist (License # PSY 17495)

4199 Campus Drive, Suite 550, Irvine, California 92612 | 9492457718

Stress and anxiety can be extremely uncomfortable but at the same time these are actually areas that therapy is the most able to help relieve. An important step is to help my clients learn how to transition the nervous system out of the fight/flight/freeze response into a state of relaxation. That alarm state is good for helping the individual respond to an emergency but it greatly reduces flexibility. Once out the reactive sympathetic nervous system state my clients can then find new ways of thinking and responding. In order to help them to get out of the alarm mode, I teach a variety of skills both directly and indirectly.

Brian Jones, AMFT
Anxiety Counselor

Brian Jones, AMFT

Brian La Roy Jones, Associate Marriage & Family Therapist

Available for Online Therapy

I begin by understanding how you experience anxiety/stress because how you experience them is unique for you. Then we begin to increase your tolerance for how you experience anxious/stressful thoughts, feelings, memories, and/or situations. This is necessary so the anxiety/stress stops being an overwhelming experience that interferes and gets in the way of your life. It's crucial to be able to become more comfortable when you experience anxiety/stress because they're a part life. The problem is the distressing and limiting to debilitating effect they have on you. As you learn to be able to do this, you will begin to experience more peacefulness, calm, hope, self-confidence and self-esteem.

Hyland and Associates Counseling Services, LMFT92625
Anxiety Counselor

Hyland and Associates Counseling Services, LMFT92625

Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist

6 Venture, Ste 340, Irvine, California 92618 | 949-750-4777

Anxiety affects your whole being. Physiologically, you may experience rapid heart beat, muscle tension, queasiness, and sweating. Behaviorally, anxiety can sabotage your ability to deal with certain everyday situations. Psychologically, it can cause great apprehension, uneasiness, and fear. In our counseling sessions, we will address all of the way that anxiety is affecting you. I will teach you methods to reduce physical symptoms, eliminate avoidance behaviors, and change the "self talk" that helps to perpetuate the worry. Through the use of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), we will work towards changing the thought and behavior patterns that add to your distress.

Erica Valdivia, M.A AMFT
Anxiety Counselor

Erica Valdivia, M.A AMFT

Associate Marriage and Family Therapist

Available for Online Therapy

Living with stress and anxiety will rob you of joy, being present and out of control. While this can feel difficult to manage, you are not alone! I use cognitive behavioral therapy to help you address the thoughts that lead to anxiousness and stress. We will implement practical tools and strategies to work through some of these feeling and thoughts together.

Steve Rose, PhD
Anxiety Counselor

Steve Rose, PhD

Addiction Counsellor

Available for Online Therapy

If you're struggling with anxious thoughts, you may find it hard to focus. The fight or flight alarm is going off in your brain, constantly sending you messages starting with "what if...." If worrying is keeping you trapped in a hamster wheel, tired, but unable to rest, you may find yourself turning to addictive substances or behaviours to cope. As an addiction counsellor, I help clients cope with the anxious thoughts keeping them trapped in addictive behaviours. By uncovering these underlying thoughts, I help you develop coping skills so you can gain a sense of focus, clarity, confidence, and freedom from constantly overthinking. Send me a message and I'll guide you through the next steps.

Sue Shepard, MFT
Anxiety Counselor

Sue Shepard, MFT

Licensed Marriage & Family Therapist

2900 Bristol St., Suite G-201, Costa Mesa, California 92626 | 714-751-0888

People rarely come to counseling when their anxiety first starts causing them problems. Most people try to handle it on their own and try the “white knuckle” approach until they are exhausted and overwhelmed. Often life becomes unmanageable and depression sets in when anxiety is not dealt with. Anxiety commonly focuses on illogical things that may seem foolish or kind of crazy, so you have kept these to yourself. Don’t keep struggling alone. Call me so I can help you reduce the hold anxiety has on you and restore freedom to live your life fully again. Contact me at 714-751-0888 and I promise I won't think you are crazy.

Well Coached Life, PhD, MA, SEP
Anxiety Counselor

Well Coached Life, PhD, MA, SEP

WELL COACHED LIFE| Individuals | Couples | Youth

Available for Online Therapy

We hold our anxiety and stress in our body. We feel tension, gut problems, hot flashes, disrupted sleep and more. I work with anxiety and stress by helping individuals learn and develop tools to re-regulate their nervous system. When we have a coherent and fluid nervous system, we can do difficult things without feeling paralyzed by overwhelming fear.


You have Found the Top Therapists for Stress, Anxiety, and PTSD in Irvine, CA.

Thank you for visiting our California page of stress therapists in Irvine, California who are skilled and experienced in dealing with anxiety, worry, and panic in all its forms.  Worry and stress can cause a myriad of physical symptoms and wreck havoc on both our personal life and our relationships. Counseling for stress and PTSD in Irvine, CA will give you healthy tools and help you move forward. Let's get started. Reach out to us today, our contact forms are "open" 24/7.

Irvine is located in Orange County, California. It has a land area of 65.58 square miles and a water area of 0.34 square miles.  The population of Irvine is 256,927 people with 87,235 households and a median annual income of $92,278. .


Therapy Affordability Meter for Irvine, CA

Very Affordable

Booking a weekly counseling session with a licensed therapist in Irvine is not a large financial issue for the majority of people in this area. Sustaining a commitment to mental health treatment is easily accessible for the average family, but ask your therapist if there are any concerns as many will accept insurance or even offer sliding scale fees. Low cost counseling and affordable therapy are also sometimes offered by listed city and university level clinics, check with your local Irvine public health department.