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Anxiety treatment in Los Angeles​

Anxiety is the thing that wakes you up at 3am with a thought you can't turn off. It's the tightness in your chest before a meeting that has no reason to scare you. It's the way you rehearse every conversation before you have it and replay every conversation after. It's the inability to rest — even when you're exhausted, even when everything is fine, even when there's nothing to worry about.

I'm Dr. Jené Verchick, a licensed clinical psychologist with over 26 years of experience. I work with adults and teens in Los Angeles and throughout California who are living with anxiety — including the high-functioning kind that nobody else can see.

How I Work With Anxiety

I don't do surface-level coping. I'm not going to teach you breathing exercises and send you home. Breathing exercises are fine — but they don't change the thing that's making you anxious in the first place.

My approach goes deeper. I help you understand the engine underneath the anxiety — what's driving it, where it started, why your nervous system treats everyday life like a threat. Sometimes it's rooted in childhood. Sometimes it's rooted in a relationship. Sometimes it's the accumulated weight of years of performing under pressure with no outlet.

Once we understand the source, we change your relationship to it. Not by eliminating anxiety — that's not realistic and anyone who promises it is lying. By helping you stop being controlled by it.

High-Functioning Anxiety

This is who I work with most. You're not the person who can't leave the house. You're the person who runs the meeting, manages the team, parents the kids, and looks completely in control — while internally you're running a constant threat assessment.

High-functioning anxiety looks like:

• Perfectionism that you call "high standards" but that secretly terrifies you

• Overpreparation for everything — because being caught off guard feels catastrophic

• Difficulty delegating — because no one will do it as well as you

• An inability to rest without guilt, restlessness, or a to-do list running in the background

• Physical symptoms — jaw clenching, stomach issues, headaches, insomnia — that your doctor says are "stress-related"

• Saying yes to everything because saying no feels like failure

• A persistent sense that you're one mistake away from everything falling apart

Nobody around you knows. That's the loneliest part. You're too functional to ask for help and too anxious to stop.

What Anxiety Looks Like in My Clients

Career anxiety

The promotion that should feel good but instead feels like more to lose. The imposter syndrome that grows louder with every success. The burnout that's been building for years because you can't slow down without feeling like you're failing.

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Relationship anxiety

The constant overthinking about your partner's mood, your partner's words, what they meant, what they didn't say. The need for reassurance that you're ashamed of. The fear that if you stop performing, they'll see who you really are. Learn more about couples therapy.

 

Parental anxiety

The worry that you're doing it wrong. The comparison to other parents. The guilt that no matter how much you give your kids, it's never enough. The way your own anxiety is starting to show up in your children.

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Health anxiety

Every headache is a tumor. Every heart flutter is a cardiac event. You Google symptoms at midnight and spiral. You know it's irrational. You can't stop.

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Social anxiety

Not the kind where you avoid parties — the kind where you attend every party and perform flawlessly while internally monitoring every word you say for mistakes.

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Post-fire anxiety

If you were in the Palisades evacuation zone, or watched the smoke from your neighborhood, or lost sleep for weeks wondering if it was coming your way — that anxiety didn't end when the fire did. Many of my LA clients are still processing the impact months later.

Anxiety and Panic Attacks

If your anxiety has escalated to panic attacks — the racing heart, the shortness of breath, the certainty that something terrible is about to happen — I can help with that too. Panic attacks are treatable. They feel like a medical emergency but they're not — and understanding that is the first step to taking their power away. Learn more on my panic attack therapy page.

Anxiety in Teens

Teen anxiety is epidemic — and it often hides behind achievement. Your straight-A student who can't sleep. Your socially active kid who has panic attacks before school. The teen who seems fine but is secretly controlled by perfectionism, social comparison, and the relentless pressure of performing for colleges, parents, and peers.

I hold a Master's degree in Child, Adolescent, and Family Therapy from USC. I've been working with anxious teens for over two decades. Learn more about teen therapy.

26+ Years of Experience

I've worked with anxiety for over two decades. What I've learned is that the most anxious people are often the most capable — the anxiety developed as a survival strategy that worked until it didn't. My job isn't to take that away. It's to help you keep the drive without the suffering.

What Clients Say

"I ran a company and ran my home and ran myself into the ground. I thought anxiety was just what ambition felt like. Dr. Verchick helped me see the difference — and gave me permission to stop treating my nervous system like an engine that never needs rest." — Executive, Beverly Hills

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"I'd been clenching my jaw so hard I cracked a tooth. My doctor said it was stress. Dr. Verchick helped me understand what was underneath the stress — the perfectionism, the people-pleasing, the terror of being seen as anything less than perfect. The jaw unclenched when I started being honest about what I was carrying." — Brentwood

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"My anxiety showed up as control. I managed everything — my husband's schedule, the kids' activities, the household, the finances. If I let go of anything, I panicked. Dr. Verchick helped me see that the control was a response to feeling unsafe, not a personality trait. Learning to let go has been the hardest and most freeing work I've ever done." — Pacific Palisades

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"I'm 17 and I've had anxiety since middle school. Every therapist I saw before Dr. Verchick told me to try meditation apps. She was the first one who asked me what I was actually afraid of. The answer surprised both of us. We've been working on it for six months and I can actually sleep now." — Teen, Manhattan Beach

Frequently asked questions about anxiety therapy

How do I know if I need therapy for anxiety or if I'm just stressed?

Stress usually has a clear cause and resolves when the situation changes. Anxiety persists even when things are objectively fine. If you've been living with a constant hum of worry, tension, or dread for more than a few weeks — even if you're functioning well — that's worth exploring.

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Will therapy cure my anxiety?

No — and be skeptical of anyone who promises that. The goal is to change your relationship with anxiety so it stops running your life. Most of my clients don't become anxiety-free. They become anxiety-aware — and that's what gives them their freedom back.

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I've tried meditation, exercise, and journaling.

Those are coping tools. They manage symptoms. They don't address what's driving the anxiety. Therapy goes underneath the coping strategies and works on the source.

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Do you prescribe medication for anxiety?

No. I'm a psychologist, not a psychiatrist. If medication would help, I coordinate with psychiatrists and can refer you to someone I trust. Many people benefit from therapy and medication together.

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Can anxiety therapy be done via video?

Yes. All sessions are secure and confidential. Many of my anxiety clients actually prefer video — the familiarity of being in your own space can make it easier to open up.