Finding the Right Therapist in Sacramento: Your Guide to Mental Health and Wellness with Audrey Schoen, LMFT

Transforming Mental Health Care for Sacramento's High Achievers

Are you tired of feeling like you're constantly running on empty, despite checking every box on your to-do list? Many individuals in Sacramento, CA struggle with anxiety, depression, and perfectionism that leave them feeling disconnected from their authentic selves. As one of the experienced therapists in Sacramento specializing in mental health concerns, I understand the unique challenges facing anxious overachievers in our community.

I'm Audrey Schoen, a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist providing quality therapy and mental health care to new clients throughout Sacramento County. From my office in Roseville and through secure online therapy sessions throughout California and Texas, I offer evidence-based practices that create meaningful change for individuals seeking therapy and couples facing relationship difficulties.

If you're someone who loves to learn but struggles with emotions, feels overrun by internal chaos despite appearing successful, or finds yourself avoiding deeper issues, you've found the right therapist. My therapeutic approach combines innovative therapeutic modalities with personalized mental health care designed specifically for people ready to begin therapy and transform their well-being.

Understanding Mental Health Challenges in High-Achieving Sacramento Residents

Many clients come to my Sacramento therapy practice appearing successful while feeling completely overwhelmed internally. You might recognize yourself in this pattern: achieving goal after goal but never feeling "enough," managing everyone else's needs while neglecting your overall well-being, or experiencing anxiety and depression that seems disproportionate to your circumstances.

These mental health concerns aren't character flaws—they're often the result of learned patterns that once served you but now impact your well-being. Low self-esteem, perfectionism, and people-pleasing behaviors typically develop as protective strategies, helping you feel safe and accepted. However, these same patterns can create chronic stress, emotional exhaustion, and disconnection from a fulfilling life.

The constant internal critic telling you to do more, be better, and achieve more can become exhausting. Sacramento therapists often see clients who find themselves avoiding certain activities or relationships because they trigger anxiety symptoms, or who notice that despite their accomplishments, they still feel like an imposter waiting to be "found out."

What makes addressing these mental health concerns particularly challenging is that traditional talk therapy alone sometimes isn't enough to create the deep, lasting healing you're seeking. This is why I specialize in innovative therapeutic modalities like Accelerated Resolution Therapy and Brainspotting—approaches that work with both the mind-body connection to process anxiety, trauma, and depression at their roots.

Specialized Therapeutic Modalities for Lasting Mental Health Transformation

Accelerated Resolution Therapy: Rapid Relief from Trauma and Anxiety

As a Certified Master ART Practitioner among Sacramento therapists, I've witnessed how Accelerated Resolution Therapy can create profound shifts in mental health relatively quickly. ART uses directed eye movements, similar to those that occur naturally during REM sleep, to help your brain process difficult memories and emotional experiences more effectively, supporting both trauma recovery and anxiety depression treatment.

What makes ART particularly powerful for anxious overachievers seeking therapy is its efficiency. Many clients experience significant relief within 1-5 sessions, which appeals to goal-oriented individuals who want to see measurable progress in their mental health care. ART allows you to keep the factual memory of difficult experiences while changing how your brain and body respond to those memories.

For perfectionists struggling with low self-esteem or past failures, ART can help reprocess these experiences so they no longer trigger the same level of anxiety symptoms or self-criticism. The voluntary memory replacement component means you can literally change how traumatic or anxiety-provoking memories are stored, supporting your overall well-being and personal development.

Brainspotting: Accessing Your Natural Healing Capacity Through Mind-Body Connection

As a certified Brainspotting therapist serving Sacramento, CA, I use this innovative approach to help clients access trauma and emotional experiences that may be stored beyond the reach of traditional person therapy. Brainspotting recognizes the mind-body connection, understanding that where you look affects how you feel, and by identifying specific eye positions that activate your emotional experiences, we can facilitate deep healing.

This therapeutic modality is particularly effective for clients who feel "stuck" despite previous mental health care attempts or those who have difficulty accessing or expressing emotions. Many high achievers have learned to intellectualize their experiences, but Brainspotting helps access the emotional and somatic components of healing that pure cognitive approaches might miss in therapy.

The therapeutic process honors your brain's natural ability to heal itself, making it especially appealing to clients who prefer evidence-based practices grounded in neuroscience and research rather than abstract concepts. This approach supports both trauma recovery and broader mental health concerns while building essential coping skills.

Relational Life Therapy for Couples Facing Relationship Issues

For couples experiencing communication breakdowns and relationship difficulties, I utilize Relational Life Therapy (RLT), a dynamic approach that goes beyond traditional communication skills to address the deeper patterns driving disconnection. Many couples seeking therapy in Sacramento believe that if they could just communicate better, their relationship issues would resolve. While communication skills are important, RLT recognizes that unconscious patterns and internal narratives often interfere with our ability to truly connect.

RLT helps couples understand how individual triggers and defensive patterns show up in their relationships. Rather than focusing solely on conflict resolution, we explore how past experiences shape your current relationship dynamics and work to create new patterns of connection and intimacy. This therapeutic approach creates a safe space for vulnerability while building the therapeutic relationship necessary for lasting change.

This counseling approach is particularly effective for busy, achievement-oriented couples who may have developed a more business-like dynamic in their relationship, losing touch with emotional and physical intimacy along the way. Through this therapeutic process, couples learn to feel safe with vulnerability and rebuild their connection.

What Makes My Sacramento Therapy Practice Different

Comprehensive Assessment and Progress Tracking in Mental Health Care

From our first session, I use detailed assessments to understand not just your symptoms but the whole picture of your life, including family history, work stress, cultural factors, and personal strengths. This holistic approach ensures that our therapy addresses root causes rather than just surface-level mental health concerns.

Throughout our therapeutic relationship, I utilize standardized measures to track your progress objectively. This isn't just about whether you "feel better"—we're measuring concrete changes in anxiety levels, depression symptoms, relationship satisfaction, emotional regulation, and other specific markers that matter to your well-being. At 3-6 month intervals, we reassess these measures to ensure we're on track and adjust our therapeutic approach as needed.

This systematic approach to mental health care helps ensure that therapy is creating meaningful change in your life. Many clients appreciate this evidence-based approach to tracking their healing journey and personal growth.

Integrative and Collaborative Therapeutic Relationship

My therapy style combines reflective listening with direct, actionable guidance within a supportive environment. You can expect a therapist who is fully engaged and willing to challenge you while maintaining a safe space where clients feel heard and understood. I believe in working actively with clients rather than simply observing from the sidelines.

When appropriate, I may recommend additional services to enhance our mental health care work together, such as medical consultation, specific resources, or complementary practices that support your overall well-being. I look at you as a whole person within your unique systems—family, work, and cultural contexts—to create truly tailored support.

Flexible Session Formats for Busy Sacramento Professionals

Recognizing that busy professionals and entrepreneurs need flexibility in their mental health care, I offer various session formats to meet your needs. While we might start with weekly therapy sessions to build momentum, many clients transition to longer sessions every other week as their stability improves. Some clients prefer the consistency of standing appointments, while others benefit from more flexible scheduling.

For couples counseling, I recommend 80-minute sessions to allow enough time for both partners to fully express themselves and work through complex relationship dynamics. I typically ask for a three-month initial commitment to give us adequate time to establish new patterns and determine if we're making the progress you're seeking in therapy.

Specialized Mental Health Services for Unique Sacramento Populations

Entrepreneurs and High Achievers: Addressing Success-Related Mental Health Concerns

Running a business or climbing the corporate ladder creates unique mental health concerns that many therapists don't fully understand. I work extensively with entrepreneurs who struggle with low self-esteem, work-life balance challenges, and the isolation that often comes with leadership positions.

The same drive and perfectionism that fuel professional success can create problems in personal relationships and emotional well-being. Through our therapeutic relationship, you'll learn to harness your natural goal-orientation while developing healthier relationships with failure, vulnerability, and rest. This counseling approach helps you build essential coping skills for managing stress while maintaining peak performance.

Law Enforcement Officer Spouses: Specialized Mental Health Support

Being married to someone in law enforcement creates distinct mental health challenges that require specialized understanding. Shift work, high-stress situations, and the law enforcement culture can create unique strains on relationships and overall well-being.

I help LEO spouses navigate the secondary trauma that often affects families in this field, develop communication strategies that work within the constraints of the profession, and maintain personal identity and emotional well-being while supporting a partner in a high-risk career. This specialized counseling creates a safe space for processing these unique stressors.

Financial Therapy for Money-Related Mental Health Concerns

Money anxiety and financial avoidance are surprisingly common mental health concerns among high achievers. Despite professional success, you might find yourself avoiding financial planning, experiencing anxiety around spending or saving, or having frequent conflicts with your partner about money.

Financial therapy combines psychological insights with practical guidance to address the emotional roots of financial behaviors. We'll explore how your family-of-origin experiences with money influence your current patterns, work through anxiety and avoidance, and develop healthier approaches to financial management and goal-setting.

Individual Therapy: Comprehensive Mental Health Care for Personal Growth

Breaking Free from People-Pleasing and Low Self-Esteem

People-pleasing might have helped you succeed professionally, but it often comes at the cost of authentic relationships and personal fulfillment. In our individual therapy work, we'll explore how these patterns developed and why they persist, even when they're no longer serving your well-being.

Through a combination of cognitive work and somatic approaches that honor the mind-body connection, you'll learn to recognize people-pleasing patterns as they arise, understand the fears driving these behaviors, and develop new ways of relating that honor both your needs and those of others. This therapeutic process supports self-acceptance and self-discovery while building essential coping skills.

Managing Anxiety and Depression Without Avoiding Life

Many high achievers become masters at managing anxiety and depression through control and avoidance, but this often leads to a smaller, more restricted life over time. Our mental health care work together focuses on expanding your capacity to tolerate uncertainty and discomfort while still pursuing a fulfilling life.

Using evidence-based practices like ART and Brainspotting, we can address the root causes of anxiety depression rather than just managing symptoms. You'll develop practical coping skills for emotional regulation while also processing any underlying trauma or difficult experiences that may be fueling your mental health concerns.

Supporting Trauma Recovery and Emotional Regulation

If you find yourself having emotional reactions that seem disproportionate to the situation, you're not alone. High achievers often struggle with emotional dysregulation, especially when their usual control strategies aren't working, impacting their overall well-being.

Through our therapeutic relationship, you'll learn to understand your triggers, develop coping skills for emotional regulation in the moment, and create new neural pathways that support more balanced responses to stressful situations. This trauma recovery work often includes body-based approaches that help you recognize and respond to stress signals before they become overwhelming.

Couples Therapy: Moving Beyond Communication Skills to Address Relationship Difficulties

Understanding Communication Breakdowns in Relationships

Most couples come to counseling believing their problem is communication, but communication breakdowns are usually symptoms of deeper relationship issues. Through Relational Life Therapy, we'll explore the unconscious patterns and emotional triggers that interfere with your ability to truly hear and respond to each other.

Rather than focusing solely on communication techniques, we'll address the internal narratives and defensive patterns that get activated during conflict. You'll learn to recognize when you're responding from a triggered state versus a calm, centered place, and develop coping skills for returning to connection even during difficult conversations. This creates a safe space for both partners to feel heard and understood.

Rebuilding Emotional and Physical Intimacy

Busy, achievement-oriented couples often find that their relationship becomes more functional than intimate over time. The very traits that make you successful professionally—efficiency, goal-orientation, problem-solving—can sometimes work against the slower, more vulnerable therapeutic process of emotional connection.

Our counseling work together helps you rediscover each other beyond your roles and responsibilities. We'll address barriers to intimacy, explore how to create space for vulnerability in your busy lives, and develop practices that nurture connection on both emotional and physical levels. This supports both personal development and relationship growth.

The Feedback Wheel for Conflict Resolution

Instead of traditional communication techniques that often feel forced or artificial, I teach couples the feedback wheel—a structured approach to sharing difficult feelings while minimizing defensiveness. This tool helps you move through conflict more effectively while maintaining connection and respect.

The feedback wheel provides a framework for expressing your experience without attacking your partner, listening for the emotions behind your partner's words, and finding solutions that honor both perspectives. It's particularly effective for couples who tend to get stuck in repetitive argument cycles and want to build better coping skills for managing relationship stress.

Online Therapy and Virtual Sessions: Flexible Mental Health Care Throughout California

Comprehensive Online Therapy Services

While I see clients in person at my Roseville office, I also provide secure online therapy and virtual sessions throughout California and Texas. Virtual therapy offers the same quality mental health care with added convenience and flexibility that busy professionals often need for their well-being.

Many clients appreciate the ability to attend online therapy without commute time, allowing them to fit sessions into lunch breaks or other brief windows in their schedule. The privacy of attending virtual sessions from your own space can also make it easier to open up about vulnerable topics and feel safe during the therapeutic process.

For clients using approaches like ART or Brainspotting, online therapy sessions can be just as effective as in-person therapy. The key is creating a private, comfortable environment where you won't be interrupted and ensuring you have a reliable internet connection for your virtual therapy experience.

When In-Person Therapy Might Be Better for Your Mental Health Care

While online therapy works beautifully for many mental health concerns, there are times when meeting face-to-face in my Roseville office might better serve your therapeutic needs and overall well-being.

Somatic and body-based work often benefits from in-person therapy sessions. When we're working with physical sensations and responses through the mind-body connection, being in the same space allows for more nuanced observation and guidance. If we're using approaches like Brainspotting, where subtle physical cues provide important information, the in-person therapy setting can improve our work together.

For intensive therapeutic work addressing trauma recovery or complex relationship issues, the physical therapy space provides a container that supports deep emotional processing. When we're diving into challenging material, there's something powerful about having a dedicated safe space designed specifically for this purpose—a place separate from your everyday life where meaningful change can occur.

Making Mental Health Care Accessible: Getting Started with Therapy

Initial Consultation and Comprehensive Assessment

Before we begin our therapeutic relationship, I offer a brief consultation to discuss your mental health concerns and determine if we're a good fit. This conversation helps ensure that my approach aligns with what you're seeking in therapy and allows you to ask any questions about the therapeutic process.

If we decide to move forward, your first appointment will involve a comprehensive assessment that goes beyond just your presenting mental health concerns. I'll want to understand your background, family history, current stressors, and the specific goals you have for our therapy work together. This holistic assessment ensures that our treatment plan addresses the root causes of your struggles rather than just surface symptoms.

Treatment Planning and Goal Setting for Your Healing Journey

Based on your assessment, we'll develop a personalized treatment plan that incorporates the most effective therapeutic modalities for your specific mental health concerns. This might include ART for trauma processing, Brainspotting for accessing stuck emotions, traditional therapy for insight and pattern recognition, or a combination of evidence-based practices.

We'll establish clear, measurable goals for our therapy work together and regularly assess progress toward these objectives. This ensures that you always know whether mental health care is helping and allows us to adjust our therapeutic approach if needed. This systematic approach supports both personal growth and meaningful change in your well-being.

Building Essential Coping Skills and Self-Discovery

Throughout our therapeutic relationship, you'll develop practical coping skills that extend far beyond our therapy sessions. Whether you're working on managing anxiety symptoms, building self-esteem, processing trauma, or improving relationships, the tools and insights you gain become part of your ongoing personal development.

Our therapy work emphasizes self-discovery and self-acceptance, helping you understand your patterns, triggers, and strengths. This knowledge becomes the foundation for creating lasting change in how you relate to yourself and others, supporting your overall well-being long after therapy ends.

Sacramento County Mental Health Resources and Community Support

Connecting with Sacramento's Mental Health Community

Sacramento County offers a rich network of mental health resources that complement individual therapy work. As one of many dedicated therapists in Sacramento, I believe in connecting clients with additional community support when appropriate for their healing journey.

Many individuals benefit from combining individual therapy with other forms of support available throughout Sacramento, CA. Whether you're dealing with anxiety, depression, trauma, or relationship difficulties, having multiple sources of support can enhance your overall mental health care experience and well-being.

Building a Brighter Tomorrow Through Comprehensive Mental Health Care

Mental health care is not just about addressing symptoms—it's about creating a fulfilling life where you can thrive. Through our therapeutic relationship, you'll develop the coping skills, self-awareness, and emotional regulation tools necessary for long-term well-being and personal growth.

The therapeutic process is a journey of self-discovery that helps you reconnect with your authentic self while building healthier relationships with others. This comprehensive approach to mental health care ensures that the positive changes you make in therapy continue to benefit you throughout your life.

Take the Next Step in Your Mental Health Journey

Ready to Begin Therapy and Transform Your Well-Being?

If you're tired of feeling stuck in patterns of anxiety, perfectionism, and people-pleasing, know that meaningful change is possible. The same intelligence and determination that drive your professional success can be channeled toward creating a more authentic, connected, and fulfilling life through quality therapy.

Whether you're seeking individual support to break free from anxiety and depression, couples counseling to rebuild connection and intimacy, or specialized treatment for trauma recovery and emotional reactivity, I'm here to support your healing journey toward improved mental health and overall well-being.

As an experienced therapist serving Sacramento and surrounding areas, I'm committed to providing evidence-based practices within a supportive environment where clients feel safe to explore, grow, and heal. My approach combines innovative therapeutic modalities with personalized mental health care designed to create lasting transformation.

Contact Me Today to Discuss Your Mental Health Care Needs

Ready to get started with therapy? Contact me today to discuss how we can work together to help you move from constant internal chaos to genuine calm and connection. Your mental health transformation begins with taking that first courageous step toward getting the quality therapy and support you deserve.

Whether you prefer in-person therapy sessions at my Roseville office or the convenience of online therapy throughout California, I'm here to provide the specialized mental health care that fits your unique needs and busy lifestyle. Together, we can create meaningful change that enhances your well-being and helps you build the fulfilling life you've been seeking.