NOW ACCEPTING NEW CLIENTS FOR IN-PERSON AND ONLINE THERAPY --SERVING ALL OF CALIFORNIA-- SCHEDULE FREE CONSULTATION -->
Lara Kennerly, PsyD
Therapy for Women in Sacramento, CA
Somewhere between your career, your relationships, and everything you feel you “should” be doing, you may have lost touch with yourself. Let’s begin finding your way back.
Many women move through life carrying a lot without always having space to process it. You may look like you’re managing everything, but internally feel overwhelmed, disconnected, or unsure of yourself.
Dr. Lara Kennerly provides therapy for women in Sacramento, CA, offering a space to slow down, talk through what’s been building, and better understand what’s leaving you feeling overwhelmed or disconnected.
Common Mental Health Challenges Women Face
Women often navigate multiple roles and expectations at once, which can slowly and quietly build into excessive stress, emotional fatigue, or a sense of disconnection.
Over time, these challenges can take a growing toll on women's energy, relationships, sense of self, and the ability to keep "managing" and moving forward day after day, despite the growing burdens being carried.
Research consistently shows that women are more likely than men to experience anxiety and depression, and the numbers are significant. According to the Anxiety and Depression Association of America, women are nearly twice as likely to be diagnosed with an anxiety disorder during their lifetime.
Rates of burnout and emotional exhaustion continue to climb, particularly among women managing careers, family responsibilities, and caregiving roles at the same time.
When it comes to the postpartum period, the CDC reports that approximately 1 in 8 women experience symptoms of depression after giving birth. Many experts believe this number may be higher, as these symptoms often go unrecognized or untreated.
Here are some of the common mental health challenges women experience:
-
Anxiety, overthinking, and constant mental pressure
-
Depression, low mood, or loss of motivation
-
Burnout and emotional exhaustion from daily responsibilities
-
Chronic stress from balancing work, family, and personal expectations
-
Body image concerns and low self-esteem
-
Difficulty setting boundaries or prioritizing personal needs
-
Pregnancy, postpartum depression, and overwhelming stress inherent in the identity shifts that come with becoming a mother.
-
Hormonal-related mood changes (PMS, PMDD) and the impact these changes can have on your life and relationships in the short and long-term.
-
Hormonal and physiological changes (perimenopause, menopause) as well as emotional challenges linked to the awareness your body and sense of "femininity" has/is changing, and what this means for shifts in your sense of self and identity.
-
Relationship challenges, attachment patterns that are unhealthy/unsatisfying yet seem to repeat time and again, or fear of loss, rejection, or abandonment.
-
Loneliness or feeling emotionally disconnected
-
Early life Trauma, including adverse childhood experiences, or complex relational traumas/losses.
-
Experiencing interpersonal violence, emotional/verbal/physical abuse, sexual assault, fear/threats, coercive control, or being pressured/forced to do things you were not comfortable with by a significant other.
-
Feeling pressure to always put yourself last, to sacrifice your own needs and desires in order to provide and care for others first, and experiencing complicated feelings of guilt/shame in moments where you decide not to put yourself last.
Therapy for Women in Sacramento and Nearby Areas
Thoughtful, one-on-one therapy designed around your real life and what you’re carrying
There often comes a point where pushing through no longer feels sustainable, even when life looks steady from the outside. Maybe you've been the one holding things together for so long that you've stopped asking what you actually need. Maybe you're exhausted in a way that's hard to explain, not because anything is dramatically wrong, but because somewhere along the way, you got lost in the current.
You may be someone who manages things well, who others lean on, who rarely asks for help. And still, quietly, something feels off. A heaviness that doesn't lift. A sense of going through the motions. The feeling that you've drifted far from the version of yourself you used to know, or maybe never fully got to be.
That experience is real. And it's worth taking seriously.
At Navigating Rough Waters Therapy, Dr. Lara Kennerly provides therapy for women in Sacramento, CA, and nearby areas including Elk Grove, Roseville, Folsom, Davis, Citrus Heights, West Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, Fair Oaks, and Carmichael.
Through one-on-one sessions, available in person in Sacramento or online across California, Dr. Kennerly helps women untangle complicated current and past experiences/dynamics/patterns in order to get to the root of current challenges, begin to rebuild confidence in yourself and sense of direction, and reconnect with what really matters and what you want for yourself.
Support for Women’s Mental Health and Life Challenges
Every woman’s experience is different, but there are certain patterns and challenges that come up often. These experiences don’t always have clear labels, but over time they can start to affect how you feel, how you relate to others, and how you move through your day and life.
Therapy creates space to slow down, explore what’s been building, and begin making sense of it in a way that feels clear, accurate, and authentic.
Dr. Lara Kennerly provides therapy for women’s issues in Sacramento and offers online sessions across California. Her work focuses on creating a space to help you better understand what you’re carrying, provide support and guidance to process and move through it, help you navigate the integration your past and present experiences and how they intersect, and ultimately, help you gain a crystal clear and complete understanding of yourself and your life that is the foundation from which you can then move forward and more confidently make choices and changes that move you a positive direction and towards things that really matter to you. Some of the areas she supports include:
Anxiety and Depression
Ongoing worry, overthinking, or a quiet sense of heaviness can make it hard to feel like yourself. Even when things seem fine on the outside, it can feel exhausting or difficult to stay present day to day.
Burnout and Exhaustion
Feeling constantly drained, even after rest, or going through the day without much energy or motivation. Over time, it can start to feel like you’re just getting through things rather than actually being present.
Motherhood
From pregnancy to postpartum and beyond, motherhood can bring moments of overwhelm, self-doubt, and feeling stretched thin. This is a space to talk through what you’re experiencing without pressure to have it all figured out.
Trauma and PTSD
Past experiences can shape how you respond in the present, even when it is not obvious. Trauma-informed therapy offers a space to process what has been carried for a long time.
Menopause and Midlife Transitions
Hormonal changes, identity questions, and a shifting sense of self. This stage of life can bring emotional challenges that deserve attention and support.
Life Transitions
Career changes, relationship shifts, becoming a parent, or experiencing loss can all impact your sense of identity and direction.
Grief and Loss
Loss doesn’t always look the same. It can be the loss of a person, a relationship, or a version of your life you expected. It often shows up quietly and stays longer than people expect.
Body Image and Self-Esteem
A complicated relationship with your body or sense of worth often develops over time. Therapy helps explore where these beliefs began and how they continue to affect you.
High-Achiever Stress and Perfectionism
Holding yourself to high standards can create constant pressure. Even when things look successful on the outside, it can feel very different internally.
Meet Your Women’s Therapist in Sacramento
A lot of the women I work with are already self-aware. They’ve read, reflected, and tried to understand what’s going on. But insight alone hasn’t changed how things feel day to day.
That’s usually where we start. Not from scratch, but from what you already know isn’t working.
In our sessions, we look closely at the patterns that keep repeating, especially the ones that don’t fully make sense or feel out of proportion. This includes how you respond under stress, how you relate to people, and how you tend to turn things inward on yourself. We begin from the understanding that everything you now do, began at a time in your life when it was a perfectly reasonable response, and that it is only because it then became a pattern and no longer serves you and current circumstances, that it is now a problem.
I provide therapy for women in Sacramento and work with clients online across California. My approach is Trauma-Informed and grounded in Psychodynamic theory and practice, which means we pay attention to how past experiences continue to shape present reactions and experiences.
The goal is not to analyze everything endlessly. It is to uncover the roots of your current struggles, understand the patterns and how they keep you stuck, and provide you ways to then escape the patterns of behavior and responding that no longer serve you and let you move differently in your life in ways that lead to more positive outcomes.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
— Albert Einstein
Therapy for Pregnancy, Postpartum, and Motherhood in Sacramento
Pregnancy and early motherhood can change things in ways that are hard to explain until you’re in it. Some days feel manageable, others don’t, and it can be difficult to make sense of why.
You might notice shifts in your mood, your energy, or how you relate to yourself and others. Even small things can start to feel heavier, or not quite like you.
I work with new moms and women navigating this stage of life, including the emotional and identity shifts that often come with it. This is a space to talk through what’s actually happening without needing to filter it or feel like you have to have it figured out.
The focus is on helping you understand these changes and feel more settled in yourself as things continue to evolve.
Relationship Therapy for Women in Sacramento, CA
Sometimes the issue isn’t a clear conflict. It’s a feeling that something in your relationships is slightly off, even if you can’t fully explain it. You might leave conversations feeling unsettled, unsure where you stand, or like you’re constantly adjusting to keep things from becoming difficult.
Over time, it can become harder to separate what you actually feel from what you’ve learned to go along with. That gap can leave you second-guessing yourself or questioning your place in the relationship.
I work with women who want to get clearer about where they stand in their relationships, especially when things feel uncertain or uneven. We look at what’s happening in real situations, not just in theory, so you can start responding in a way that feels more direct and more like your own.
Body Image and Self-Esteem Therapy for Women
Your relationship with your body and sense of self does not form overnight. It often develops over time through experiences, expectations, and how you have learned to see yourself. Often it began in childhood, through messages you heard about your own body and how you should view it, from the adult women around you, from television, through social media, all teaching you your body was something to focus so much of your time and attention on, to constantly critique, and to often criticize, teaching you endless strategies to seek "improvement" of some perceived natural "flaw."
You might notice being overly critical, comparing yourself to others, or feeling like your worth is tied to how you look or what you achieve. Even when things are going well, it can still feel like you are not quite enough. Just the simple concept of "feeling good in your own skin" can be something that feels out-of-reach for many women.
I work with women who are trying to understand where these patterns come from and why they feel so persistent. This is not about forcing confidence or changing how you “should” feel. It is about making sense of what is already there and how it continues to show up in your daily life.
Over time, this work can help you relate to yourself in a way that feels less harsh, and allows you to start to separate some of the outside "noise" you continue to absorb, from how you authentically feel about and within your own body.
Anxiety and ADHD Therapy for Women in Sacramento, CA
For some women, it is not just one thing. It is the constant mental noise, difficulty focusing, starting tasks but not finishing them, or feeling overwhelmed by things that seem manageable for others.
You might notice your mind jumping from one thought to another, struggling to stay present, or feeling frustrated with yourself for not being more organized or consistent. Over time, this can turn into self-doubt or the sense that you are always trying to catch up.
I work with women who want to better understand how their mind operates, especially when anxiety and attention challenges overlap. Rather than forcing rigid systems, we focus on what actually fits your way of thinking and helps you move through your day with less friction.
Burnout and Stress Therapy for Women in Sacramento, CA
Burnout doesn’t always show up as obvious exhaustion. Sometimes it looks like getting through the day but feeling detached from it, or noticing that things that used to feel manageable now take more effort than they should.
There can be a constant sense of pressure in the background, even during moments that are supposed to feel like a break. Rest doesn’t always feel like it resets anything, and it becomes harder to tell what would actually help.
I work with women who are used to staying on top of things, even when it’s taking a toll. We focus on understanding how that pressure has built over time and how it continues to show up in your thinking, your energy, and your day-to-day decisions.
As that becomes clearer, it becomes easier to step out of that constant cycle and find a way of moving through your life that feels more sustainable.
Frequently asked questions
Take a Step Toward Feeling More Like Yourself
You might have been thinking about this for a while. Maybe going back and forth, telling yourself you’ll deal with it later or that it’s not a big enough reason to reach out.
At some point, though, it helps to stop carrying it on your own and actually look at what’s been building.
I offer therapy for women in Sacramento and online across California. If you want to get a sense of whether this feels like a good fit, you can start with a free consultation.