Therapy After a Layoff or Job Loss

Is it normal to feel this bad after being laid off?

Yes. A layoff can bring on sleep problems, a short fuse, trouble concentrating, and a flatness that’s hard to describe to people who haven’t been through it. It isn’t only about income. Work carries identity, routine, and social contact, and losing it at once is a genuine loss - the reaction usually makes more sense than it feels like it does.

A lot of people wait to reach out until the job search stalls, because it feels like something they should be able to handle on their own. There’s no particular threshold you need to cross first.

What does therapy after a job loss actually help with?

Mostly the parts that don’t resolve on their own when the next offer comes. The identity question underneath the practical one. The decision paralysis about what to do next. Anxiety that keeps running after the immediate crisis passes. And the strain this puts on a partner or family who are worried too.

Common concerns I help with:

• • The identity hit when work has been the main thing
• • Severance-window anxiety and pressure to decide fast
• • Job searching while depressed, or while your confidence is low
• • Anticipating a layoff that hasn’t happened yet
• • Explaining a gap, or returning after time away
• • Deciding whether to stay in an industry at all
• • Strain on a relationship when one person is out of work

Do you work with people in tech?

Often. Washington has been through repeated rounds of tech layoffs, and the experience has its own texture - RIF cycles that arrive without warning, performance reviews that start to feel like a countdown, vesting dates that make leaving expensive, and the particular strangeness of being let go from a company you were proud to work for. You shouldn’t have to explain that context from scratch.

This is psychotherapy, not career coaching. I don’t review resumes or run job placement. What we work on is how you’re holding up - what’s driving the decisions in front of you, and how to keep functioning while the search takes as long as it takes.

Are you taking clients in Washington?

Yes. I’m licensed in Washington and see clients anywhere in the state by telehealth - Seattle, Bellevue, Redmond, Tacoma, Spokane, or somewhere with no therapist within an hour’s drive. Washington has fewer mental health clinicians per resident than most states, and telehealth is often what makes the difference between a waitlist and an appointment. You can read more about online therapy in Washington here.

What if I lost my health insurance with the job?

That’s a common reason people put off therapy at exactly the point they could use it. In Washington I work on a private-pay basis, so there’s no plan to be enrolled in - and I can provide a superbill you can submit to any plan you pick up later for possible out-of-network reimbursement. In California and Florida, insurance may be an option.

My approach is collaborative, practical, and grounded in real life. We’ll work at a pace that feels supportive - focusing both on understanding what’s happening and on building strategies you can actually use week to week.

All services are provided via secure telehealth. I work with adults located in California, Florida, and Washington.

Insurance accepted in California and Florida; Washington is private pay.

If the money side of this is what’s keeping you up, I also work with financial anxiety specifically. If the job was in tech, see therapy for people working in tech.