Frequently asked questions

We work with individuals across the lifespan, including children, adolescents, college students, adults, and couples. We see people from diverse backgrounds and identities, and for a many different reasons. Given our location in the heart of Silicon Valley and near Stanford University, we see many members of the Stanford community, the tech industry, as well as clients from throughout the Bay Area and the State of California. We also work regularly with students from Bay Area school systems.

The psychologists at the Pacific Anxiety Group have extensive experience providing effective, compassionate treatment for individuals with anxiety, stress, depression, and coping with the ups and downs of life. Our therapists help clients with a wide range of concerns, such as coping with life stressors and transitions, relationship difficulties, work stress, job burnout, perfectionism, procrastination, health-related concerns, and insomnia, among others. Some clients come to us to help build new and effective habits to help improve relationships, strengthen leadership skills, and enhance other aspects of their lives.

Our therapists are also experts at helping clients address problems with anxiety and depression that may be interfering in their lives, such as panic attacks, social anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder, among others. You can find more information about our specialities, including our General Psychotherapy Clinic, Anxiety and OCD Clinic, Child and Teen Clinic, Couples Clinic, and Assessment Clinic.

We do not have expertise in treating bipolar disorder, personality disorders, substance-use disorders, or psychosis, and we are not a crisis clinic.

The treatment fees at PAG are comparable to those of other highly skilled, doctoral-level psychologists in the San Francisco Bay Area. You can find more information on our fees and insurance page or you are welcome to contact us for more information.

The Pacific Anxiety Group is pleased to be in-network for Aetna insurance plans. Clients with Aetna insurance will be billed at the in-network rates, which means clients will pay their Aetna co-pay or coinsurance, as well as any outstanding deductible if relevant.

For individuals with other insurance plans, you will be charged for the sessions directly, and you may be eligible for full or partial reimbursement as part of your out-of-network benefits. To help facilitate out-of-network claims, PAG will provide you with a statement - sometimes called a "superbill" - which includes all the necessary information to submit to your insurance company. You can find more information on our fees and insurance page or you are welcome to contact us.

For clients looking for lower cost treatment options, we have master’s level therapists who are completing doctoral degrees in clinical psychology available to work with you. These trainees receive clinical supervision from some of our top psychologists. You can find more information on our lower fee options or you are welcome to contact us.

Our offices are conveniently located throughout the Bay Area, on the Peninsula (Belmont, Los Altos, and Menlo Park) and in San Francisco. We also offer psychotherapy via secure video to clients throughout California.

Our clinicians are licensed in the state of California, and we can only provide treatment to clients who are located within the state of California at the time of treatment. A few of our clinicians are licensed in other states, but the majority can only see clients in California. To find therapists in other parts of the country or internationally, you could consider searching ABCT’s Find a Therapist or ADAA’s Find a Therapist listings.

We understand that our clients have busy lives and require convenient appointment times. We offer appointments throughout the day, including before and after school/work, and on weekends when available. We have the greatest availability for video therapy appointments during regular business hours, with longer waits for in-person treatment and before or after work/school times. More information on our wait times is available on our scheduling page.

At PAG, we use the core principles of evidence-based psychotherapy - utilizing treatment approaches that have been extensively researched and shown to be effective - and we adapt them to meet the unique needs and goals of each client. We know that each person comes to us with their unique history, identities, experiences, and stressors, and we develop an individualized treatment plan for each of our clients. PAG psychologists specialize in evidence-based treatments including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), DBT-informed treatment, Exposure and Response Prevention for OCD, Cognitive Processing Therapy, Prolonged Exposure, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Parent-Child Interaction Therapy, Motivational Interviewing, and Mindfulness-Based approaches. Treatment is offered through in-person and video therapy sessions. For more information, please see Treatment Approach.

To book an initial consultation appointment with one of our psychologists, please schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation. One of our clinic staff will contact you to ask you some questions, answer any questions you may have, and help match you with one of our clinicians.

Therapy sessions are typically either 45-minutes or 60-minutes in length. In some cases, individuals may benefit from more intensive treatment or may wish to attend sessions more frequently during the week. Psychologists at PAG will design an individualized treatment plan that works for you, and they will discuss session length and meeting frequency with you after completing an initial evaluation of your treatment goals and needs.

The psychologists at PAG specialize in cutting-edge treatments designed to provide noticeable symptom reduction and enhanced quality of life. Many clients notice improvement within several sessions.

In general, the length of treatment depends on a number of factors, including the type of problem, how long the problem has been an issue, the treatment goals, level of motivation, and the amount of effort an individual is willing and able to put into out-of-session work. There is considerable evidence that clients who complete treatment exercises outside of the session benefit from treatment more quickly.

Clinicians at PAG work collaboratively with clients to set clear treatment goals and to evaluate their progress throughout the course of treatment. PAG providers ask their clients to complete brief questionnaires at routine intervals in order to assess and track problem areas. Therefore, clients and their therapists always have a clear sense as to how well the treatment is working. With this regular feedback, clients and their therapists can tailor the treatment specifically to the client’s needs. This greater efficiency leads to an overall shorter-term model of intervention.

Psychologists at PAG work closely with psychiatrists or other prescribing physicians to ensure the best quality of care for our clients. If you do not have a psychiatrist and are interested in medication options, PAG is happy to provide a list of local psychiatrists in the area who specialize in the pharmacological treatment of anxiety and mood disorders.

We ask clients to provide 48 hours notice to avoid being charged for the session.

Please see our helpful list of resources for more information.