Bring confidence and self-trust into your life
Meet Jessica Brohmer, LMFT online therapist based in Aptos and serving all of California for people who are tired of overthinking and ready to build genuine trust in themselves.
Maybe you find yourself wondering if that confidence is even possible…
if stress is something you can actually change in your life
how you’ll stay motivated without the pressure of stress
if giving up the constant thinking means you’re being irresponsible
I’m Jessica (she/her), a licensed therapist (LMFT #119280) based in Aptos, CA.
I specialize in online therapy for stressed, overwhelmed people who want to feel capable through life’s ups and downs. Therapy with me is a space where all your experiences, thoughts, and emotions are welcome even when they feel contradictory, difficult to explain, or unexpected. If you’re used to having to hide or edit out parts of yourself to feel accepted, this is a place where you can show up exactly as you are.
I help you stop…
ruminating over the possibilities
seeking reassurance before making a decision
trying to anticipate and control the outcomes
replaying the past and analyzing what happened
…so you can start engaging in your life, stay connected in your relationships, make decisions even without certainty, and trust yourself to respond when life happens.
When we work together, you’ll learn how to slow down your automatic reactions and explore what’s going on underneath the stress and overwhelm. We’ll look at why these stress patterns developed, how they may have been helpful in the past, and what you need to move forward with calm confidence. Then we’ll meet week by week and put that plan into action. You’ll leave sessions not only with insights into your patterns, but practical steps to actually use those insights in your real life. And I’m accessible throughout the week by text or secure message to help you work through the obstacles that come up.
Why clients choose to work with me
Life can be extraordinarily difficult, even when you're doing everything right. Stress, worry, and perfectionism are usually strategies designed to help us feel safe in an unpredictable world. But real, lasting change takes more than standard breathing exercises or quick relaxation tricks. It requires learning a new way to relate to uncertainty and emotional distress.
I offer
Comfort with complexity. My seminary training has taught me how to sit with complexity, painful emotions, and difficult circumstances without jumping to solutions, giving trite answers, or oversimplifying the problem
Experience navigating unwanted circumstances. Through my work with survivors of abuse, adults with severe mental illness, and women with cancer, I’ve developed experience in helping people navigate situations they didn’t ask for, where they have little or no control over the outcome, and where they often don’t have the support of the people they’re supposed to be able to depend on
An affirming, open space. Clients often tell me that I’m the first person they’ve told about some of the heavy, difficult, and stressful things that are going on in their lives. Whether you're processing faith deconstruction, navigating LGBTQ+ and gender-affirming care, or holding unconventional relationship dynamics, you never have to edit your story to get support here.
What it feels like to work with me
I believe everything is interconnected and that the little tangents are important threads that we can follow deeper into the heart of the matter. That means I usually don’t take charge in the beginning to direct our sessions. Instead, I’ll follow your lead as you share what feels important including thoughts you’re stuck on, memories that keep popping up, or dreams that seem to speak to a theme that’s been repeating in your life. These tangents are important parts of the session that point us toward something that your mind is trying to understand or process through.
I want you to become curious about your internal experience, so that’s the kind of relationship I’ll model for you as we talk. We might slow down, pause, and reflect on particular parts of an event. I might point out things I’m noticing across several different parts of your life that seem related. I’ll ask you to tease apart the different parts of your experience and name what’s going on in your head, what’s happening in your body, and the emotions you’re feeling.
Along the way, I’ll invite you to try little experiments as we see what resonates with you. And I’ll ask you to keep trying those things during the week so we make sure this goes beyond just talking about your experience and actually touches the rest of your life. Some of these exercises will be experiential, but a lot of it is a process of noticing and observing your inner experience. Many of my clients come to session with pages of notes they’ve taken during the week of their observations, thoughts, feelings, emotions, and experiences. Others come as they are, preferring to stay in the present moment and trust the process of deep inner work to bring important pieces to light through our conversation.
To me, the work of therapy is like tending a garden together. It’s an ongoing process, not one big transformation that changes things once and for all. Sometimes it’s taking out flowers you don’t like and replacing them with ones you prefer. Other times, it’s weeding out thick spiky thorns and digging up buried rocks so we can start planting. And sometimes it’s noticing that you have everything you like but it’s just not flourishing, so we need to dig down and address deeper, more fundamental issues in the soil.
Learn more about my specialties
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Anxiety and Burnout
career - relationships - identity - social anxiety - insomnia
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Perfectionism
harsh inner critic - difficulty with decision making - can’t relax
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Trauma and Depth Work
complex trauma - medical trauma - moral injury - pattern exploration
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Grief and Loss
death - infertility - pending loss - separation - divorce
Therapy Methods
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Mindfulness Skills
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction
Inference-based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
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Trauma Therapy
Somatic and Attachment Focused Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing
Written Exposure Therapy
Brainspotting
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Depth Work
Narrative Therapy
Existential Therapy
Somatic Therapy
Psychodynamic Therapy
Training and Experience
Education and Licensure
CA Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist #119280
MA, Western Seminary
BA, San Jose State University
Certificate in Drug and Alcohol Studies, San Jose City College
Training and Certifications
Somatic and Attachment Focused EMDR
Advanced Grief Counseling
Traumatic Grief
Pregnancy and Infant Loss
Christian Therapy
Narrative Therapy
Existential Therapy
Interpersonal Neurobiology