Evergreen Counseling

Evergreen Counseling A boutique, trauma-informed, 18-clinician therapy center in the heart of Berkeley, California.

Burnout rarely announces itself; it accumulates quietly in a dysregulated nervous system, eroded boundaries, and a growi...
04/23/2026

Burnout rarely announces itself; it accumulates quietly in a dysregulated nervous system, eroded boundaries, and a growing disconnection from work that once held meaning.

When rest stops feeling restorative, it's often a signal worth taking seriously.

At Evergreen Counseling, our clinicians Ari Costello, Ph.D. PSY, #30470; TPPY2832, Maia Shield, LCSW, #125499, and Ruth Kleast, LCSW, #28504 bring evidence-based approaches, including EMDR, CBT, somatic awareness, and psychodynamic therapy to address the neurobiological and relational roots of burnout and boundary collapse. This isn't about optimizing productivity.

It's about recalibrating how you sustain yourself.

Meaningful recovery is possible, and it begins with one conversation.

Schedule your complimentary consultation at Evergreen Counseling.

Boundaries are rarely a communication problem. For most people, they are a nervous system problem.The capacity to identi...
04/22/2026

Boundaries are rarely a communication problem. For most people, they are a nervous system problem.

The capacity to identify, articulate, and maintain limits with others is a sophisticated psychological skill, one shaped by early relational experiences, intergenerational patterns, and the deeply wired pull toward homeostasis that keeps familiar systems, however dysfunctional, stubbornly in place.

Jonathan Wofrum, LMFT #102291; TPMF1437, writes in our blog: "Just because the floor gets dirty again does not mean your broom is broken."

It is a precise reframe for one of the most clinically common experiences in boundary work: the erosion of resolve not from failure of character but from the predictable resistance of systems that have not yet adjusted to change.

At Evergreen Counseling, our clinicians address boundary development at this foundational level, examining the attachment histories and threat-response patterns that make limits feel dangerous to set and even more difficult to sustain.

Read the full blog. https://taplink.cc/theevergreencounseling

When early relational experiences are marked by harm, inconsistency, or emotional unavailability, the nervous system lea...
04/22/2026

When early relational experiences are marked by harm, inconsistency, or emotional unavailability, the nervous system learns to treat human connection itself as a source of threat.

For many adults, this manifests not as an obvious fear of others but as a chronic, low-grade vigilance in relationships: the anticipation of rupture, the compulsive self-editing, the exhausting calculus of how much to trust and how much to withhold.

Maia Shield, LCSW, #125499 brings clinical experience across forensic, non-profit, and private practice settings to her work at Evergreen Counseling.

She reflects: "Humans are wired to seek connection. When these interactions are harmful, human connection can feel scary, dysregulating, and unsafe. Safe and secure human connections help mitigate the impact of trauma and are central to healing."

Drawing on EMDR, psychodynamic theory, and somatic-informed approaches, Maia works at the intersection of attachment science and trauma resolution, helping clients move from relational hypervigilance toward the genuine capacity for safe, sustaining connection.

Begin with a complimentary consultation.https://taplink.cc/theevergreencounseling

For many autistic adults, the most clinically underrecognized burden is not the diagnosis itself but the decades of neur...
04/21/2026

For many autistic adults, the most clinically underrecognized burden is not the diagnosis itself but the decades of neurological expenditure required to perform neurotypicality.

Research confirms that sustained masking, the suppression of natural autistic expression to meet social expectations, is directly associated with elevated rates of anxiety, depression, and autistic burnout, a distinct and often severe form of nervous system collapse.

Acceptance, in this context, is not a sentiment. It is a clinical necessity.

When autistic individuals are met with genuine attunement rather than corrective pressure, the nervous system's chronic threat response begins to downregulate, creating the neurobiological conditions in which real growth becomes possible.

At Evergreen Counseling, our neurodivergence-informed clinicians use evidence-based approaches including ACT and somatic-informed therapy to support autistic adults in building lives that honor their actual neurotype rather than exhausting themselves performing someone else's.

Begin with a complimentary consultation. https://taplink.cc/theevergreencounseling

The nervous system was not designed for perpetual activation.Yet for many high-functioning professionals, the state of c...
04/17/2026

The nervous system was not designed for perpetual activation.

Yet for many high-functioning professionals, the state of continuous engagement has become so normalized that stillness itself feels threatening, even physiologically uncomfortable.

What reads as productivity is often the sympathetic nervous system running without an off switch.

Anne Lamott captured something clinically precise: "Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."

Neuroscience confirms this. The parasympathetic nervous system requires deliberate, repeated activation to counteract the cumulative effects of chronic stress.

Restoration is not passive. It is a neurobiological process that, for many, requires skilled clinical support to access.

At Evergreen Counseling, our evidence-based individual therapy services create the conditions for that recalibration, moving clients from dysregulation toward durable, sustainable restoration of capacity.

Begin with a complimentary consultation. https://taplink.cc/theevergreencounseling

Trauma is not defined by the magnitude of an event. It is defined by what happens inside the nervous system when an expe...
04/16/2026

Trauma is not defined by the magnitude of an event. It is defined by what happens inside the nervous system when an experience exceeds the brain's capacity to process and integrate it.

For many accomplished adults, that unprocessed material quietly shapes decision-making, relational patterns, and self-perception long after the original experience has passed.

Ari Costello, Ph.D. PSY, #30470; TPPY2832, clinical psychologist and trauma specialist at Evergreen Counseling, trained extensively in military and combat trauma through the VA Healthcare System before bringing that clinical rigor to a broader range of trauma presentations.

She observes: "Most of us will experience one or more traumatic events in our lifetime. Fortunately, we learn more and more over time about how people can recover and move toward a place of growth and thriving."

Drawing on EMDR, Cognitive Processing Therapy, and DBT, Dr. Costello works at the intersection of neurobiological precision and genuine human attunement, addressing trauma not as a narrative to be retold but as a physiological pattern to be transformed.

Begin with a complimentary consultation. https://taplink.cc/theevergreencounseling

For driven professionals, burnout rarely announces itself dramatically.It accumulates in the erosion of capacity: the na...
04/16/2026

For driven professionals, burnout rarely announces itself dramatically.

It accumulates in the erosion of capacity: the narrowing of what feels tolerable, the flattening of motivation that once felt intrinsic, and the progressive dissolution of boundaries that once seemed non-negotiable.

By the time it becomes undeniable, the nervous system has often been operating in chronic dysregulation for months, sometimes years.

Setting boundaries is not a scheduling problem.

It is a neurobiological and psychological one, rooted in attachment patterns, threat-response conditioning, and deeply held beliefs about worthiness and performance.

At Evergreen Counseling, our individual therapy services address burnout at this precise level.

Using evidence-based modalities including ACT, somatic-informed approaches, and EMDR, our clinicians work to restore nervous system regulation, rebuild psychological boundaries from the inside out, and recalibrate your relationship with work entirely.

Begin with a complimentary consultation. https://taplink.cc/theevergreencounseling

The higher you climb, the harder it becomes to find someone who can simply sit with you in what's hard without fixing, m...
04/14/2026

The higher you climb, the harder it becomes to find someone who can simply sit with you in what's hard without fixing, minimizing, or quietly pulling back.

Ruth Kleast, LCSW, #28504, who brings 16 years of clinical experience to her work at Evergreen Counseling, names this directly:

"The best part of being a therapist is sharing in a good laugh and a mutual acknowledgement that life sure can be tough. I love that we get to share in your triumphs and setbacks, together, and create that feeling of knowing that you're not in it alone."

Interpersonal neuroscience confirms what Ruth describes. Co-regulation within a trusted therapeutic relationship is not incidental to healing. It is the mechanism through which lasting neurobiological change becomes possible.

Begin with a complimentary consultation. https://taplink.cc/theevergreencounseling

April is Counseling Awareness Month. For many high-functioning individuals, the decision to seek therapy arrives not at ...
04/14/2026

April is Counseling Awareness Month.

For many high-functioning individuals, the decision to seek therapy arrives not at the moment of crisis, but after years of sophisticated self-management: intellectualizing distress, optimizing around emotional pain, and maintaining external performance while internal resources quietly deplete.

Counseling is not a concession to weakness. It is a precise clinical intervention that leverages the brain's capacity for relational healing.

Decades of attachment research confirm that the most durable psychological change occurs not in isolation but within the context of a skilled, attuned therapeutic relationship.

At Evergreen Counseling, our trauma-informed clinicians use evidence-based modalities including EMDR, ACT, and somatic-informed approaches to address not just presenting symptoms but the deeper neurobiological patterns that sustain them.

This month is an invitation to begin.

Schedule your complimentary consultation today. https://taplink.cc/theevergreencounseling

One of the most clinically significant misconceptions about psychological change is that it becomes less possible with a...
04/10/2026

One of the most clinically significant misconceptions about psychological change is that it becomes less possible with age, with accumulated trauma, or with years of entrenched behavioral patterns

Neuroscience tells a more precise and more hopeful story.

Neuroplasticity, the brain's documented capacity to reorganize its structure and function in response to new experience, remains active across the entire lifespan.

Change is not a privilege reserved for the young or the minimally wounded.

At Evergreen Counseling, this is not a tagline. It is the neurobiological premise that grounds every treatment plan we build.

Using evidence-based modalities including EMDR, ACT, and somatic-informed approaches, our clinicians work at the level of the nervous system to facilitate change that is structural, not merely symptomatic.

No matter where you are starting from, it is never too late to change.

Begin with a complimentary consultation. https://taplink.cc/theevergreencounseling.

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For many accomplished individuals, the greatest obstacle to beginning therapy is not finding the time or resources.It is...
04/09/2026

For many accomplished individuals, the greatest obstacle to beginning therapy is not finding the time or resources.

It is the neurologically wired resistance to vulnerability with a stranger.

Disclosure to an unfamiliar person activates the same threat-detection circuitry that governs all risk assessment, making the first step into a therapeutic relationship one of the most cognitively and emotionally demanding decisions a person can make.

Ari Costello, Ph.D. PSY, #30470; TPPY2832, understands this precisely. She offers: "Although I know it's not easy to open up to a professional, I so value learning more about your experience, hopes, and goals, and exploring how I can best support you."

At Evergreen Counseling, our clinicians are trained to meet that initial resistance with clinical attunement, creating the conditions of psychological safety that research consistently identifies as the foundation of effective, lasting therapeutic change.

Begin with a complimentary consultation. https://taplink.cc/theevergreencounseling

April is Stress Awareness Month. Yet for most high-functioning professionals, stress is not a seasonal concern. It is a ...
04/08/2026

April is Stress Awareness Month. Yet for most high-functioning professionals, stress is not a seasonal concern.

It is a chronic physiological state that the nervous system has quietly normalized.

When cortisol and adrenaline remain chronically elevated, the brain's prefrontal cortex, responsible for executive function, emotional regulation, and nuanced decision-making, becomes progressively compromised.

What begins as pressure gradually reorganizes how you think, relate, and perceive yourself.

This is not a willpower problem. It is a neurobiological one.

At Evergreen Counseling, our trauma-informed clinicians use evidence-based modalities including somatic and ACT-informed approaches to address chronic stress at its physiological root, rebuilding the nervous system's capacity for genuine regulation rather than mere management.

The goal is not coping. It is transformation.

Begin with a complimentary consultation. https://taplink.cc/theevergreencounseling

Address

2140 Shattuck Avenue Suite 804
Berkeley, CA
94704

Opening Hours

Monday 8am - 8pm
Tuesday 8am - 8pm
Wednesday 8am - 8pm
Thursday 8am - 8pm
Friday 8am - 8pm
Saturday 8am - 8pm
Sunday 8am - 8pm

Telephone

+15103732723

Website

https://evergreencounseling.as.me/jennifer-voss, https://taplink.cc/theevergreencounse

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