Therapy for Emotional Regulation

At Moving Forward Staying Present, we offer therapy for emotional regulation in Portland, Oregon for clients who want support with intense emotions, overwhelm, reactivity, shutdown, nervous system activation, ADHD-related emotional intensity, trauma responses, and relationship stress.

Emotional dysregulation can feel like your emotions arrive faster, louder, or more intensely than you can process. You may move quickly into anxiety, anger, panic, shame, shutdown, tears, defensiveness, or numbness. You may understand what happened after the moment passes, while still feeling unsure how to respond differently next time.

Emotional dysregulation can feel like:

  • Big emotional waves that feel hard to ride out

  • Reacting quickly and regretting it later

  • Shutting down during conflict

  • Feeling flooded, panicked, or frozen

  • Difficulty naming what you feel

  • Anger, shame, anxiety, or sadness that escalates quickly

  • Feeling disconnected from your body or needs

  • Struggling to recover after emotional moments

  • Feeling distraught or distressed

  • Feeling “out of control”

  • Inability to feel grounded

  • Distractibility

  • Feeling emotionally flooded

  • Inability to focus

  • Inability to tolerate stimuli

  • Decreased capacity to handle stressors

How Therapy Helps

Therapy can help you understand what happens in your body and mind before, during, and after emotional activation. Instead of treating emotions as something to push away, we help you listen for what they carry: needs, boundaries, histories, fears, grief, and protective responses.

This work can help you recognize early signs of activation, build grounding and regulation tools, communicate needs more clearly, reduce shame after emotional reactions, and strengthen nervous system flexibility.

Our Approach

Our therapists may draw from DBT-informed skills, somatic awareness, mindfulness, trauma-informed therapy, emotional identification, grounding practices, and narrative work. The goal is to help you build more space, choice, and self-compassion in moments that once felt automatic.

This work may be especially helpful for clients navigating ADHD, trauma, anxiety, depression, relationship conflict, sensory sensitivity, or long-standing patterns of feeling “too much” or shutting down.

Our therapy office is located in the Sellwood neighborhood of SE Portland. We also offer telehealth across Oregon.

Ready to start your healing journey?Request a consult call.

If emotional regulation support feels like what you need, schedule a consult and we’ll help connect you with a therapist who fits.

Book a consult call

GETTING HERE

Location:

Our office is located in the Sellwood neighborhood of Southeast Portland at 8083 SE 13th Ave, Suites 2 & 4. Your therapist will specify which suite they are in. Come on upstairs to the second floor, but please keep in mind we are not ADA accessible.

Parking:

There is plenty of free street parking in front of the building as well as in the lot in the back of the building, just behind OnPoint Credit Union (13th and Tacoma St). Park in a spot NOT labeled OnPoint Credit Union and walk up the stairs at the back of the building. Find your Suite: 2 or 4.

Public Transport:

From downtown

  • Take the southbound #40 bus towards Tacoma, get off at SE Tacoma & 13th, or

  • Take the southbound MAX orange line towards Milwaukie, get off at SE Bybee Blvd and transfer to the northbound #40 bus towards Swan Island. Get off at SE Tacoma & 13th.

From Concordia, Grant Park, Buckman, Hosford-Abernathy, etc.

  • Take the southbound #70 bus towards Milwaukie, get off at SE 17th & Tacoma. Walk four blocks west to SE 13th & Tacoma.

  • From anywhere else:

  • Google Maps can provide useful routes that include bus schedules.

By Bike:

From anywhere along the Willamette

  • Take the Willamette Greenway Trail along the river to the Sellwood Bridge, cross the bridge and take Tacoma St to SE Tacoma & 13th.

  • Take the Springwater on the Willamette, turn off and take Spokane St to Spokane & 13th.

From anywhere else