Blog

So. You’re in your mid- to late-20s and realizing you’re not where you thought you’d be by now. Maybe you imagined that you’d have a clearer career path, a long-term partner, or feel a greater sense of purpose by this age. Instead, you’re catching yourself spending hours scrolling on social media, watching everyone else seem to have it together —and wondering why you feel like you’re falling behind. Welcome to the Quarter Life Crisis.

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You've been doing this alone for long enough—carrying the weight, wondering if anyone truly understands what it's like to navigate your particular corner of the world. Group therapy offers something different: a space where your story can be witnessed by others who get it, where healing happens not in isolation but in connection. 

At Therapy on Fig, we understand that finding the right community can be just as transformative as the therapeutic work itself. Below, we’ve gathered therapy and support groups across LA so you can discern which space might actually feel like yours.

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In Internal Family Systems (IFS) therapy, we see that eating struggles are rarely about food.
They’re about protection.

Early experiences, especially the ones that left us feeling unseen, unsafe, or not enough, can plant the seeds of protection. Younger parts of us carry pain, fear, or shame that once felt too heavy to hold. Other parts step in to manage that weight through control, criticism, perfectionism, or numbing. These patterns aren’t evidence of brokenness. They’re evidence of survival: of a system that found a way to keep going.

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But as we’ve moved toward a more secular, individualistic world, away from religious institutions and cultural roots, with the nuclear family valued above the “village,” purpose has become a personal endeavor. No one gets to tell you what your purpose is anymore. You get to create it.

The shadow of being free to define your own purpose is that when it doesn’t come easily, it can start to feel like something’s wrong with you, as if you haven’t done enough inner work to earn it.

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The cultural value of noonchi (눈치)—an intuitive awareness of others’ feelings and expectations—teaches us to read the room and adapt ourselves accordingly.

For many of us, that creates a confusing internal tug-of-war: the pressure to sacrifice ourselves for the greater good versus the desire to live authentically and express who we are.

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For many people with ADHD, reconnecting with the body feels daunting because our bodies have historically been the subjects of criticism and control.

How many times have we been told to “sit still” or “stop fidgeting” in childhood and beyond? These messages taught our nervous systems that our natural ways of moving and being were problematic, creating protective parts that learned to suppress bodily impulses.

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Many high achievers carry an internal narrative that sounds like this: "If I could just do more, succeed more, become more, then I would feel good." The problem is that the bar keeps rising. They hit one goal and immediately start reaching for the next.

This kind of internal system isn't flawed – it's adaptive. Somewhere along the way, these parts learned that being competent, successful, or impressive was the safest way to exist.

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If your Saturn is in Aries* (or you are approximately 27-28 years old right now), congratulations! You have just begun one of the most transformative periods of your life: your first Saturn return.

If things are feeling emotionally heavy or overwhelming, you are in the right place. These next few years – through April 2028 – will challenge you to meet yourself more honestly than ever before. It won’t be easy, pretty, or clean – but you will get through it, and it will be worth it. How deeply can you trust the process of your unfurling? How might you learn to create safety for yourself today?

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In a culture that idealizes clean eating, self-discipline, and wellness, it’s easy to overlook when a desire to be healthy begins to cause harm.

Orthorexia is a lesser-known but increasingly common form of disordered eating that often starts from a well-intentioned place, yet can gradually consume a person’s energy, identity, and peace of mind.

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When you grow up identifying as a Third Culture Kid (TCK), it's hard to imagine one day becoming an Adult Third Culture Kid (ATCK). (It's me. I'm one of them!) But just as all kids eventually grow into adults, third culture kids do, too. And with that shift comes a new layer of complexity to an already complex childhood.

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Many survivors struggle with low self-esteem and tend to overload their lives with tasks. We chase perfection in every detail, as if a flawless performance can somehow erase the past. I’ve found it’s an act of radical self-kindness to choose one area of your life—or just one task in your day, to "take a B" on. This small act is a conscious decision to give yourself permission to be imperfect. It’s about choosing yourself over the frantic pursuit of external validation.

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Human beings are fundamentally wired for connection and belonging. While much of our cultural conversation around relationships focuses on romantic partnerships, the reality is that platonic friendships are equally vital to our emotional wellbeing and sense of self. For individuals with ADHD, navigating the complex landscape of friendship can present unique challenges that often go unrecognized or misunderstood, leading to cycles of shame, rejection, and isolation.

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“I don’t want to be an engineer anymore. But then, who would I be?”

“When I got laid off, I didn’t just lose my job -- I lost myself.” 

“If my business doesn’t succeed, I am a failure.”

Many of my clients discuss career-related stressors. While their industries, backgrounds, and lived experiences vary widely, almost all of them share a commonality:

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While fall invites us to shed, winter beckons rest, and spring brings awakening, summer is a season of energetic abundance. Think: family-filled parks, vacations and roadtrips, picnics, dinner parties, beach days, dancing. Play. For some, this sounds exhilarating – you can’t wait to be a part of the vibrant energy. For others, this might bring anxiety, overstimulation, and a feeling of overwhelm – you wish things would slow down. If you’re anything like me, it’s both.

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As I work with clients experiencing body dysmorphia and disordered eating, I often witness how deeply rooted shame lives inside them. Shame doesn't appear out of nowhere - it is inherited, absorbed, and rehearsed in relationships, both personal and cultural. The parts of us that monitor our appearance, compare our bodies, restrict our appetites, or harshly criticize our physicality often have histories that extend beyond our individual lives.

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When the rules and laws of a society or nation do not support your existence as a couple, you may experience increased burdensome feelings, such as shame, isolation, and hypervigilance, which can negatively impact your relationship.

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For many neurodivergent teens, daytime is a cacophony of sounds, stimulation, and neurotypical societal demands. On the other hand, nighttime may be the only time they feel calm, in control, and able to focus. It offers a sense of privacy and autonomy, and a time when they aren’t being watched, judged, or expected to perform. Night is also when some of their peers, especially other neurodivergent teens, are most active. This can make nighttime a prime time to socialize within neurodivergent or “neurokin” communities.

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If you have ADHD, you're probably familiar with that inner voice that seems to have an endless supply of criticism ready at a moment's notice. "You're so lazy." "Why can't you just focus?" "Everyone else has their life together except you." It can feel relentless, albeit reliable.

Some therapy approaches focus on challenging this inner critic—essentially trying to out-argue it with more reasonable thoughts. While this can be helpful to some degree, it requires sustained mental effort to ensure the "reasonable voice" consistently wins the internal debate. For those of us with ADHD and interest-based nervous systems, maintaining this kind of disciplined mental vigilance rarely makes it to the top of our priority list. 

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Some couples who come in for therapy identify as “high-conflict.” If this term resonates with you, your relational dynamics are likely characterized by anger, defensiveness, and contempt.

Without proper intervention, a high-conflict couple’s therapy can feel more like a battleground than a safe space for connection.

In high-conflict sessions, one of the most transformative tools I rely on from Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT) is “catching the bullet.” This technique enables therapists to pause the couple’s cycle of conflict in real-time and redirect attention to the emotions and attachment needs underlying explosive moments.

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The first step to coming home to yourself is to slow down. When you slow down, you tell your body that you are safe. This process can also be referred to as downregulation. To downregulate is to intentionally transition from your sympathetic nervous system (fight or flight) to your parasympathetic nervous system (rest and digest). We need both systems to live a healthy life, but modern lifestyles often have us in "fight or flight" mode when it is not actually necessary, helpful, or adaptive. When we bring our parasympathetic system online, healing, creativity, and intuition can flow with ease, and we open access to our most authentic Self.

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