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Lara Kennerly, PsyD
Trauma-Informed Therapy in Sacramento, CA & Online Across California
For those who steer the ship for everyone else, yet feel adrift within.
Psychotherapy to help you find your way when you’re feeling lost on the sometimes stormy seas of life. A supportive space to explore what feels overwhelming, stuck, or too heavy to carry alone.
Work with a licensed psychologist in Sacramento, or connect through secure online sessions available anywhere in California.
You've Weathered the Storms. But Now You're Drifting, and You Don't Know Why
Therapy for Adults Who Feel Lost, Numb, or Unfulfilled
Even When Everything Seems Fine on the Surface
You’ve spent years steering the ship: your career, your relationships, your responsibilities, your achievements. But lately something feels off, like you’ve lost the map or the wind has gone out of your sails. Now you’re coasting through your days, stuck in routines that once made sense but no longer feel fulfilling.
There’s no crisis, no breakdown. You're functioning, but barely feeling, with a subtle sense of being adrift, emotionally untethered, and unsure of what direction to take. You’re not sure what’s wrong, but you know you’re not where you want to be emotionally. And inside, there’s a quiet question: Is this all there is?
As a licensed psychologist in Sacramento, CA, I offer trauma-informed, attachment-based therapy that goes beyond surface coping. I help adults like you make sense of what’s beneath the surface.
Together, we’ll uncover the emotional currents shaping your experience and begin to chart a path toward clarity, purpose, and emotional steadiness.
Let’s steady the waters together.
You Don't Have to Navigate Alone
Let’s work together to steady the waters and find your way forward.
Meet Dr. Lara Kennerly, PsyD
Licensed Psychologist in Sacramento, CA
I’m Lara Kennerly, PsyD, and at Navigating Rough Waters I offer a safe harbor for those seeking therapy to help navigate the sometimes stormy seas of life. As a trauma-informed therapist, I honor your story and understand that suffering never looks exactly the same, and healing doesn’t follow a straight line.
I offer in-person therapy in Sacramento and nearby communities including Midtown, East Sacramento, Downtown Sacramento, Land Park, Curtis Park, Oak Park, Tahoe Park, Elmhurst, River Park, Arden-Arcade, Fab Forties, Wilshire Hollow, Mansion Flats, New Era Park, Alkali Flat, Richmond Grove and West Sacramento.
Online therapy sessions are also available for adults anywhere across California.
Who I Work With
I work with adults navigating a range of emotional challenges, including:
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Depression, anxiety, and mood concerns
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Grief and loss
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Trauma and attachment wounds
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Major life or role transitions
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Relationship challenges
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Young Adults Transitioning to College/Adulthood
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Spouses and loved ones of first responders and corrections staff
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Emotional overwhelm
Every person’s experience is unique. In therapy, we work at a pace that feels safe and meaningful for you, exploring the deeper patterns shaping your emotional life and helping you move toward greater clarity, resilience, and steadiness.
Areas of Special Focus
While I work with many individuals, my practice particularly focuses on supporting:
High-Achieving Professionals
Professionals ready to stop putting their image of “successful” above everything else, face what’s been hidden, and start healing.
I help high-achieving professionals navigate the rough waters beneath their success-chronic exhaustion, disconnection, and a sense of unfulfillment. Through insight-oriented and attachment-based therapy, we uncover the deeper emotional currents shaped by past experiences and relationships, and navigate the deeper patterns driving burnout and help you reconnect with yourself beyond performance and achievement.
Individuals in High-Stress or High-Risk Professions
You show up for everyone else. I’m here to show up for you. Real support from someone who gets it.
I help adults in high-stress or high-risk professions, including first responders, healthcare workers, corrections staff, air traffic controllers, and mental health professionals, who may feel isolated, overwhelmed, or emotionally shut down by the weight of their work.
After 10 years working at a maximum-security prison, I know firsthand the toll it can take: the constant alertness, the hypervigilance, the intense things you see and hear, and the way its impact can creep into your home life.
Through psychodynamic, attachment-based, and trauma-informed therapy, we work together to process your experiences, break through emotional walls, and address burnout. I bring an understanding of the toll this work can take.
Late-Diagnosed ADHD in Adults
Making sense of patterns that may have been there for years.
I work with adults who are diagnosed with ADHD later in life or are beginning to wonder if ADHD may explain some of the difficulties they have experienced over the years. Learning this about yourself can bring clarity, but it can also bring frustration, grief, and a different understanding of your past.
Therapy can help you explore how ADHD affects your daily life, relationships, emotions, and sense of self, while finding ways to work with your brain that feel more sustainable.
Adults Impacted by Wildfires
Healing after the Fire: Therapy for adults who’ve lived through the trauma of wildfires.
I work with adults who’ve lived through the trauma of wildfires, including losing a home, facing evacuation, or living with constant stress. After supporting first responders during the 2018 Paradise “Camp Fire” in Butte County, I saw firsthand how deeply these events affect people.
Using psychodynamic, insight-oriented, and trauma-informed approaches, I help clients process the emotional and psychological impact of wildfires, rebuild a sense of safety, and work through grief and stress as they begin rebuilding their lives.
Support Through Therapy in Sacramento & Across California
I offer trauma-informed, psychodynamic therapy for adults navigating a range of emotional challenges. These are some of the areas where therapy can provide focused support.
Getting Started with Therapy at Navigating Rough Waters Therapy
Three simple steps to begin:
Free 15-minute phone consultation
Begin Your First Session
Navigating Forward Together
Book a free 15-minute call to talk about what’s bringing you to therapy and see if working together feels like a good fit. No commitment and no pressure.
If we decide to move forward, we schedule your first session. We begin getting to know each other and talk about what has been going on in your life and what you hope to gain from therapy.
From there, we continue our work together through regular sessions, either in person in Sacramento or through secure online therapy available anywhere in California.