Chloe Espenan, LMSW

Chloe works with adults, couples, and teens (13+) who know something isn’t working, even if they’re not totally sure what to do about it yet. Maybe you keep getting pulled into relationships where someone else’s needs or moods somehow become your responsibility, and you’re only okay if the people around you are okay. Or there’s something you reach for (substances, food, another behavior) that helps for a while, until it doesn’t. And sometimes there isn’t a neat explanation at all. Life just feels heavy. It’s harder to care about things you know you care about, and being told to “just do something” isn’t exactly helpful.

Chloe has a particular interest in depression, codependency, substance use and process addictions, and disordered eating patterns, as well as the anxiety and self-criticism that often ride alongside them. She also works with existential dread, identity, and the uncertainty of life transitions and the questions that surface when you slow down: Who am I underneath everyone else's moods and needs? Who am I when I'm not numbing? Who am I when it's just me?

Her work is grounded in curiosity, not judgment. Rather than reducing people to a diagnosis or asking them to just stop a behavior, she helps clients understand what their patterns have been doing for them, what keeps pulling them back, and what becomes possible when they no longer have to organize their lives around coping or staying hypervigilant to everyone else's mood. Part of that work is learning to hold two truths at once: that a behavior made sense and that it's no longer serving you, that you're doing your best and still want more.

(Chloe is an Licensed Master Social Worker supervised by Esperanza Garibay, LCSW-S)