Rooted in Something Real

This month, we spoke with licensed therapist Jessica Jones, who built Root & Branch Therapy in Carmel on the simple but powerful idea that real change starts beneath the surface. Here, she works with adults and teens navigating anxiety, depression, major life transitions and the particular pressures that come with high-achieving lives, in order to create space for people to finally stop performing and just be human.

Q: A lot of people consider therapy for a long time before actually making that first appointment. What holds them back?

A: Fear, mostly. Fear of being judged, fear of opening up, fear that their problems aren't "big enough" or that therapy won't actually help. For high-achieving individuals especially, there's often a belief that they should be able to handle everything on their own. People often say they don't have time for therapy, but we rarely question the time we make for everything else that maintains our health, like the gym, doctor's appointments or the dentist. Therapy is maintenance for your mind.

I want people to know that therapy doesn't require the "right" words, a crisis or a perfectly clear goal before you begin. It's not about being judged or figured out. It's about feeling safe enough to be human. As humans, we all struggle and sometimes need help in this messy and beautiful journey. Reaching out is often the hardest part, but it can also be the beginning of feeling more connected to yourself and your life.

Q: You work with a specific range of people: moms, teens, high-achievers, men navigating vulnerability and depression. What are the common threads?

A: I spent several years working in a high school, and that really shaped my passion for adolescent mental health. Teenagers are in such a formative, often confusing stage with managing intense pressure from school, peers, family and social media all at once. As I moved into private practice, I noticed the clients I felt I made the most impact with were moms and high-achieving individuals. With moms, it's often a mix of identity shifts, mental load and trying to hold so many roles at once while still wanting to feel like themselves. As a mother, I can genuinely relate to that tension.

With high achievers, there’s often a similar thread of pressure, perfectionism, and a sense of never quite feeling like it’s enough, even when things look successful from the outside. With men navigating vulnerability and depression, I feel really passionate about helping shift the narrative from the message that emotions are something to suppress or push through to creating a space where it actually feels safe to understand and be honest about what's going on underneath. Across all of these groups, the common thread is people who are carrying a lot, often quietly, without enough space to process their own experience.

Q: High achievers often equate struggle with failure. How do you approach that?

A: High-achieving individuals often come in with an ingrained belief that if they’re struggling, something is wrong. Distress automatically equals failure, because many of them have spent years being rewarded for doing things “right,” so anything outside of that starts to feel uncomfortable or even shameful.

So we work on perfectionism and how tightly identity gets wrapped up in achievement—grades, work, parenting, being the one who holds it all together. When that’s been your baseline for a long time, slowing down or not doing everything well can feel less like “I’m having a hard moment” and more like “I’m falling behind in life.”

Q: What does that look like in session?

A: You come in and get comfortable, on my couch, in a chair, wherever feels best for you. And then we just talk. It often feels less like a formal "therapy session" and more like a really grounded, honest conversation with someone who's fully paying attention to you. You don't have to prepare or have anything figured out—just show up and we start there.

For high achievers especially, I try to bring it back to something more human and less performance based. Who are you when you're not producing, fixing, achieving or taking care of everyone else? Because the truth is, none of those roles fully define a person. We're all more layered than that, even when it doesn't feel that way. A lot of the work is just helping people tolerate the idea that they can be a good parent, good at their job, and still be struggling at the same time, without it meaning anything is broken or failing.

To schedule with Jessica Jones at Root & Branch Therapy, visit rootandbranchtherapy.org or email jessica@rootandbranchtherapy.org. The practice is located at 712 Adams Street, Suite 228, in Carmel.