Chronic Worry Therapy · Online, in English

Even when everything is fine, part of you keeps asking: what if it isn't?

Professional psychological support for chronic worry, in English — from someone who thinks the way you do. For people carrying two countries in their head at once: the paperwork that's still moving, a call from home that might be bad news, money that has to stretch across two currencies. A space to understand why calm doesn't feel safe to trust, without translating yourself first.

Book My Assessment Session How I Work

100% Online

Confidential

Systemic Approach

🩷

First Assessment Session

A first session to talk through your situation and shape the process together. You decide with real information, not blindly.

US$25US$49.9950%

60 min · Video call

Book My Assessment Session

When good news isn't enough

Chronic worry isn't pessimism. It's a habit of bracing that never got the memo things changed.

The paperwork clears. The call from home turns out to be nothing. The numbers work out this month, in both countries. And instead of relief, a question shows up right behind the good news: what if it doesn't hold? That question isn't proof something's wrong with you. It's a visitor that learned its job during a time when things really did fall apart — a migration, a financial crisis, a loss you didn't see coming — and it's still doing that job in a life that isn't the same one anymore. It doesn't know yet that the ground changed.

Therapy doesn't tell you to relax or stop caring what happens. It works with what keeps that visitor on shift around the clock, and gives it — and you — new, current information to work from, so the bracing can finally stand down when there's nothing left to brace for.

Ricardo De Castro King — Clinical Psychologist

Who's with you

I'm Ricardo, and you won't be alone in this

I'm a clinical psychologist with more than 15 years working with people who live braced for the next problem, trained in systemic family therapy. I'm Colombian, based in Barranquilla, and I see clients online. But before any title, I'm someone who understands what it's like to hold two languages and two worlds at once. Many of the people I work with in English think in Spanish first — they migrated, or grew up shuttling between countries, or had to become the one who watches for what could go wrong for everyone else. You don't have to explain that part to me first.

Chronic worry is easier to work through with someone next to you. If this feels like the moment, let's take the first step together — at your pace, no pressure.

Master's in Systemic Family Therapy

Universidad Simón Bolívar

Clinical Psychologist

15+ years of clinical experience

University Professor

16 years teaching and researching psychology

Systemic-Relational Approach

Evidence-based

Licensed Psychologist · Professional License 106127 (COLPSIC, Colombia)

Book a Session With Me

Where this shows up

Not a mood. A pattern, with its own triggers

📄

The paperwork that's still open

A visa renewal, a status change, a form waiting on someone else's desk. Even when there's nothing left for you to do today, your mind keeps checking it, as if checking could speed it up.

📞

The call that might be bad news

Your phone rings with a number from home and your stomach drops before you've even seen who it is. Distance turns every unexpected call into a small emergency drill.

💵

Money that has to stretch across two places

Rent here, an emergency there. Even on a month when the numbers actually work, part of you is already running next month's numbers, just in case.

My approach

This is how I work with chronic worry in therapy

I work from a systemic-relational approach: I don't look at your worry as a switch to turn off, but as something shaped by your story, your relationships, and the real instability you've lived through — so the change reaches the root instead of patching the surface.

👀

Naming the visitor, not fighting it

We don't start by trying to silence the worry. We name it, and trace where it learned its job — often a real period of instability, migration, or loss. A habit that made sense once isn't the enemy; it's just out of date.

🌿

Your body still braces

Chronic worry lives in the body: a tight chest before you've opened the email, a shallow breath before the phone even rings. We work with that too, so the bracing has somewhere else to go besides your shoulders and your sleep.

🌱

Getting your enjoyment back

The goal isn't a life with zero worry. It's for good news to be allowed to just be good news sometimes — so worry stops vetoing the moments that are actually going well.

A distinction that matters

Not all worry is the problem

Part of the confusion around chronic worry is that some worry is genuinely doing its job — it's how we plan and solve real problems. The kind that wears people down is a different pattern: worry that keeps running after there's nothing left to plan. In session, telling the two apart is usually the first real move.

Signal	Useful worry	Looping worry
Trigger	A specific, current problem — a form that's due, a payment date, a decision in front of you.	A hypothetical outcome that hasn't happened, and mostly won't.
Attached to	Something you can act on today or this week.	A "what if" with no next step attached to it at all.
What it produces	A decision, a plan, a message you actually send.	The same scenario, replayed with small variations, again.
Duration	Winds down once you've made the decision or taken the step.	Keeps running long after there's nothing left to plan.
How it ends	You act, and the worry has done its job and stands down.	It doesn't end on its own — it needs to be interrupted from outside itself.

For most people carrying two countries in their head, both kinds show up in the same week — the paperwork worry that's genuinely useful, and the 3am bracing that isn't attached to anything you can do tonight. You're not wrong to worry about real things. The work is learning, worry by worry, which kind you're in — and giving the looping kind somewhere to land besides your chest.

How we start

A clear first step, no pressure

You book your assessment session

Message me on WhatsApp or leave your details in the form. We'll set up a first 60-minute video-call session, at a reduced rate (50% off).

We get to know your situation

In that first session I listen to your story, what you've been carrying, and how worry shows up in your day to day. No rushed diagnoses, no jargon — just understanding, together, what you need.

We shape the process together

You decide with real information, not blindly. If it feels right for you, we agree on a process built around you. If not, I'll still point you toward what you need.

Common questions

Before you book, some things worth answering

Is chronic worry the same thing as anxiety?

They overlap but aren't identical. Anxiety is the broader alarm response — the racing heart, the tight chest, the dread. Chronic worry is the specific thought pattern that often drives it: the anticipatory "what if," running on a loop even when nothing in front of you actually requires it. You can have one without a full episode of the other. In therapy, we work with whichever piece is doing the most damage in your life right now.

Why does the worry get louder right after good news, not before?

Because the worry isn't reacting to the current situation — it's reacting to a pattern learned somewhere else, usually a period when good news genuinely didn't last. Once the visible threat passes, that old pattern still expects the other shoe, so it goes looking for the next possible one. That's not irrational; it's outdated. The work is updating it with what's actually true now.

Can I keep the parts of my worry that actually help me?

Yes — that's the point of the useful-worry-versus-looping-worry distinction above. The goal was never a life with zero worry; some worry is doing real work, planning real things. Therapy targets the kind that keeps running after the planning is done, not the kind that gets you to send the email or make the call.

What if my worry is about something real, like my immigration status or money?

Then part of the uncertainty is genuinely unresolved, and therapy won't pretend otherwise — I'm not going to tell you a real, open situation is "just a thought pattern." What we can work on is how much room that uncertainty is allowed to take over the rest of your day while it stays unresolved. And you get to talk through the specifics — the paperwork, the numbers, the actual stakes — in English, without translating them for me first.

Your first step

Start with an assessment session

A first session to meet each other and shape your process. Reduced rate, so you decide with real information, not out of obligation.

US$25US$49.9950%

60 minutes · Video call · 100% confidential

Book My Assessment Session

Also in therapy

Other processes I can walk with you through

Anxiety Insomnia Burnout Low Self-Esteem

Prefer to talk first?

Message me and I'll answer personally

If you're not ready to book and would rather tell me a bit first, message me on WhatsApp or leave your details below. I answer personally within 24 hours, no obligation.

WhatsApp Directly

📍 Online · Barranquilla, Colombia

🕑 Mon-Fri 8am - 7pm · Sat 9am - 1pm (Colombia time)