Anxiety Therapy
Stuck Inside The Relentless Grip Of Anxiety?
Do you worry to the point that you’re often paralyzed with fear, unable to make decisions?
Is it especially challenging for you to tolerate stress and uncertainty?
Are you tired of being trapped in the vicious cycle of anxiety?
Anxiety engages our automatic nervous system, otherwise known as the fight, flight, freeze, or fawn response. Living this way can make low-stress or even ordinary situations seem like they pose an immense danger, causing us to be hyper-aware of every detail and preoccupied with how we might be able to change the outcome.
There are many kinds of anxiety, including:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) – excessive ruminations about everyday situations
Phobias – extreme fears about specific people, things, or situations (an example is agoraphobia, or the fear of others/the outside world, resulting in a refusal to leave home)
Social anxiety – intense awkwardness or discomfort when interacting with others or having new experiences
Health anxiety – overwhelming worry about sickness and/or medical conditions, often resulting in avoiding the doctor
Situation-specific anxiety – creating daily routines around a specific fear (i.e., driving, sleep, etc.)
If you struggle with any form of anxiety, you may have noticed it significantly impacting every element of your daily experience—from how you feel inside your body to how you interact with the world around you. You may become so anxious that your baseline experience is physical, emotional, and cognitive terror; you’re so afraid to do things the “wrong” way that you can’t act or make decisions.
Anxiety Is Your Trauma’s Way Of Bringing Attention To It
In the bigger picture, anxiety is about emotional paralysis—sending the system into danger mode to keep from relaxing, gaining perspective, and seeing the future as something grounded in possibility rather than fear. But you’re here because you recognize that it’s unsustainable to live this way; you’re here because you want to find a way back to an identity that’s rooted in authenticity and not anxiety.
Therapy is your chance to gain control over your fears, manage your emotions, and function better on every level. Working together in counseling, we can reduce the sense of stress, anxiety, and panic in your life to create a more comfortable existence. Through anxiety treatment, you can improve your performance, sleep, relationships, and self-esteem.
Once Anxiety Becomes Ingrained, It’s Hard To Resolve On Our Own
With nearly one-third of American adults struggling with anxiety at some point in their lives, it’s no wonder that anxiety disorders are the most common mental health hurdle in this country.[1] It also may come as no surprise that women are more likely to develop anxiety than men. Given factors like increased risk of violence and trauma, cultural norms surrounding gender roles, hormonal variations, and differing coping mechanisms, women tend to be more anxious thinkers.
There are many causes for anxiety, including genetics, comorbid physical and mental conditions, the effects of drugs, or a combination of any of these factors. Stressful life circumstances also cause an uptick in anxiety, especially if elements of loss or changes in our routine are involved. Emotional stress is a normal part of being human, and it’s natural to react to times of personal or communal uncertainty with fear and worry.
Unfortunately, it’s difficult to treat an anxiety disorder without the help of a therapist or other specialist because the cycle of anxiety is so good at perpetuating itself. When we try to “get rid of” our troubles through things like numbing, detachment, or avoidance, we inadvertently make our symptoms worse, which, in turn, causes us to be even harder on ourselves.
But you are not broken, weak, or defective—you just need to better understand where your emotions come from so you can respond to them in a healthy way. Working together in therapy, we can identify and empower your strengths so that you can cope with stress and anxiety more effectively.
Therapy Teaches You How To Acknowledge—And Move On From— Anxiety
My anxiety treatment approach is individualized to the needs of each client. I value the therapeutic relationship and its ability to model a healthy, fulfilling dynamic that can help put you at ease. Operating from this perspective, my first goal in counseling for anxiety is to create a caring, protective, and emotionally safe environment where you can openly explore your fears.
As we uncover the root cause of those fears, you can take steps to respond to your worries in a way that doesn’t drain you of your physical, emotional, and mental energy. Through our exploration, you will be able to better identify triggers, build coping strategies, and relax the mind and body when activated. Viewing each session as a “problem-solving” session, we can progressively move the dial from living in constant automatic stress mode to living the life that you actually want.
The Tools I Use In Anxiety Treatment
In most cases, therapeutic treatment is the most effective intervention for anxiety disorders. Aside from using the therapist-client relationship as a model for healthy interaction and emotional response, I will also draw from other evidence-based anxiety treatments to help reinforce a more relaxed and resilient mindset, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, or CBT. CBT challenges fear-based thoughts and replaces them with healthier, more constructive associations and is considered the best behavioral psychotherapy for reducing anxiety symptoms.
We will also use psychodynamic therapy, which allows you to recognize the relationship between trauma, difficult past experiences, and what you feel right now. Drawing from your strengths, I will help you create individualized self-soothing techniques that will allow you to slow down your stress response and gain control of your emotions.
You can only resolve a problem when you are able to identify its cause and practice approaching it differently. Counseling is a meaningful and lasting opportunity to gain perspective on your fears and worries so that they have less sway over your life. Instead of feeling paralyzed by anxiety, therapy can help you feel revitalized by a new vision of yourself and the future.
Common Questions About Anxiety Treatment
I am not in crisis; I don’t see how therapy would help with my anxiety.
There is a common misconception that you must be in a full-blown crisis mode in order to benefit from mental health treatment, but that is simply not true. Many people with a range of symptoms seek out therapy for different but equally valid reasons, which may include a desire to manage physical or mental stress, process a recent traumatic experience, create healthier relationships, address a specific mental health condition, or receive unbiased support from a nonjudgmental, neutral party.
However “mild” you believe your concerns to be, you’re here because, on some level, you know that living with anxiety is no longer manageable or tenable with the life you want.
What is the flight/fight/freeze/fawn response and what does it have to do with anxiety?
The concept of flight, fight, freeze, and fawn refers to the four states our automatic nervous system enters when faced with a threat. If left unprocessed, this response lives on in our body and causes us to feel paralyzed with fear, even in normal, everyday situations. This is how trauma forms inside the brain and body, leading to acute emotional, cognitive, and physical symptoms like panic, hypervigilance, and an inability to concentrate. From this, we can see how closely related trauma and anxiety are.
How will I know when I no longer need to be in counseling for anxiety?
For most, therapy is not an indefinite, lifelong experience. You may attend therapy for a little bit or for a long time before seeing a reduction in your anxiety symptoms. You may also come back to therapy after months or years away to address ongoing concerns or navigate new emotional territory. Discussing your concerns and desired timeline with your therapist will be a meaningful way to individualize your anxiety treatment plan and have a realistic idea of what to expect moving forward.
As a therapist specializing in anxiety, I understand that your stress levels fluctuate throughout life. I will listen to you throughout the counseling process to determine the kind of progress you’re making, how your relationship with your anxiety is changing, and if it’s time to take a break from therapy altogether. I trust that you know your symptoms better than anyone and will work with you to develop a therapeutic timeline that feels both manageable and supportive.
Replace The Paralysis In Your Life With A Sense Of Movement And Possibility
If you’re tired of living with extreme fear and indecision, therapy can help you overcome the emotional and mental paralysis caused by anxiety. For more information about my approach to counseling for anxiety or to schedule a free, 15-minute consultation, contact me.
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