Anxiety Therapy
Are You Struggling With Daily Anxiety?
Does your mind go non-stop, spiraling with negative thoughts, leaving you with the sense that something bad will happen most days?
Are you constantly nervous and have difficulty relaxing your muscles or turning off your brain?
Maybe you’ve noticed patterns you aren’t happy with, like self-sabotaging decisions that keep you worrying or on edge.
You might wonder if anxiety has become an obstacle in your life, holding you back from living with peace, optimism, and joy. Perhaps you are also curious if anxiety therapy can help you break free from this cycle you’ve become accustomed to and would like to put a stop to.
Anxiety Symptoms Are Wide-Ranging And Often Overwhelming
Experiencing continuous concerns and a sense of impending doom can be exhausting for your mind and body. You may have worries that turn over and over in your mind, intrusive negative thoughts, and a sense of urgency in your day-to-day life that you just can’t seem to shake. Anxiety can also create physical symptoms, including heart palpitations, excessive sweating, rapid or shallow breathing, muscle tension, as well as digestive issues. You might understand what triggers your anxiety and avoid those aspects of your life as best you can, but you may feel like you are missing out and wish you weren’t so restricted.
Maybe you’ve reached a point where you realize you’ve accumulated so many negative feelings and are tired of living like this, ready to change your life for the better. Or, maybe a friend or family member reached out after noticing that you don’t seem like yourself, and they’re hoping that you can somehow find relief. No matter what prompted your curiosity about psychotherapy, my practice can provide a supportive environment that can help you understand yourself better and find a path forward without anxiety controlling your life anymore.
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Developing Chronic Anxiety Is Very Common
Nearly three million people are diagnosed with anxiety every year.* Anxiety often stems from difficult experiences and past trauma, creating tension, fear, and worry in situations that trigger our memories. Anxiety can filter into other aspects of our lives, leaving us wondering why we’re struggling with symptoms without realizing they can increase over time and become a disorder if we do not address the root causes in therapy.
This might sound familiar, like when we refuse to engage in a situation that makes us anxious, only to have the thought of even trying to do that thing (like speaking in front of people, for example) feel worse and worse over time the more we avoid it.
Certain behaviors and bad habits can worsen or even cause anxiety like being overworked and overburdened, having poor nutrition, lacking in self-care, and not taking time to adequately rest. Stressful events and life transitions can also create chronic anxiety, as well as relationship issues (especially toxic relationships). Social anxiety stems from difficulties interacting with others out of a fear of judgment that may be due to deep-rooted experiences or memories that can be uncovered in therapy as well.
Our bodies respond to anxiety and stress with common symptoms, because the part of our brain that controls the nervous system, the amygdala, becomes active when we experience anxious thoughts. Our minds hold onto these life experiences and our bodies’ reactions to them as a form of protection, even though they aren’t necessary and are even detrimental to our physical and mental well-being.
It is difficult to change a familiar behavior on your own, and therapy can help you figure out why your body and mind struggle with anxiety. My practice can provide the safety and support you need to explore these troubling feelings and process what has brought you to this point in your life.
Anxiety Therapy Can Help Relieve Your Constant Worries
I aim to help those dealing with anxiety better understand their symptoms to free themselves from their nervous system responses so they can live a life with peace, optimism, and hope for the future. When you reach out to begin treatment at my practice, we will first get to know one another and how long you’ve been living with anxiety.
We will determine our long-term goals together once you feel safe and comfortable enough to explore your fears, behaviors, and emotions as well as any past trauma you may have gone through. If you are unsure of the next steps to take, we can discuss your hope for the future, and I will help guide you in setting goals you could work toward.
During anxiety therapy sessions, you’ll have a chance to engage in mindfulness practices that can help establish safety and grounding, including breathwork and meditation. Therapy is not just about our time in sessions either, as I encourage journaling and noting down your thoughts during the course of your day to document how you experience anxiety symptoms during certain moments or circumstances.
Treatment also involves incorporating healthy lifestyle habits like exercise, or determining what you need to establish calm in moments of high stress – like listening to music or something else tangible to help you stay present in the moment.
I Utilize Evidence-Based Modalities For Anxiety Therapy
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is utilized in anxiety disorder treatment because it helps us determine how thoughts influence feelings, which can also influence behaviors. If we can change our thoughts, we can ultimately change our behavior, as it is all related and intertwined on a neurological level. CBT focuses on reframing and changing unhelpful thinking patterns that have become habitual.
Psychodynamic Therapy involves exploring the roots of your experiences with anxiety. If you have had symptoms of anxiety your whole life, then we will start from the beginning and discuss your childhood through adulthood, exploring how your upbringing impacted you and contributed to them.
Eye-Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a powerful interactive therapeutic modality that helps with anxiety and depression on a neurological level, especially when trauma is the root cause. This method identifies and reduces your reactions to triggers, and helps you process the trauma stuck in your body and subconscious mind.
Even though you are struggling right now, I want you to know that hope is possible. You can achieve a balanced and healthy lifestyle, develop healthy relationships, engage in self-care and self-love without guilt, and minimize negative thinking patterns. Therapy at my practice can help you understand where you’ve come from and where you are going without anxiety being in the driver’s seat of your life.
You Might Still Have Questions Or Concerns About Anxiety Therapy…
I am worried that talking about my issues in therapy will make them worse.
You might worry that your anxiety symptoms will remain the same, get worse, or manifest as worsening physical symptoms during therapy. Please understand that I will meet you where you are mentally and physically by establishing safety and grounding techniques before we dive into difficult territory. Additionally, I will provide you with personalized tools to lessen the severity of symptoms right from the start so you can begin finding relief while we reach our long-term goals.
I am not convinced that therapy will help me.
If you are struggling with severe anxiety and have maybe tried counseling or another form of treatment without finding relief, it’s understandable to feel skeptical about the effectiveness of therapy. But you can only move forward by trying again, and we can determine if I am the right anxiety therapist for your needs by meeting for a few sessions. You deserve to live a life free of constant anxiety. Just a reminder, anxiety is a normal human reaction—it comes to our aid in times of need and can keep us safe when we’re in danger. The right therapist or counselor can help you distinguish whether anxiety is an appropriate response versus when it is not.
How do I reduce anxiety immediately?
Change happens in baby steps, one step at a time. Anxiety can be challenging and uncomfortable, which is why I can provide personalized tools that aim to relieve symptoms right away—like journaling and mindfulness techniques. However, time spent getting to the root of your issues in therapy can provide long-lasting relief, even if it takes a few months for changes to occur. Depending on what is triggering your anxiety, you may see changes in your life by the sixth to ninth session. If we meet weekly, that won’t take long at all in the grand scheme of things.
Reach Out To Discuss My Anxiety Therapy Practice
Call 626-684-4906 or use my contact page to book a free 15-minute consultation. During our discussion, you can learn how therapy can help you find relief, get to the root of your anxiety, and manage your symptoms so you can get back in charge of your life.
*https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/anxiety/symptoms-causes/syc-20350961