Anxiety Therapy
Do you often find yourself working hard to appear to have it all “together” on the outside despite feeling anxious and overwhelmed on the inside?
Is staying focused on the present an almost impossible task because your mind is always planning for the worst-case scenario or trying to control the outcome of whatever’s next?
Anxiety has a way of impacting different parts of our lives in ways that are hard to pinpoint. Relationships are impacted by the insecurity that anxiety fuels, influencing how we interact or respond to our partners. If your anxiety has developed into nagging perfectionism, you may be telling yourself that if you can just tackle or accomplish this one more task, then everything would be fine and you can stop worrying… except that there is always “one more task,” and there is the next thing to worry about getting just right.
Our bodies also experience the stress and weight of carrying chronic anxiety around with us at all times, and your body may let you know by way of gastrointestinal issues, headaches, difficulty focusing, and even fatigue. Sure, you may be functioning on a daily basis—getting your work done, completing daily tasks, and maintaining your relationships—but everything feels like a chore because there is always something to worry about. It seems as though you are treading water just to get through the day, constantly overwhelmed by everything you have to do.
Anxiety and perfectionism may show up the most in your relationships. Maybe you go above and beyond, ignoring your own boundaries, in order to satisfy others. Always zapped of your energy, you may not engage in new experiences or feel motivated to meet new people. Instead, you’ve developed analysis paralysis that causes you to overthink every interaction, decision, and possibility.
Your fears and worries didn’t materialize out of thin air. There is a reason you’re feeling anxious, inadequate, and bogged down, just as there are solutions for managing your stress. Working together with a skilled therapist, you can identify the origins of your anxiety, understand what it’s trying to tell you, and figure out how to respond to it in a healthy way.
Anxiety Is Closely Related To Trauma
Oftentimes, trauma lies at the root of our fears and worries. Whenever we are put in a stressful scenario in which we feel emotionally unsafe or unprepared, feelings of fear and inadequacy are likely to develop. As we grow and change throughout life, we can hold onto the idea that if we are able to prepare for everything life throws our way, we will be okay. But this perception is simply unrealistic—we will never be able to think our way through every problem.
Instead, we must learn how to cope, manage stress, and adjust the expectations we’ve set for ourselves. Fortunately, therapy offers an individualized opportunity to cultivate effective lifelong skills for tackling anxiety.
Anxiety Treatment At Cohesive Therapy
Counseling is a restorative process that allows you to engage in corrective healing experiences, ultimately improving the thoughts, feelings, and behaviors associated with anxiety. Using the therapist-client relationship itself, I work to help you understand the origins of your fears and negative self-perceptions as you build a toolkit for managing anxiety.
My Approach
Anxiety treatment is mostly designed to be action-oriented so that you can feel relief from symptoms quickly, but because it is sometimes linked to trauma or a traumatic experience, there are a variety of attachment-focused, trauma-informed perspectives that can help us get to the heart of the matter. In our work together, elements of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) will be used alongside somatic (or body-based) techniques to help foster emotional awareness as anxiety builds. Tracing these emotions back to their roots, we are likely to find self-limiting beliefs, wounding experiences, and trauma that has manifested as fearful, insecure thinking.
Much of the work we do in therapy will center around creating feelings of safety in your life. As you learn to identify triggers, you will have a stronger understanding of how to set meaningful boundaries and cultivate calm in your life. With newfound coping strategies and perspectives, you will be able to escape catastrophic thinking, analysis paralysis, and perfectionist tendencies.
You may have been taught to view the world through an untrusting or self-protective lens, but anxiety treatment can help you see things differently. Working together in therapy, you can finally break the cycle of anxiety, enhancing your quality of life and relationships—including the one that you have with yourself.
Talking about my anxiety with a therapist will just make it worse.
This is a common concern, and I understand that it may feel uncomfortable to verbalize anxious thoughts and fears. However, my approach to anxiety treatment aims to cultivate feelings of safety and calm in the body. Once you have the coping skills needed to regulate your stress and emotions, we can get into the deeper work of figuring out the why behind your fears and worries.
Most of my clients find that discussing their anxiety with a therapist actually helps them to view their fears and worries differently. With my experienced and empathetic perspective, you will be able to identify new strengths and insights that can aid in your healing.
I am concerned about the cost of therapy for anxiety.
Therapy is an investment in a more relaxed and enhanced quality of life. Learning to manage your anxiety in counseling can open up time and space for other opportunities, including your work, social engagements, and hobbies.
I don’t take insurance because I value your privacy and confidentiality, and insurance providers tend to require regimented treatment plans that may hinder the healing process. As a private-pay therapist, I am able to customize anxiety treatment to the specific needs and goals of each client. To learn more about my rates and ways that you may be able to receive reimbursements for your sessions, please visit my general FAQ page.
Break The Cycle
If anxiety has impacted your quality of life, relationships, or ability to be confident in your decisions, therapy can help you identify root causes and work towards solutions. To schedule a complimentary, 20-minute consultation, contact me.
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Have questions about weekly session rates and what to expect in therapy?
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