Anxiety Therapy
Do you have trouble controlling your worrying, and the little problems feel too big?
Are you falling apart trying to hold everything together perfectly?
Maybe you can’t shake that feeling that your best is never good enough?
With so much on your plate and constant worrying, you may not feel as satisfied with life, and miss that feeling of lightness and joy like you used to have. Your mind replays the day's events and you tend to only focus on the problems in your life while your mind quickly hops from one worry to another... “What if my boss is upset with me?”, “Maybe I’ve made the wrong choice.”, “I’ll never be able to catch up on all that I have to do.” “What if my friends don’t really like me?”.
Maybe your self-doubt and self-criticism are keeping you from enjoying your social life. Maybe you are focusing so much on what others think of you that it’s hard to be yourself and enjoy parties or time with friends. Do you find yourself so concerned with how others may judge you that it’s hard to make choices for yourself?
Do I actually need therapy?
Everyone feels anxious sometimes, however when feelings of anxiety are overwhelming, distressing or start affecting important parts of our life (like our jobs, social life, family, etc.) an anxiety disorder may be the cause. If your anxiety is not as extreme, but you find yourself worrying about little things, or imagining the worst case scenarios (such as worrying that you’ll end up jobless and in disgrace after getting a terse email from your boss) that don’t seem to occur to most people, you may benefit from therapy too. You don’t have to wait until you feel terrible to get help. You deserve to feel your best. Anxiety therapy can give you the skills and insights to help you regain a sense of peace and enjoyment from life.
You feel like you have to battle it alone.
You may feel like you are the only one struggling. You only notice your own mistakes and your inner-critic has you worried you will fail while everyone else seems to be doing fine. It can be hard to confide in friends or family and you feel like they wouldn’t understand or would give you unhelpful, simplistic advice to “just stop worrying” and that “it’s all in your head”. This can leave you feeling even more alone and misunderstood. Do you think that you have to “be strong” and suffer through it on your own? Life is harder when you keep problems to yourself and don’t have good support. A therapist can help.
You’re not the only one.
Anxiety disorders are one of the most common mental health issues in the United States. Approximately 40 million American adults are living with an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders can be triggered by life events, or they can seemingly appear from nowhere. Regardless of the cause there can be many negative effects.
Anxiety and chronic stress affects not just your life, but your health.
Anxiety disorders often cause your body to produce the stress hormone cortisol. Prolonged exposure to cortisol has detrimental effects to your health. This can not only start to negatively impact your sleep, and appetite, but it can often cause headaches, digestive issues, and lower your body’s immune system.
What is anxiety therapy and how is it different from just talking to a friend?
I have worked with hundreds of clients with anxiety disorders. When working with a professional, you work to set your specific goals, and work to uncover the superficial and possible underlying triggers of your anxiety. With this in mind, I can create a customized treatment approach tailored to your unique needs and background. You will learn strategies and techniques to use outside of therapy to practice better patterns and take back control. Therapy will also provide you with a safe space to slow down, process your thoughts and feelings and to begin to discover unhelpful habits and thinking styles that exacerbate your anxiety.
When you work with me you can expect to have a non-judgmental atmosphere to unload and process your feelings while also learning helpful skills such as how to differentiate between your stressors and your stress response, practice strategies to close the stress response cycle, and use a variety of other scientifically proven strategies. With these tools, you will have more control over how you manage stress and anxiety to reduce your symptoms.
Does anxiety therapy help?
The good news is that you can find peace and focus. Imagine not being sent into a tailspin by a new demand, but instead handling it with calm and confidence. You can better understand your emotional reactions to stress and use the tools you need to get through challenging situations. Imagine learning to trust yourself and letting go of your inner critic. How long does anxiety treatment take?
Every person and situation is unique and it is difficult to give an accurate estimate. But the simple answer is that the more you practice the skills and shifts in thinking patterns that you learn in therapy, the less time treatment will take.
Maybe you feel that you don’t have time for therapy.
I work hard to accommodate scheduling challenges. I work with clients to find an appointment time that best fits them and offer daytime and evening appointments. I also offer online therapy. With online therapy, there is no need to fight with traffic, hunt for parking or waste time in a waiting room. If time is still a consideration, I encourage you to take stock of the quality of your time and how therapy can improve it as you move forward.