Anxiety Therapy
You don't have to spend your life fighting your own mind
It feels irresponsible to stop worrying
It can feel like you have to figure it all out before you can move on, like one more deep dive into your worries might finally give you the solutions that will make you feel at peace.
If you could just…
Replay the conversation one more time to figure out what went wrong of what you should have said differently
Consider one more possibility that might come up so you can prepare for anything that could happen
Prepare for one more outcome of the situation and all the ways you could respond
…then maybe your mind would finally relax.
But your mind never fully relaxes. There’s always a new question for every answer, a new “what if” for every decision. Your mind isn’t settled by reassurance because it can always find something new to focus on. And just letting go? That feels irresponsible and potentially dangerous. If something goes wrong that you could have considered, you’d feel even worse. As awful and exhausting as anxiety feels, not thinking through all the possibilities feels like you’re overlooking something important.
Your mind isn’t trying to make you miserable, it’s trying to keep you safe.
That’s why it feels so difficult to stop listening to those anxious thoughts. This is a normal, natural part of how our brains work. You need to be alert to things that might be dangerous. The goal isn’t to convince your mind to stop protecting you, it’s to understand what your mind is trying to accomplish through anxiety and help it realize you can handle uncertainty without overthinking or staying on high alert all the time.
How I work with anxiety
If anxiety has convinced you that the answer is to think harder, prepare more, or find just one more answer, we'll take a different approach.
One of the biggest shifts we make in therapy is moving away from trying to predict and control every possible outcome and toward understanding what your anxiety is actually trying to do. As your thoughts, emotions, and physical responses begin to make more sense, anxiety often becomes less frightening and less convincing. Instead of feeling like every thought demands your attention, you can begin responding with curiosity rather than urgency. As your relationship with anxiety changes, you'll begin to discover something you may not have felt in a long time: confidence in your ability to navigate uncertainty.
As your confidence in yourself grows, you'll spend less time trying to feel sure before you can move forward, and more time participating in the life that's happening right now. Instead of waiting until you can think through the possibilities before making a decision, you may begin trusting yourself to make thoughtful choices without needing every possible answer first. Instead of asking, "How do I make sure nothing goes wrong?" you'll begin asking, "What kind of life do I want to build, even when I can't control the outcome?"
Our goal isn’t to eliminate uncertainty. Life will always bring unknowns. The goal is to help you develop a deep trust in yourself and your ability to respond to whatever life brings so that you’re free to live your life according to your own values and direction rather than as a response to anxious worries.
Confidence doesn’t come from knowing everything will be okay, it’s from knowing you’ll be okay no matter what happens.
Therapy for anxiety can help you…
Understand your anxiety instead of fearing it
Trust yourself more than your need for certainty
Respond with curiosity instead of urgency
Feel more present in the life that's happening right now
Move toward what matters even when anxiety comes along for the ride
Navigate uncertainty with greater confidence and resilience
Life will always hold uncertainty. Together, let's discover the confidence to meet it.
Frequently asked questions about therapy for anxiety
Why can’t I stop worrying?
Anxiety is fueled by several complex internal and physical processes. It’s designed to keep you safe by scanning for threats, putting together patterns to notice problems, and help you get out of a stressful situation. In the modern day, lots of things can feel like threats. Often, our bodies’ threat response can become overactive especially in people with a history of trauma. Anxiety isn’t a lack of willpower, it’s a brain process that’s trying to protect you. In therapy, our goal isn’t to stop thinking, it’s to understand why your mind keeps returning to certain thoughts or themes and develop a different relationship to them.
Why do I know my thoughts aren’t logical but I still can’t let them go?
Because the logical part of your mind is separate from the instinctive, protective parts of your mind that are always scanning for threats. Your cerebral cortex that allows you to think logically is wonderful in its own ways, but the more complex thought processes are slower. Too slow when you might have to react to an unforeseen threat. Anxiety is instinctive and operates outside of your conscious control for your own protection.
Can therapy help even if my anxiety never completely goes away?
Yes. The goal of therapy isn’t to make you never feel anxious again. It’s to help you learn to trust yourself to be able to handle whatever situations might come up so you don’t spend time and energy on worry, rumination, and regret. Instead, we’ll know therapy is helpful when your anxious thoughts no longer keep you from living the life you want where you’re doing the things you value instead of trying to control the world around you.
Can anxiety be related to grief or trauma?
Yes, anxiety often develops after painful or overwhelming experiences including things like grief or trauma. Anxiety is trying to protect you from those things happening again. In therapy, we’ll focus on understanding how your experiences may be influencing your anxiety today and how you can work through your automatic anxious thoughts and move forward differently.
Do you work with perfectionism and people pleasing?
I do. See my page here for more details. These are often connected to anxiety, especially social anxiety around how we are perceived, valued, and judged by others.
Why does it feel irresponsible to stop worrying?
Anxiety often tells us that worry is the same as being prepared, careful, or responsible. Letting go of worries can feel like we’re choosing to ignore something important even when it’s the opposite and the worry itself is what’s keeping us stuck. By noticing the things that our anxiety is trying to protect, we can break out of the cycle of worry and respond thoughtfully.