Therapy for Anxiety

I utilize a blend of Exposure Response Prevention (ERP), Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Existential Therapy, and Person-Centered therapy to help my clients struggling with anxiety. How they are utilized really depends on the severity of the anxiety, the kind of anxiety, and the triggers that cause the feelings of anxiety.

Anxiety does not care about our happiness, it only wants to keep us safe- no matter the cost. It loves to live in the future, in the hypothetical situations, in any ‘what if…’ situations, in the worst case scenarios, and every version of the future that can be conjured up. There are different kinds of anxiety that can be triggered by different things and be felt with varying severities. Different kinds of anxiety include:

• General Anxiety- This is just like it sounds. It’s when there are frequent feelings of anxiety to a distressing and disruptive degree around a variety of topics. For the formal diagnosis, it would need to be present for the majority of days lasting at least six months.

• Social Anxiety- Another kind of anxiety that is exactly like it sounds. It’s anxiety surrounding social situations, the idea of being judged, ridiculed, watched, humiliated, or just being perceived. It’s more intense, frequent, and persistent than just being a little shy.

• Panic Disorders- This is when things referred to as a ‘panic attack’ or ‘anxiety attack’ occur frequently, often unexpectedly, and involve very intense feelings of anxiety. They can often be mistaken for a heart attack given the intense physical symptoms that come along with this.

• Specific Phobias- This is when there is an intense, persistent, irrational fear of something that is generally considered harmless. It’s often broken up into four categories- nature (things like fear of thunder or the ocean), animals/insects (like being afraid of a cockroach, spider, snake, etc.), medical or biological items or experiences (like being afraid of needles, blood, or getting sick/injured), or being in a certain situation (like fear of flying on a plane, driving in a car, being in a tight space, etc.).

• Agoraphobia- Often called ‘the fear of fear’ this is when there’s intense feelings of anxiety and having recurring anxiety attacks due to at least two kinds of situations involving being in public or a specific kind of space where escaping it is difficult, and there’s also intense fear of the consequences and avoidant behavior takes place to avoid the anxiety trigger.

• Separation Anxiety- This is another kind of anxiety that’s exactly like it sounds. It’s when there’s fear, stress, or anxiety that is not developmentally appropriate due to the idea of being away from a loved one. It’s often seen in children and toddlers, but teens and adults are not exempt from experiencing it.

• Selective Mutism- This is similar to social anxiety but a bit more specific. This is a very intense form of anxiety that causes a person who is capable of speech, but certain social situations cause the individual to be unable to speak. It’s not that they just don’t want to- they physically cannot or it is extremely difficult.

  Even if you don’t have a formal diagnosis and just feel anxious all the time, stressed, overwhelmed, burnt out, analysis paralysis, have difficulty with life transitions, or anything in between, we can work together to decrease and manage the mental and physical symptoms of anxiety by identifying anxiety triggers and patterns, and finding healthy coping skills to decrease the frequency and intensity of those feelings.