Therapy for Anxiety | In Ann Arbor and Online throughout Michigan
You’re burnt out from feeling this way.
Your mind feels like an exhausting place to be. A worry or concern creeps into your head – you might try to reassure yourself and move on, but it just gets more intense. You know on some level that the worry feels illogical, but you just can’t stop the thoughts from getting more detailed and overwhelming.
At other times, you might not even try to talk yourself out of it — the thing you’re worried about just feels so real, so valid, that you think it must be true. Your thoughts race, your body feels panicked, and worst-case scenarios keep flashing in your mind.
The types of worries can vary but the effect is often the same. Whether you are ruminating about something you said in a conversation today, or catastrophizing about something terrible happening in the future — something is happening that feels beyond your control, and the agonizing fears just won’t go away.
Anxiety is powerful and impacts both your body and your mind.
It feels overwhelming in the moment – the racing thoughts, the never-ending worries, the physical sensations of tension, nausea, or panic in your body. And without knowing how to work with your anxiety, it can affect your life much beyond those moments.
You might avoid situations that feel overwhelming. You might put off making an important change, like leaving a job that you can’t stand, or sticking up for yourself to a pushy family member. You might be afraid to try uncomfortable things, like dating or pursuing new friendships.
When you keep your worries to yourself, it can feel like your brain is spiraling out of control. When you share your worries with others, you might fear that you’re exhausting them or that you’re being judged.
Anxiety shows up in many different ways, but it can all leave you feeling trapped in your head with difficulty being present and enjoying your life.
Your relationship with anxiety can change
How therapy can help
When you start to change your relationship with anxiety through therapy, the anxiety will loosen its grip. You will still experience worries in your mind, but you will feel in control of your actions, rather than letting the anxiety make decisions for you. This might mean saying yes to something that you want, even when you’re feeling nervous. It could mean opening up more to those around you, and having closer relationships as a result. Or it may simply be the experience of having a worry pop into your head and being able to move on with your day without feeling consumed by it.
Pursuing therapy for anxiety can help you feel less exhausted by your own thoughts – and more able to live your life in the present moment.
There are many different tools available in therapy for anxiety, and I am invested in working with you to find the ones that fit your personality, strengths and style. Many people come to therapy with past experiences of trying something to help with their anxiety that didn’t “work” – whether this is a previous experience in therapy, or something you’ve tried on your own that didn’t give you the results you want. I am always interested in hearing about these experiences, and will help you to:
Acquire a variety of tools, to empower you with options for how to react to your anxiety
Discuss what it means for anxiety treatment to “work” and how to coexist with your anxiety (because no one gets to be rid of it all together!)
Explore the balance of trying something new (like a relaxation exercise that feels kind of awkward) with finding ways to approach anxiety that resonate with your personality and style
Therapy for anxiety can help you…
Identify patterns in your thinking that are leading to distress
Reframe or distance yourself from overwhelming thoughts
Feel more grounded in the current moment rather than caught up in your head
Increase confidence in social situations and strengthen your relationships
Have increased joy from your day-to-day life, as you do more of what matters most to you
Frequently asked questions about anxiety therapy
FAQs
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All people have anxiety at times – it has an important function in letting us know whether something in our environment could be a threat. However, often our perceptions of what might be a “threat” can get overactive, and we end up worrying intensely about things that are not likely to happen in the way we fear, or that are largely out of our control. To cope with this, some people will end up avoiding things that bring up a lot of anxiety (social settings, transitions/change, confrontation) — which can lead to getting less of what you want in your life, in a big way.
For some people, the struggle of anxiety can feel obvious, and show up in the form of racing thoughts, elaborate fears, or panic attacks. For others, it can be more subtle. While everyone experiences stress and feels overwhelmed sometimes, you may struggle with anxiety if you notice that you are avoiding things that feel difficult, or if you have a high need for control in your life. For some people, anxiety can also show up in more subtle ways in the body, such as tension, nausea, or digestive issues without a physical explanation.
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Everyone will have different experiences in therapy, but often someone can experience a degree of relief within a few sessions from gaining some new tools and approaches for responding to anxiety. There are often even more gains from longer term work, as you build greater awareness of yourself and become quicker and more confident in reacting to your anxiety.
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I pull from a variety of modalities, including Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance & Commitment Therapy (ACT), and Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT). I find that CBT and ACT can provide a useful framework for identifying patterns in your thoughts and feeling less attached to their messages, and DBT can offer additional useful tools (including emotion regulation and mindfulness) for navigating the emotional intensity of anxiety. The tools and modalities we focus on will likely depend largely on your own goals, strengths and personal style. Learn more about my style.