Did you know that not all anxiety is bad for you?
If you didn’t feel anxious about giving a good first impression, you might not dress up for a job interview or a date. If you weren’t worried about failing your classes, you probably wouldn’t study very much. And, if you didn’t feel nervous about things that could hurt you, like touching a hot stove, you would constantly risk injury.
All of these are examples of helpful anxiety, the kind that keeps you motivated to stay safe and achieve great things.
However, many of us also struggle with unhelpful anxiety, such as:
Left unaddressed, unhelpful anxiety can keep you from achieving your goals, being healthy, and living your best life – but it doesn’t have to be that way.
Do you struggle with anxious thoughts or feelings? Have your stressors kept you up at night, tossing and turning? Are you ready to break free from unhelpful anxiety?
How can therapy help with my anxiety?
Unhelpful anxiety makes us try to predict the future.
For example, you might worry about your kids while they are at school. The more you think about it, the more the “what if’s” keep playing through your head – what if they get bullied? What if the teacher is mean to them? What if they do poorly and fail their classes? What if they hang out with the “wrong crowd?” The anxiety drums up all sorts of catastrophes that might happen and before you know it, your nerves feel shot.
Similarly, unhelpful anxiety makes us dwell on the past.
You might think about that embarrassing thing you said at that party. You might rehash bad decisions you made, over and over again, as if it will somehow change the present. The more the ghosts of your past come back to haunt you, the less you can enjoy the life you have today.
Unhelpful anxiety distracts you from the present moment. Just like any other distraction, the symptoms of anxiety can pull your attention away from the things that matter most. To make matters worse, people who struggle with anxiety tend to so much energy worrying that they feel too exhausted to address real-world problems.
Therapy for anxiety helps bring you back to what is happening in the present.
Working with me, you can learn to retrain your brain to devote anxious energy to taking care of business, achieving goals, and living well. As you learn to focus on the present moment, your capacity to handle whatever life throws your way will increase.
Therapy for anxiety can help you learn how to:
- Use evidence-based mindfulness techniques
- Gain new insight and perspective
- Change unhelpful ways of thinking
- Feel at ease in social situations
- Enhance interpersonal and social skills
- Discover unique aspects of your personality
- Regain a sense of control and confidence
- Use personally-tailored coping strategies that actually work
I use techniques from MBCT (MBCT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) in therapy to equip you with critical skills for dealing with symptoms of anxiety. You can learn to notice your thoughts and become aware of your inner experiences without letting them control your life. I assist you In gaining skills that improve your quality of life by bolstering inner strengths, shifting old and unhelpful patterns, and teaching useful skills that can help you achieve your goals.