Anxiety is the feeling of excessive worry, fear, or dread. It is normal to feel some anxiety when experiencing a stressful situation, however, anxiety becomes a disorder when it causes impairment in your daily life, career, and/or relationships. Anxiety disorders include generalized anxiety, phobias, social anxiety, obsessive compulsive disorder, trauma, and panic disorder.

Impact on Mental Health

Anxiety presents in various ways. Below are some of the more common symptoms of anxiety that people report experiencing:

Constant worry or fear – Ruminating or obsessive thoughts – Difficulty sleeping – Nervousness in social situations/fear of being judged – Intense dread or feelings of impending doom – Difficulty breathing, accelerated heart rate, sweating, nausea, dizziness, blurred vision, numbness, tingling – Feelings of panic or panic attacks – Expecting and fearing the worst-case scenario in most situations – Tics and/or repetitive behaviors/compulsions – Feeling a need to control situations/struggling when routine is interrupted

How a Therapist Helps

Anxiety is exhausting and can prevent a person from enjoying daily life. Many people struggle to recognize that they have anxiety, and even more people feel it’s their responsible to manage anxiety on their own. Therapy can help you find relief from anxiety and give you hope for the future.

Through Therapy You Can:

• Recognize what anxiety is: A therapist may administer assessments to determine if you are struggling with anxiety. They will then offer psycho-education on anxiety and teach you how to recognize triggers and symptoms.
• Learn how to calm your nervous system: Through therapy you will learn coping skills, relaxation techniques, and other research-based exercises to help you decrease the physical intensity of anxious symptoms. Examples of these techniques include deep breathing exercises, mindfulness skills, guided imagery, and somatic exercises.
• Reframe the way you think and view the world: Through therapy you can learn to recognize unhelpful thought patterns that trigger anxiety and learn ways to challenge and reframe unhelpful thoughts. For example, if you tend to catastrophize situations, a therapist will help you identify a more realistic and helpful way of thinking about the situation.
• Learn how to defuse intrusive thoughts: Another treatment method for anxiety is learning to accept and sit with anxious thoughts and feelings. Your therapist can teach and guide you through exercises to help you acknowledge troubling thoughts while also limiting the judgment and meaning you assign to these thoughts. Meditation is an example of a practice designed to help you become more tolerant and accepting of anxious thoughts.

Approaches I Use To Treat Anxiety

I use an integrative approach to treat individuals struggling with anxiety which includes techniques from CBT, ACT, and EMDR therapy. These modalities focus on increasing a client’s understanding of anxiety and teaching them how to better manage it.

Please contact me today to schedule an appointment. 

Online Locations: Nashville, Tennessee – Brentwood, Tennessee – Atlanta, Georgia – Sandy Springs, Georgia – Greater Tennessee and Georgia Area