Anxiety Therapy
Are You Tired Of Overthinking And Second-Guessing Everything You Do?
Do you feel like you just can’t catch a break in life? Are you constantly worried that other people don’t like you? Has anxiety made your world small, creating a barrier between you and the freedom you long for?
Maybe you find yourself replaying all your choices and interactions over and over. Every little thing you do embarrasses you—it’s like you can never be good enough for yourself. Because you’re afraid of doing or saying something you’ll regret, you may constantly second-guess yourself and avoid taking risks. As a result, you probably feel like you’re missing out. Your anxiety could be holding you back from the life you want.
Behind All Anxiety Is A Longing For Control And Predictability
Deep down, you probably wish you could just catch your breath for a month, a day, or even a freaking minute. But because of how uncertain the future is, you never have a chance. This is because anxiety comes from a desire for control and predictability. The world is chaotic and unpredictable and it’s demoralizing to accept that you have no power over it.
What you do have power over, however, is how you respond to your anxiety. Here at The Growing Mind, our goal is to help you quiet your anxious thoughts and develop a sense of inner control. The world outside will continue to be chaotic and unpredictable, but you can strengthen the world that lies within. Anxiety therapy is a chance to learn how.
Our Society Is A Breeding Ground For All Kinds Of Anxieties
Anxiety is a normal and instinctive human response to dangerous or stressful situations. In fact, sometimes anxiety can even work in you favor. Feeling anxious before a big test or presentation can help you study harder and be more prepared. But when anxiety overwhelms you to the point that it consumes your life, then it becomes a problem.
Sadly, our world today is a breeding ground for all kinds of anxieties—social anxiety, career anxiety, relationship anxiety, etc. Many of us are bombarded by high expectations from our families, our workplaces, and our social media feeds. We’re expected to be productive 24/7. We’re supposed to have the hottest selfies and the happiest-looking family photos. In the face of all this pressure, it’s no wonder so many of us throw our hands up and say: I just can’t hold it together anymore.
The good news is that you don’t have to hold it together anymore. Anxiety counseling is a chance to let loose, be yourself, and speak your mind without any reservations. We want to take some of the pressure off of you and help you come up with a plan for managing your symptoms and improving your confidence.
Anxiety Therapy Can Help You Develop A Sense Of Inner Calmness And Control
Let’s face it: there have probably been times in your life when you felt anxious and someone told you, “Oh, we all get anxious sometimes. Just take a few deep breaths, go for a walk, or do something to occupy yourself.” The problem with this attitude is that it only focuses on treating symptoms. To experience deeper healing from anxiety, you have to get to the root of the issue.
Here at The Growing Mind, that’s what we aim to help you do. When you’re dealing with anxiety, just distracting yourself or practicing a few calming exercises can only do so much good. You cannot use willpower to force your way out of anxiety. That’s why we want to look at the deeper issues fueling your stress, such as trauma, grief and loss, or low self-esteem. Understanding the root cause of anxiety makes the practical work of reducing your symptoms much easier.
What To Expect In Anxiety Therapy Sessions
Counseling is a chance to identify the themes, patterns, and core issues that keep you stuck in the same loop of anxious thoughts and behaviors. Maybe you’ve learned to cope with anxiety by avoiding any situations where you might mess up. Or perhaps you try to numb your anxiety by staying busy all the time. We want to help you understand your personal defense mechanisms and come up with more effective ways to soothe your stress.
Additionally, therapy can teach you to question the messages that play over and over in your head, such as “I’m not good enough” or “I’m an embarrassment to everyone.” We want you to remove these messages from the tape in your head and replace them with something more positive and empowering.
Tailoring Your Anxiety Treatment Plan
Our approach is all about going deeper. We want to help you understand why anxiety is there and what it’s trying to tell you. Our therapists are trained in a variety of modalities that can help you understand anxiety and see the bigger picture.
We use a very attachment-focused lens for working with anxiety, since we recognize that human identity is bound up in relationships. Together, we’ll look at how the social system you come from impacts how you see the world and how you’ve learned to interact with it.
Utilizing principles from an approach called Psychodynamic Therapy, we will explore messages from early childhood relationships that may have caused you to feel anxious or believe you’re not good enough. After all, your early family environment and life experiences can shape and mold your anxiety. Psychodynamic Therapy can help you identify why anxiety keeps hanging around.
Through another form of therapy called Internal Family Systems (IFS), you can learn about how different parts of yourself (such as an avoidant part, a people-pleasing part, etc.) are trying to protect you from anxiety. Understanding your parts can help you figure out the purpose your anxiety serves and balance the parts that are in conflict.
We believe that a sense of inner calmness and control is possible once you become aware of the internal factors causing anxiety. Therapy can help you achieve this awareness and shift your focus from the things you can’t control to the things you can.
You May Have Some Concerns About Anxiety Therapy…
I just want my symptoms to go away. I don’t care about what causes them.
There is an old saying that what we resist persists. The more you push certain thoughts and feelings down, the more likely they are to resurface in negative ways. Although it may seem counterintuitive, confronting the source of your pain is the only way to heal it. At The Growing Mind, we want to help you uncover the roots of your anxiety in a safe and supportive environment. At the same time, however, we will still focus on helping you get relief from your symptoms.
How long will anxiety therapy take?
We can’t say at the outset how long it will take to reach your goals. Some forms of anxiety take longer to work through than others. Thankfully, our approach empowers you to continually assess your progress and evaluate whether or not your goals have been met. In the meantime, it’s important to practice self-kindness. Sometimes deeper healing takes time. It’s okay to go at your own pace—no one can conquer anxiety overnight.
I’m afraid of what other people will think if I go to counseling.
Anxiety therapy is 100-percent confidential, so you don’t have to worry about judgment from others. After all, we know how hard it is to deal with the stigma around mental illness. Friends and family members may say that anxiety is all in your head or that you just need to “calm down” (do you know anyone who calms down when instructed to do so? Yeah, me neither). Therapy can help you figure out how to respond to these dismissive remarks, since they can often make your social anxiety worse. Together, we can work on managing your fear of judgment and invalidation.
Experience Deeper Healing From Anxiety
If you want to go deeper and get to the root of your anxiety, we encourage you to connect with one of our therapists. To get started, you can use the scheduling form to book a free, 30-minute phone consultation.
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