Anxiety Therapy

Are Anxious Thoughts and Feelings Holding You Back?

Anxiety Isn’t Just About Worrying All The Time

Worrying isn’t the sole symptom of anxiety. It can manifest in many ways, impacting you not only emotionally, but physically and mentally too.

You may be dealing with irrational fears, panic attacks, and irritability, often accompanied by intense mood swings. Your anxiety might cause a lack of enjoyment in activities you used to find pleasure in, impaired social functioning, difficulty concentrating, indecisiveness, and intrusive thoughts, leading to repetitive behaviors and ruminations.

Physically, anxiety can manifest as muscle tension, digestive issues, chronic fatigue, difficulty breathing, nausea, headaches, and dizziness.

At Meaningful Connection Counseling, we treat various types of anxiety including –

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
• Panic disorders
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Social Anxiety

There’s no question that anxiety and its many symptoms can drastically change the way you live your life. However, therapy can help you manage your anxiety symptoms and live a worry-free life.

You’re Not Alone – Anxiety Is Our Body’s Way Of Letting Us Know Something Isn’t Quite Right

At some point in our lives, we’ll all experience moments of anxiety. Anxiety disorders are the most commonly diagnosed mental health concern in the United States. Over 19.1 percent, or 40 million adults in the U.S., have been diagnosed with an anxiety disorder.(1)

Despite what you may believe, anxiety is a common human response to various situations. However, it becomes a concern when intrusive and fearful thoughts spiral out of control, significantly impacting your daily life.

Society Plays A Big Role In The Development Of Anxiety

Our fast-paced, technology-driven society is a major contributor to people developing anxiety. Spending excessive time online can lead to less in-person social interaction and increased social pressures, body image concerns, and constant comparisons to others.

Additionally, anxiety-provoking world events such as war, the pandemic, and mass shootings, as well as working long work hours, and societal pressures to succeed financially and meet expectations, can also contribute to pervasive anxious thoughts and feelings.

Our society today is individualistic—we emphasize personal success and achievement, often overshadowing the importance of familial and communal bonds. Because of our individualistic nature, people are less inclined to live with their families or within community settings that traditionally offer valuable social and emotional support.

Many people struggle to overcome anxiety disorders on their own, however, by seeking support through therapy you will understand more about the root cause of your anxious thoughts. You will also learn how to heal from distressing events that may have caused them in the first place.

Anxiety Therapy Offers You Relief From Overwhelming Thoughts

In therapy, you’ll be provided a safe and collaborative space to explore the various ways that anxiety is presenting itself and impacting your life. You can feel comfortable sharing your experiences. Our caring therapists are non-judgmental and always do our best to make you feel seen, heard, and validated. With us, you will learn about skills to manage anxiety more effectively and process its origins so you can approach new situations and relationships from a more motivated and balanced place. Anxiety counseling will help you develop greater compassion for your experience.

Anxiety Treatment Approaches

At Meaningful Connection Counseling, we use a diverse range of skills and modalities to effectively treat anxiety. These therapeutic approaches are carefully tailored to meet the unique needs of each person.

Deep Brain Reorienting focuses on processing traumatic or distressing experiences by tracking the original sequence of physiological responses, including shock, that occurred when the deep brain was alerted to a threat or an attachment disruption. This helps to promote a more balanced response to current stressors and anxiety triggers.

Grounding Exercises help to engage the senses to ground yourself in the present moment, promoting a sense of stability and reducing anxious thoughts. We also employ physical grounding techniques, such as pushing your feet into the ground to create a physical connection, aiding in calming the nervous system.

Polyvagal Exercises are used to regulate your autonomic nervous system and promote a sense of safety.

Mindfulness Exercises including breathing meditation, walking meditation, and body scan techniques, are incorporated in sessions to help cultivate a present-focused mindset. We also teach mindful check-ins so you can learn to mindfully explore thoughts, emotions, and body sensations, enhancing self-awareness and emotional regulation.

Emotion Regulation Skills are Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills that we use in anxiety treatment for physical check-ins, sleep management, and identifying and managing different emotions.

Self-soothing skills help usexplore activities that engage your five senses, such as using comforting objects like blankets and pillows or listening to soothing sounds to promote self-soothing.

EMDR Resources/Grounding Skills involve integrating Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) techniques with anxiety therapy, including the calm place or peaceful place exercise, using guided imagery and slow tapping for grounding and reinforcement.

We will work collaboratively and confidentially to learn and understand your present experience through exploring your past and recent history, only going at a pace that you are comfortable with. From there, we decide together what modalities will best suit your needs.

Our ultimate goal in therapy is to help you heal from debilitating anxious thoughts and teach you how to handle distressing situations without resorting to unhealthy thinking patterns.

Perhaps You Still Have Some Concerns About Anxiety Therapy…

I want to make changes but I’m afraid to change.

It is completely understandable to fear change as we get comfortable with certain patterns, even when they are causing us distress. We will work collaboratively at each stage and check in with your system regularly to ensure you have the information and skills to manage the shifts as they occur.

Is anxiety therapy worth the time and money?

Anxiety can impact all areas of life from sleep and relationships to work and physical health concerns. Working with a therapist well-versed in the science behind how stress comes into the body initially helps you navigate the release of stored energies and patterns, at a profound level, paving the way for increased joy, freedom, and enhanced overall health. The support of a knowledgeable therapist can prove to be invaluable in this transformative journey toward well-being.

How long does the therapy take before I begin to see results?

It can vary, but typically within eight sessions. For some, it may occur even sooner. Some of this depends on how much resistance there is in your system and how much connection there is with the defensive strategies used. For some, it may take a little longer for the system to open up to change. But once this happens, seeing results isn’t far out of reach.

You Can Live A Present And Balanced Life

1- https://www.nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Mental-Health-Conditions/Anxiety-Disorders#:~:text=Anxiety%20disorders%20are%20the%20most,develop%20symptoms%20before%20age%2021