Anxiety

Therapy for Anxiety

Anxiety is a bit like having an overenthusiastic alarm system. It tends to go off at the most inconvenient times, sometimes without any clear reason. It’s that buzzing in your chest, the restless mind that won’t switch off, or the feeling that something awful is just around the corner (even if you can’t quite say what).

A lot of people with anxiety suffer quietly, believing they’re just “too sensitive” or “overthinking.” Anxiety can be isolating and exhausting, but it’s also deeply human. You’re not failing at relaxing. Your brain’s alarm system is just a bit overzealous. Anxiety often serves a purpose (i.e., it keeps you alert to potential threats) but sometimes it forgets to turn off. Therapy helps you retrain that alarm, so it goes off only when there’s a real fire, not every time the toaster sparks.

What Does Anxiety Feel Like?

Anxiety doesn’t always look like a full-blown panic attack. It can sneak in as:

  • Persistent worry about things big and small (including things that haven’t happened yet)

  • Feeling “on edge” or restless

  • Racing thoughts that make focusing on anything else tricky

  • Physical symptoms like sweating, heart palpitations, or an upset stomach

  • Avoiding situations because your mind is already convinced they’ll be a disaster

  • Overthinking conversations, decisions, or even what to have for dinner

How Therapy Helps

Therapy isn’t about convincing you to “just chill out” (that never works). Instead, it offers tools to:

  • Understand your anxiety and what triggers it

  • Challenge and reframe unhelpful thoughts (because your brain can be a bit of a drama queen)

  • Develop coping strategies to manage symptoms when they arise

  • Gradually face feared situations in a safe, controlled way (yes, even that thing you’ve been avoiding forever)

  • Build resilience for life’s curveballs

 FAQs

  • Anxiety can show up in many ways: constant worry, racing thoughts, trouble sleeping, muscle tension, nausea, irritability, or avoiding situations that feel overwhelming. Whether or not you have a formal diagnosis, therapy can help you understand what’s happening and develop tools to manage it more effectively.

  • Yes. Evidence-based therapies like CBT, ACT, and exposure-based approaches are highly effective for treating anxiety. Therapy can help you reduce symptoms, understand triggers, shift unhelpful thought patterns, and build a more flexible, values-based response to anxiety.

  • Therapy works best when you apply what we explore in sessions to your daily life. That might mean trying out new behaviours, tracking your reactions, or gradually facing avoided situations. We'll go at your pace, but insight alone isn’t enough for change.

  • That’s more common than you’d think, especially if you’ve been told to “just relax” or have tried strategies that weren’t tailored to you. Long-term anxiety often reflects deep patterns of fear, avoidance, or inner criticism. Therapy can help you gently unpack those patterns and learn more sustainable ways of responding.

  • Not at all. You don’t need to meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder to benefit from therapy. If anxiety, in any form, is affecting your wellbeing or quality of life, that’s reason enough to seek support.

  • Not necessarily. Anxiety is part of being human. It alerts us to risk, motivates us to prepare, and can signal our values. Therapy doesn’t aim to eliminate anxiety entirely, but to help you relate to it differently so it no longer controls your decisions or limits your life.

Say Hello

Got questions, doubts, or a million tabs open? You’re welcome to get in touch.