Anxiety Therapy
Are You Struggling to Cope With Doubt And Uncertainty?
Is anxiety making it hard to enjoy life? Do you feel like you don’t have control over your thoughts and feelings? Does low self-esteem prevent you from going after your hopes and dreams?
Anxiety can affect your mind, body, spirit and every aspect of your life. You may suffer from panic attacks, rashes, heart palpitations, or migraines. Or perhaps your anxiety is more subtle—you feel a sense of unease about the future and you’re not sure if you’ve chosen the right path for yourself. To cope with the uncertainty, you may turn to alcohol, drugs, gambling, or other addictive behaviors. Although these habits seem to provide temporary relief, they only make your anxiety symptoms worse in the long run.
Anxiety Often Stems From A Deep-Rooted Need For Control
When you’re living with anxiety, your brain gets stuck in “fight or flight” mode—you either lash out and get upset or you run and hide. Being in this precarious state makes it hard to focus on what’s important. Anxiety disconnects you from being open, compassionate, and loving. Your desire for control and perfectionism prevents you from slowing down and enjoying life as it comes to you.
Behind all anxiety is exactly that: the need for control. Unfortunately, control is an illusion—no one is in complete control of their life. Anxiety treatment can help you let go of your need for control and find stillness wherever you are in life. With my support, I am confident that you can quiet your inner chatter and experience inner peace.
Anxiety Is The Common Cold Of Mental Health Problems—It’s Everywhere
I call anxiety the common cold of mental health issues because of how common it is. It’s more of a basic human problem than a mental health one. We live in a busy, stressful world that overwhelms us with so many choices and changes all the time. News stations tell us the world is going to hell, ads tell us that we don’t have enough stuff, and social media reminds us of all the people who are richer and happier than us. Anxiety is a natural reaction to that.
Think of it this way: for most of human history, life was relatively simple and predictable. You lived with your clan, ate the same food, and had no need to travel the world. Today, life is so much more complicated. There are so many new existential stressors that people have to deal with. We’re all pressured to drive nicer cars, own bigger houses, have better skin, and get more Instagram followers. It’s no wonder we’re all so stressed out.
Our Culture Often Recommends Less-Than-Helpful Ways Of Coping With Anxiety
Not only does our culture bombard us with messages that drive our anxiety, it also bombards us with messages about how to fight it. Drug use, drinking, sex, food, and media consumption are all seen as antidotes to stress. The problem with these antidotes is that although they provide temporary relief, they don’t get to the root of anxiety and often make it worse (studies have shown that anxiety often gets worse when you’re hungover).¹
We all do certain “reward” behaviors to offset anxiety, whether it’s watching TV or drinking a lot. Therapy is a chance to look beyond these surface solutions and achieve deeper, lasting change in your life.
Treatment Can Help You Lean Into Your Anxiety And Change Your Relationship To It
There is great wisdom in acceptance. Unfortunately, we tend to think that accepting a problem means we just sit back and do nothing. This doesn’t have to be the case. I want you to accept anxiety so that you can change your relationship to it. Therapy can teach you to lean into your feelings and uncover new truths about yourself in the process. After all, the paradox of anxiety is that in order to find relief from it, you have to lean into and accept it.
Coming to terms with anxiety isn’t always easy, but that’s why I’m here. Working together, I am confident that we can get to the bottom of your stressors and figure out what coping skills work for you. Above all, anxiety treatment is a chance to be understood, empathized with, and validated. The world outside is stressful enough; I want therapy to be a place where you can de-stress and experience relief.
What To Expect In Sessions
It’s normal to come to therapy for surface-level stuff. Maybe you’re having problems with friends, dating, work, or your marriage. But as we continue working together, you will probably find that those surface issues lead us to deeper places.
In particular, I like to look for domino effects and patterns that keep you stuck. For instance, maybe there was a childhood message that got hardwired into your brain at a young age and has stuck with you over the years. As a kid, perhaps you learned to please others in order to avoid punishment. Today, however, you may find that people-pleasing only makes your anxiety worse and keeps you from being your true self.
In this way, therapy is all about uncovering the stuck patterns that hide beneath the surface of your conscious awareness. There may be adaptions that worked as a kid but no longer serve you. I want to help you replace these adaptions with healthier ones. Together, we will work on new tools for self-regulating and new affirmations for staying grounded and hopeful. Additionally, I want to help you appreciate the times when you’re not anxious. This way, you don’t take for granted when you’re in good health.
Living with anxiety is hard—there’s no sugarcoating it. But the more you run away from your anxiety, the worse it generally gets. The only way to alleviate it is to befriend it and get to know it. Doing so can help you reframe your perspective and understand where the growth needs to happen.
You May Have Some Questions About Anxiety Treatment…
How is talking to someone really going to help?
Problems grow in a vacuum and get worse in isolation. That’s why therapy is so freeing. For many people, the very act of discussing anxiety alleviates some of the pain. After all, the first step in healing is admitting there’s a problem. Talking to a counselor is a way to get the burden of anxiety off your shoulders and share it with someone who is knowledgeable and cares about you deeply.
What if therapy makes my anxiety worse?
Many people fear that talking about anxiety will open a can of worms and make it worse. But if you push your feelings down and don’t address your anxiety, it’s unlikely to get better. Many of my other clients have been hesitant about therapy at first, only to love it in the end. If you’re skeptical, you can come for two or three sessions and see how it feels. There is no pressure to commit right away—you’re in charge of the healing process and I want you to call the shots.
What if I don’t have the time or money to do anxiety treatment?
Your time is precious and your finances are important. However, those are reasons to pursue counseling, not avoid it. After all, if anxiety is impacting your life, chances are that you’ve already used up a great deal of time and energy trying to fight it. You may have even spent a lot of money on your coping mechanisms (drugs, alcohol, shopping, etc.). Therapy can help you heal your emotional wounds so that you don’t have to keep spending time and money on them in the future.
Let Me Help You Experience Inner Peace
If you’re tired of feeling stressed out all the time, I would be honored to help you quiet your mind and find inner peace. To begin the healing process, you can email me or call 310-707-8070 for a free 5-10-minute phone consultation. I offer anxiety counseling for people in the South Bay area of Los Angeles.
¹ https://www.healthline.com/health/hangover-anxiety