How Anxiety Shows Up

People experience anxiety in many ways, including:

• Racing thoughts that won’t slow down
  

• Panic attacks or sudden waves of fear
  

• Obsessive worries or compulsive behaviors
  

• Trouble sleeping or relaxing
  

• Constant tension in the body
  

• Avoidance of situations that trigger dread
  

• Feeling on edge, irritable, or keyed up
  

Whatever form it takes, anxiety narrows the space of your life. Therapy works to open that space again.

I think I grow tensions

Like flowers

In a wood where

Nobody goes.

Robert Creeley, “The Flower”

How Therapy Helps with Anxiety

Immediate support
In the early sessions, therapy can bring relief simply by naming and sharing what you’ve been carrying alone. Many clients find their anxiety feels less overwhelming once it’s held in the therapy room.

Understanding the roots
Anxiety rarely comes out of nowhere. It can grow out of old experiences of danger or neglect, unconscious conflicts, or the pressure of trying to live up to impossible expectations. Sometimes anxiety functions as a kind of alarm system — a way your mind and body have learned to prepare for threats. Together we explore what your anxiety may be trying to signal, so it no longer runs your life from the shadows.

Changing your relationship to fear
Rather than trying to eliminate anxiety altogether, therapy helps you relate to it differently. You may come to notice its patterns, challenge its grip, and build a new sense of steadiness.

Lasting transformation
With time, therapy can reduce not just the symptoms of anxiety, but the vulnerability beneath them. Clients often describe feeling freer, calmer, and more able to approach life directly instead of circling it with worry.