Therapy for Anxiety

Maybe it seems like everyone wants you to be superwoman—you’re supposed to be a great mom, friend, partner, and employee. Maybe you’re very high-functioning and your life seems good on paper, but deep down you feel a pit in your stomach, like something bad is about to happen and you don’t know what or when. Whether you have experienced anxiety all of your life (and tried many ways to solve it), or it’s a new mental health struggle born out of an overwhelmed schedule and societal pressures, an anxiety therapist can help you break free from negative thought patterns and find new ways of coping.

The more you worry, the more your brain gets stuck in the habit of worrying.

Worrying is addictive. And the more you worry about one area of your life, the more it spreads to worrying about other areas. And the more you worry, the more you begin to doubt yourself, so the cycle continues.

Anxiety never takes a day off. It doesn’t matter if you’re at work, at home with your kids, or out with friends, an anxious body doesn’t know when to trade fight-or-flight mode for calm. This makes it incredibly difficult to feel present in your relationships, and those closest to you can feel the tension too. It can even impact your memory, because constant worrying doesn’t allow you to be fully aware of what’s going on in life.

Our brains aren’t meant to process the amount of content we consume, making it even harder to cope with anxiety.

Social media not only throws us into a never-ending comparison game, it bombards us with constant images of chaos and violence happening all over the world. It’s nearly impossible to keep up with the news and not feel anxious about the future of our planet.

The truth is that our brains are not designed to put up with this kind of information overload. We are not wired to be connected to billions of people or witness so much suffering day after day. If we’re not also attending to our mental health, things anxiety can worsen and depression can set in too. Now more than ever, we need to pause, rest, and invite self-care back into our lives.

We also need community. Virtual communication has replaced so many avenues of face-to-face connection. Many of us work from home, live far from our families, and lack adequate social support. And the more alone we are, the more our anxious thoughts tend to spiral out. When we don’t have a supportive community, it’s hard for us to question our fears, maintain perspective, and see the positives.

Anxiety therapy is a chance to model the kind of connection that your life may be lacking at the moment. It provides you with someone you can bounce your thoughts off of and lean on for support during difficult times.

What kind of therapy is best for treating anxiety?

We’ll match you with a therapist who will tailor treatment to your own needs and draw from a wide variety of therapeutic approaches. Generally the best therapy for anxiety involves supporting you with one or more of these modalities:

COGNITIVE BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (CBT) —The goal of CBT is to help you understand how negative thoughts and emotions are fueling your anxiety.

DIALECTICAL BEHAVIORAL THERAPY (DBT) —This approach is especially useful for managing severe anxiety and reducing panic attacks. It gives you skills for building up your distress tolerance and developing your resilience.

ACCEPTANCE AND COMMITMENT THERAPY (ACT) —By helping you connect with your values; ACT allows you to become more adaptive and flexible in your thinking. You can stop defaulting to automatic stress reactions and start responding to life more thoughtfully.

No matter which approach suits you best, we believe that you can recover from anxiety and live life to the fullest again. You’ll find this same quality of care whether you book in-person therapy in Philadelphia or South Jersey, or online in one of the 42 states we serve.