Anxiety therapy for women stuck between pushing through and crashing

Anxiety can show up in your thoughts, emotions, and physical responses. You might notice constant worry, racing thoughts, a sense of dread, difficulty sleeping, or physical sensations like a racing heart or muscle tension.

But these experiences aren't always caused by anxiety. Stress, other mental health concerns, and medical conditions can sometimes look similar.

One thing worth paying attention to is how much these symptoms are affecting your everyday life. Are they making it harder to work, rest, connect with people, or do things that used to feel manageable?

You don't have to figure out exactly what's happening before reaching out. We can talk about what you're experiencing and whether anxiety therapy might be an appropriate next step.

Yes. You don't need to know exactly what's causing your anxiety before we begin.

Our minds and bodies are designed to recognize and respond to possible danger, sometimes before we've had a chance to make sense of what's happening.

That means you might experience anxiety, physical tension, or a strong emotional reaction without having a clear explanation for why it's happening.

This is one reason I incorporate somatic, body-focused approaches into therapy. Rather than relying only on your ability to describe or understand what's happening, we can also pay attention to your physical responses, emotions, and patterns as they show up in the present.

We don't have to uncover a particular memory or identify one root cause before there's something meaningful to work with.

Your body can be part of the conversation, even when you don't have all the words.

Yes! EMDR can be helpful for anxiety, particularly when your reactions are connected to distressing experiences or patterns you've developed over time.

EMDR was originally developed to treat trauma-related symptoms and is now used to address a range of concerns, including anxiety.

It's a structured therapy that helps us work with distressing memories, thoughts, emotions, and physical responses. Rather than simply talking about what's happening, we pay attention to how you're experiencing it and what changes as we work through it.

Some people experience meaningful improvements in their anxiety symptoms through EMDR, although everyone's experience is different.

You don't need to know whether EMDR is the right approach before reaching out. We can talk about what you're experiencing and decide together what makes sense.

Learn more about EMDR therapy

You may have done a lot of meaningful work in therapy. You understand your patterns, recognize your triggers, and have a pretty good idea of why you respond the way you do.

And yet, anxiety still shows up.

Safety isn't only understood. It's experienced.

Your head can know you're okay, while your body continues responding to what it learned in the past.

This isn't necessarily a problem of not understanding enough. Our brains and bodies learn from experience, and some of those responses can continue long after the circumstances that shaped them have changed.

That's part of why I use EMDR, Brainspotting, and somatic, body-based approaches. We pay attention to more than what you know about your anxiety. Your thoughts, emotions, physical responses, and what's happening in the present are all part of the work.

The goal isn't to force your body to calm down or convince you that your reactions are irrational. It's to create more room for choice in how you respond.

The old response may still show up. It just doesn't always have to decide what happens next.

Anxiety isn't just something you experience in your thoughts. It can show up in your body, too. The racing heart, tight chest, shallow breathing, restlessness, or exhaustion can be just as difficult as the thoughts running through your head.

Our minds and bodies are designed to recognize and respond to possible danger, sometimes before we've had a chance to make sense of what's happening.

That's why somatic therapy pays attention to more than what you're thinking or what you can explain.

Through body-focused approaches like EMDR and Brainspotting, we can notice how anxiety shows up in your physical responses, what happens when certain situations or relationships trigger those responses, and what helps you feel more grounded and present.

The goal isn't to force your body to relax or tell yourself to stop worrying. It's to help you recognize familiar responses, work with them differently, and develop more flexibility in how you respond.

You don't have to make sense of everything in your head before we can begin working with what you're experiencing in your body.

If you'd like to explore this further, you can read my blog post, You Can't Heal in a Dysregulated Body.

Reaching out to a therapist can feel like one more thing to figure out, especially when you're already feeling anxious or overwhelmed. My goal is to make that first conversation as easy as possible.

We'll start with a complimentary 20-minute consultation, and you can choose whether you'd prefer to connect by phone or video.

I'll walk you through the conversation. I'll ask what's bringing you in, listen to your concerns, and talk with you about what you're hoping will be different.

From there, I'll share my recommendation about how we might work together, whether that's through Extended Sessions or a Therapy Intensive, and answer any questions you have.

If you're ready to move forward, we can schedule your first session. If you'd rather take some time to think about it, that's completely fine, too. No pressure.

You don't need to have everything figured out before we talk.

Consultations are not therapy sessions and do not establish a therapeutic relationship.