Anxiety Therapy
Has Anxiety Become A Dominating Force In Your Life?
Do you spend too much time and energy battling anxiety when you could be living the life you really want? Do you feel held back by:
Constant stress and worry that make it hard to relax or focus on the positive?
Self-doubt, self-criticism, imposter syndrome, or a fear of inadequacy or failure?
Racing thoughts, brain fog, difficulty concentrating or making decisions?
Perhaps you live in NYC and the incessant need to succeed and look good doing it is fueling stress and anxiety around the clock. Or maybe you’re exploring anxiety therapy because you’re tired of having fear and doubt rob you of opportunities for greater success and happiness.
Anxiety’s Impact Can Show Up All Over The Place
The stress of constantly worrying can cause muscle tension, headaches, digestive problems, and chronic fatigue. Despite being tired all the time, you probably have trouble sleeping because you’re in such a state of hyperarousal that you can’t relax or shut your brain off.
Although you want to be more engaged and spontaneous, you simply cannot stop catastrophizing about something horrible happening. As a result, you likely avoid things that could activate your anxiety, like going certain places, meeting new people, or even taking on opportunities for job advancement.
Ultimately, anxiety can infiltrate every aspect of your life, disrupting your career, relationships, and your entire life’s trajectory, but therapy can change all that. Working with one of our anxiety disorder specialists at Live Well can equip you with the skills, insight, and support needed to heal and reclaim your life from fear and worry.
When It Comes To Anxiety, It Does Not Discriminate
Anxiety is a natural human reaction to the perception of danger—whether real or not. It’s also a universal experience that’s not bound to any specific situation or event. So, it’s very common for people to struggle with occasional anxiety, especially if they’re under a lot of stress.
However, when someone gets stuck in a state of hypervigilance—where they’re constantly watching out for threats and taking early steps to avoid them—that fear and worry can become all-consuming. So if you are experiencing panic attacks, social phobias, or avoidant behaviors, it may be symptomatic of an anxiety disorder that could benefit from treatment.
Anxiety Can Become An Unwelcome Way Of Life
That’s especially true in fast-paced, highly competitive environments like New York City where people can easily become desensitized to stress and anxiety. Perfectionism and people-pleasing tendencies create a breeding ground for imposter syndrome and feelings of inadequacy.
Oftentimes, folks learn to cope with anxiety through avoidance and other forms of escapism only to find those mechanisms perpetuate symptoms. Some people even grow comfortable with their pain while others feel that it protects or motivates them in times of need.
Despite these obstacles, you have an ally who understands and can truly help. If you’re motivated to change your relationship with anxiety, our therapists want to get you to a place where you feel calmer, more confident in your abilities, and more capable of handling anything life throws at you.
Anxiety Therapy Is A Gateway To A More Peaceful, Fulfilling Life
If you’re struggling with anxiety, the good news is that it can be an unlikely source of strength and motivation. After all, you’re here because you intuit that there is a better way to live, and you want to make that happen. Working with an anxiety counselor puts that motivation to work.
It gives you a multi-faceted approach to healing core issues at the heart of anxiety while equipping you with better ways of managing everyday challenges. Just having someone to talk to—someone who truly understands what you are going through—can be transformative.
What Can You Expect From Anxiety Treatment Sessions?
In our first psychotherapy session, we’ll start by looking at your experience with anxiety, how long it’s been an issue, and what activates your symptoms. We can explore what you want to accomplish in therapy and what you ultimately want out of life. Then, we can collaborate on setting SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-Bound) Goals to help you get there.
Therapy also involves learning various skills for managing symptoms, such as self-monitoring anxiety and logging how it shows up in daily life. We’ll also teach you muscle relaxation exercises and self-soothing strategies for doing some of the deeper work in anxiety counseling.
How Do We Approach Anxiety Counseling?
Our therapists at Live Well are trained in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) for anxiety and provide a multi-pronged approach for tailoring treatment to each person’s needs:
Psychoeducation demystifies anxiety, giving you a deeper understanding of the condition, including its physiological, cognitive, and behavioral impact. It helps you identify triggers, adopt healthier coping strategies, and connect to external resources for ongoing support.
Cognitive Restructuring, a major part of CBT for anxiety, involves reframing unhelpful thoughts into more realistic perspectives that promote a greater sense of calm, inner peace, and self-acceptance.
Somatic Control Exercises, such as breathwork, body scans, and muscle relaxation techniques, give you more control over your emotional responses to stimuli. They also help to facilitate the next step in the healing process.
Imagery Exposure involves visualizing anxiety-related scenarios under the guidance of your counselor so that you can practice the skills learned in session to safely navigate the issue.
In Vivo Exposure Exercises mark the final step in which you overcome fears and stop the cycle of avoidance by confidently navigating real-life situations on your own.
Rest assured, we’re not here to force you beyond your comfort level. Rather, we’re here to create a personalized treatment plan for addressing anxiety in a way that feels safe and empowering. Whether it’s people-pleasing, panic attacks, social avoidance, or just a general sense of unease that brings you to therapy, our anxiety disorder specialists at Live Well can help you transform your life.
Perhaps You Still Have Questions Or Concerns About Anxiety Therapy…
I worry about the financial burden of anxiety counseling.
If fear and worry are keeping you from meeting new people, advancing your career, or just engaging with life, you’re not really living to the fullest. Therapy costs very little in contrast to the time, energy, and opportunities lost to anxiety.
And it doesn’t take forever—just long enough to equip you with the insight and skills needed to thrive on your own. That said, we always do our best to work with clients in financial need, including providing a superbill that you can submit to eligible insurance providers for reimbursement.
Can your anxiety therapy sessions accommodate my busy schedule?
Our CBT for anxiety program is meant to be short-term: roughly 12 to 16 sessions. The additional time outside sessions should take anywhere from a few minutes to an hour to complete.
All of our anxiety counseling services are provided online, which means greater convenience, accessibility, and flexibility in scheduling. Plus, our structured approach is meant to produce lasting results in a brief time so you can concentrate on what really matters to you.
Does counseling have the potential to make my anxiety worse?
Whenever we treat a wound, it can feel uncomfortable temporarily. However, part of therapy is about making sure you have the tools to consciously respond to and reduce anxiety before we treat that wound. We’ll always work at a pace that respects you and your comfort level—and you’ll be working with a professional who can actively intervene to help you feel safe, contained, and grounded.
Life Truly Can Get Easier And We Want To Help
Our CBT-trained anxiety disorder specialists at Live Well are here to help you reclaim your life from fear, self-doubt, and worry. If you are ready to transform the way you see yourself and how you move through this world, please use our contact page or call our virtual assistant at (212) 300-3314 to set up your free, 15-minute consultation.
Live Well Practice provides virtual anxiety treatment for adults in NYC and the state of New York.