Are Anxious Thoughts Making It Hard To Enjoy Your Life?

Have “what if” questions taken control of your mind? Do you experience frequent pain, agitation, or irritability? Do you avoid situations that might cause anxiety, even if it means missing out on events with family and friends? Is it hard to control your thoughts and to stop worrying about everything?

anxiety therapyMaybe you’re losing sleep because you can’t stop ruminating about the past or what could happen. Intrusive thoughts might pop into your head, derailing your day and making it hard to get back on track. Perhaps it looks like you have it all together on the outside, but your never- ending worries leave you overwhelmed and exhausted on the inside.

Anxiety Can Cause You To Miss Out On Things You Love

In an attempt to manage your anxiety, maybe you’ve started avoiding situations that lead to a cascade of worries. This may temporarily decrease your anxiety, but now you may find yourself missing out on experiences and opportunities. Perhaps some relationships with family or friends have become strained because of this avoidance.

Your worries don’t have to control you. With our warm, compassionate approach to therapy, you can learn new ways to respond to your anxiety and can experience newfound freedom as a result.

Anxiety Disorders Are On The Rise

Anxiety is a natural response to stress that helps us be more alert or prepared for danger. However, if it impairs normal functioning, it can turn into an anxiety disorder. Anxiety disorders affect 30% of adults during their lifetime, making them the most common mental health problem people experience. 1 In fact, the prevalence of anxiety disorders is on the rise, increasing 25% over the last few years. 2

The list of situations that contribute to anxiety is long. Uncertainty can be a primary trigger, and there’s a lot of that right now. Large-scale events like the pandemic, economic recessions, or political unrest can contribute to anxiety. Many of us have too many demands on our lives, with our rise-and-grind culture demanding productivity and not allowing sufficient downtime for rest, recovery, and play. It all takes a toll.

Misinformation Can Keep Us Stuck When It Comes To Mental Health

Even though people are talking more about mental health and anxiety, it’s still easy to fall into the trap of unhelpful messaging. Advice like, “Don’t be anxious,” or “Challenge anxiety therapy those thoughts,”can make it seem like you’re failing to address something so simple to control. Such advice is invalidating, reductive, and doesn’t get to the root cause or offer tangible solutions. If you knew how to reduce your anxiety, you would.

When you reach out to us at Gatewell Therapy Center, we can help you master the skills you need to manage your anxiety. We are trained in evidence-based techniques to help you cope more effectively.

Therapy Can Help You Find Ways To Manage Your Anxiety

Anxiety doesn’t just affect your mind; it can affect your body too. We commonly see folks who struggle with tension, pain, and other physical manifestations. No matter how your anxiety presents, we’re able to target the symptoms you’re experiencing.

Whether you struggle with panic attacks, intrusive thoughts, or subtler forms of anxiety, we are confident that we can help you cope more successfully. Treatment at Gatewell Therapy Center offers a safe space for you to explore triggers and learn practical skills to soothe your mind and body when anxiety is on the scene.

What To Expect In Anxiety Therapy Sessions

Your first appointment will be an intake session where we will gather information about your current symptoms and your history with anxiety. As part of this process, we are able to offer self-report measures, such as the GAD-7, to aid in the assessment process and assist with tracking your progress over time. From there, we will develop a treatment plan based on your preferences and needs. We take a supportive, solution-oriented approach, with our sessions focusing on your current struggles and concerns. If your anxiety stems from trauma, you can be confident that we are trauma-informed and sensitive to the impact of what you might have faced.

Therapy Designed To Fit Your Needs

Our therapists are here to help you learn to interact with your mind and body more effectively so that you can manage your anxiety. This might look like developing a mindfulness practice, participating in exposure exercises, or targeting how you respond to worries or intrusive thoughts. These skills can help you regulate your stress responses and decrease your anxiety over time.

We use a variety of approaches to facilitate your progress These approaches include:

● Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which can help explore and rework some of the beliefs and behaviors keeping you stuck.

● Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which can help you separate yourself
from anxious or disturbing thoughts and return your focus to your values.

● Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), which can give you skills and tools to use in the moment, when you are experiencing distress.

anxiety therapyOur providers are equipped to teach you a variety of skills and strategies to manage your anxiety. Many of these skills involve changing how you relate to your thoughts, reducing judgments about your experiences, and using body-based practices to help regulate your nervous system.

There’s a way out of your struggles. You don’t have to live with unbearable anxiety forever. Therapy can help you manage your thoughts, reduce your stress, and live your life more peacefully.

But You May Still Have Concerns About Anxiety Therapy. . .

I’m worried anxiety counseling won’t work for me.

Many folks are nervous about trying something new. While we can’t predict the future, we can say that the approaches we use are research-based and have been effective for large groups of people. We are here to help you and will work with you to find an approach that helps you achieve your goals.

This is going to cost a lot of money.

Therapy can be expensive, but living with anxiety can be costly, too. Most of our interventions are designed to provide you with the solutions you need to improve your life right now. This way, you can expect to make progress in a shorter period of time. Paying for our services is investing in providers who have the most advanced clinical training, designed to help you most effectively. It’s an investment that can have lifelong benefits.

I might have to talk about some difficult things in therapy.

You get to set the tone for therapy and decide what you want to talk about. Sometimes, recovering from anxiety involves talking about sensitive topics, but you’re in the driver’s seat. We want you to feel comfortable to open up at your own pace.

Don’t Let Anxiety Hold You Back Any Longer

At Gatewell Therapy Center, you can find relief from the symptoms that are holding you back. It’s possible to conquer your anxiety and find greater freedom in your life. Contact us to get started.

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