What is anxiety therapy?

Anxiety therapy is a structured, evidence-based treatment that helps people understand their worry patterns, physical symptoms, and avoidance behaviors. Therapy focuses on building practical skills to reduce distress and improve functioning in daily life. 

Feeling tense, on edge, or unsettled can be hard to tolerate and can sometimes lead to additional worry and anxiety. You may worry about relationships, your own health, the health of others, finances, your job, or death. Perhaps you feel that you are not able to be present in relationships or pleasant experiences because your mind is elsewhere, worrying about the future or the past. Or, you might feel exhausted or tired given how much time and energy is being taken up by your worry thoughts and physical tension. Your anxiety may lead you to skip out on certain events that you would like to attend or to experience distress prior to a big talk at work or leading a meeting. Regardless of what symptoms you are currently experiencing, you are most likely looking for a better way to manage the thoughts and the physical tension that can be associated with anxiety.

Anxiety Is a Very Common Experience

How does anxiety affect daily life?

Anxiety can affect relationships, work performance, sleep, physical health, and your ability to enjoy daily life. Many people find themselves caught in cycles of worry, tension, avoidance, and overthinking that feel difficult to break without support.
Many New Yorkers experience the same symptoms on a regular basis. Most people, however, don’t talk about it with others and some even feel shame or guilt about these experiences. In reality, most people have experienced one or more of these symptoms at one time in their life.

The fast and stressful pace of New York City can prompt or maintain anxiety. There are so many options to choose from, so many activities to get to, and so many potential partners, it can feel overwhelming to make choices and difficult to let go of the worry. In addition, many of the things we commonly worry about are legitimate stressors in New York- keeping up with numerous social engagements and expectations, a high cost of living, managing college coursework in a city full of other exciting opportunities, and handling the pressures of a high-intensity career. It is no surprise that juggling so many priorities at once can feel challenging and even overwhelming at times.

If you are one of many New Yorkers experiencing anxiety, the good news is that there are tried and true evidence-based treatments that can help you (or your family member) decrease the experience of feeling burdened by worry and stress. It is possible for you to experience more clarity and a peaceful state of mind. At MindWell NYC, we offer top quality anxiety therapy and teach you useful techniques and skills to help you manage and overcome anxiety.

Anxiety Therapy Provides You With Support and Skills to Help You Move Forward

You and your MindWell NYC anxiety therapist will come up with a goal-oriented plan that works for you based on your history, anxiety-related challenges, and your objectives. Part of this work is to identify strengths and skills you already use in your daily life and to incorporate these into your therapy plan. For example, you may already have a relaxation routine that you find helpful or self-encouragement strategies that have been useful for you. Using these tools, combined with new skills you will learn in therapy, we can help move you towards a future that includes less anxiety and more freedom.

How Anxiety Therapy Works

1. Consultation – Discuss your symptoms, goals, and therapy needs

2. Assessment – Identify anxiety triggers, thought patterns, and behaviors

3. Treatment Planning – Create a personalized therapy plan

4. Skill Building – Learn coping tools, relaxation strategies, and cognitive techniques

5. Exposure & Integration – Gradually practice facing fears and applying new skills

How does therapy help reduce anxiety?

Therapy helps reduce anxiety by identifying the thoughts, behaviors, and physical responses that maintain distress. Through evidence-based strategies, clients learn to respond differently to fear, uncertainty, and stress.

During your sessions, we will collaboratively help you start to identify your patterns of anxiety and to find the situations that tend to prompt these feelings and thoughts. Next, we identify what may be maintaining the anxiety so we can target it effectively. We will help you evaluate your anxiety-related thoughts and worries to determine how helpful and accurate they are for you and what thoughts may be more helpful to include in your narrative. Given the often unrelenting nature of these worry thoughts, it can be hard to identify and change them on your own. We are here to help with our effective anxiety disorder treatments.

Using evidence-based treatment methods in a supportive and caring environment, we may also, over time, help you to expose yourself to situations that might be hard for you right now due to fear and anxiety. This process is a collaborative effort and is engaged in thoughtfully after you have learned strategies to relax your body and to manage anxiety-related thoughts more effectively. We will help you celebrate your successes along the way by highlighting the progress that you have made and by celebrating the skills you are starting to incorporate into your daily routine.

To help you better connect with pleasure and freedom in your daily life, as well as to help you not attend as much to the distressing cycle of worry thoughts, we will guide you through mindfulness therapy practices to help center your attention. By participating in these exercises and learning other mindfulness-based therapy skills, we can help you shift your attention away from worry and tension and towards compassionate and joyful experiencing. The mindfulness skills you will learn are practical, applicable, and portable and can be used in any area of your life.

We understand the challenges that anxiety can bring as well as how brave it is to come to therapy especially when you are anxious or worried. We are here to help you connect with an anxiety therapy plan that works for you and that can break you out of the exhausting worry cycle you have been experiencing. You can learn more adaptable ways of being, have new experiences, and begin to relate to yourself with more kindness and compassion.

Many people have questions about anxiety therapy. 

– Will anxiety therapy force me to face fears too quickly?

This is a common question from those seeking treatment for their anxiety. It is important for you to know that everything we do in treatment is a collaboration between you and your therapist. It is typical in anxiety therapy to gradually build up tolerance for difficult situations over time. We start by learning how to manage challenges that are the least anxiety provoking. Over time, we teach you new skills and techniques including breathing and relaxation methods, which can help you to manage challenges that are more difficult. Your anxiety therapy plan is based on your goals and what you would like to get out of the work you are doing.

– Can I take medication while in anxiety therapy?

This is another commonly asked question for individuals who are considering participating in anxiety counseling. We will work with you and your prescriber to determine the plan that we believe will help you to be most successful in managing your anxiety. It is your choice as to whether or not you would like to stay on medication while in anxiety therapy.

– How long does anxiety therapy take to work?

It makes sense that you are trying to get a sense of timing and how long it will take you to feel better. People tend to feel better after several weeks of anxiety therapy, although treatment itself can take several months. As your therapist, we will guide and help you to take small steps that will help to decrease your anxiety over time.Will anxiety therapy force me to face fears too quickly?