“It’s okay to be brave and afraid at the same time.”
- Brené Brown
Therapy for Anxiety in Los Angeles, ca
Starting Therapy for Anxiety
You’re Tired of struggling with feeling worried, nervous, and on-edge.
Anxiety can be overwhelming. The sudden flood of emotion can take your breath away, instantly distract you from connecting with others meaningfully, knock down your confidence, and leave you isolated and alone. Anxiety can lead to feelings of embarrassment and shame as you wonder what went wrong and why your body is acting against you. Therapy for anxiety can help you change your relationship to your emotions, reframe your thoughts, and start living.
Ways We Experience Anxiety
Feelings of tension. Your body feels like it’s in knots.
Increased heart rate, sweaty palms, and shallow breathing. Feeling like you just finished a marathon.
Mentally and physically exhausted. Your body always feels fatigued and sluggish.
Creating Rituals. You spend a lot of team trying to live by the safety rituals and rules to avoid feeling anxiety.
Avoiding. Leaving early or finding reasons to avoid situations associated with anxiety.
Trying to be perfect. You worry what others will think of you if you don’t get it all right.
Body aches. You may experience unexplainable aches, with no obvious physical cause.
Nausea and body tingling. Feeling a loss of control over your body.
Worry. You worry excessively about the past, present, and/or future.
When to see a therapist about therapy for anxiety:
A little anxiety and stress can not only be healthy and normal but also necessary. Let’s say you’re at the beach with your family, and someone starts yelling “there’s a shark right next to you!” Your body is going to feel a whole lot different than if you heard “there’s a dolphin right next to you!” We need that quick shot of adrenaline warning us that we could be in danger. We can appreciate that these emotions showed up because they kept us safe.
What happens though, when these emotions regularly show up while driving, sitting at our desk at work, or spending time with close friends? An anxiety counselor can help when anxiety shows up not as a helper, but as a roadblock to you fully enjoying your life.
Anxiety & Avoidance
Anxiety can show up at any stage of life either in response to a real stressor (e.g., board meeting, school presentation, or interview) or can seem to come out of nowhere. While anxiety can certainly be uncomfortable, emotional suffering happens when we start to try to avoid or shut down our feelings.
Let’s be honest, avoidance makes sense! You don’t have to go to work when you don’t want to, you can get out of a hard conversation with a friend or partner. Avoidance works … at least in the short term. Over time, however, avoidance can limit your ability to engage with the world around you. It can keep you from meeting new people, going after that job you want, and holding you back from feeling like the brave and competent woman that you are.
Therapy for Anxiety in Relationships
Anxiety can impact not only the quality of your relationships, but also the way that you view yourself in relation to others. Do you constantly rewind through social interactions and critique what you said, whether you somehow messed up, or if you were likable?
Sometimes, anxiety can lead us to create safety rituals like…
I’ll stay 30 minutes and say I’m feeling sick
I have to drive myself so that I don’t feel trapped there,
In order to be funny or myself I need a little liquid courage to be funny or myself.
While these rules are there to help you minimize feelings of anxiety and self-doubt, oftentimes the mental gymnastics distract you from truly engaging with others. Therapy for anxiety can help if you’ve noticed that your safety rituals and worries around relationships are getting in the way of true connection.
Social anxiety can hold us back from spending time with friends, keep us from challenging ourselves to go for positions of leadership in our workplaces, or lead us to isolate and limit ourselves from experiencing our full beautiful lives.
Therapy for Anxiety in Motherhood
Many of the women that come to Worth and Wellness Psychology are seeking therapy for anxiety as it relates to their role in motherhood. For new moms, postpartum anxiety can feel sudden and scary and 15-20% of women struggle with an increase in anxiety and depression both during pregnancy and up to a year after giving birth. Postpartum Anxiety (PPA) and Postpartum Panic Disorder can leave new mothers feeling panicked, numb, and out of control of their emotions and body.
While it’s natural for new parents to feel anxious about the safety of their children, mothers with postpartum or antepartum anxiety can experience disturbing images and thoughts which impact their sleep, physical, and emotional well-being. If you’re struggling with PPA, you are not alone. Therapy for anxiety can help you learn skills to navigate during this stressful time so you can get back to enjoying life with your new little one.
How can Therapy for Anxiety help?
Therapy for aniety will help you identify your triggers, shift the way you relate to your emotions, and help you base your decisions on your values rather than on your fears. As an anxiety therapist in Los Angeles, I utilize an emotion-focused approach (EFIT) with a combination of skills from cognitive and behavioral (CBT and ACT) and somatic therapies (EMDR). I work to help you address not only the symptoms but also to notice and challenge the thoughts that play on repeat and keep you feeling stuck. If you’re ready to learn more about anxiety treatment, we can meet for a free 30-minute consultation. Let’s get started!
Start Therapy for Anxiety in Los Angeles, CA
Whether you have social anxiety, anxiety in relationships, or anxiety in motherhood you do have options when it comes to treatment. As an anxiety counselor, I will work with you to ensure that therapy is tailored to your unique needs and triggers.
If you’re ready to learn more about therapy for anxiety at Worth and Wellness Psychology follow these steps:
Reach out and we can meet for a free 30-minute consultation.
Schedule your appointment and let’s get started!
Other Therapy Services at Worth & Wellness Psychology in Los Angeles, CA
I offer both in-person therapy in LA and virtually throughout California. This includes individual therapy for relationship issues, dating, and trauma. As well as EMDR therapy, therapy for therapists, the Highly Sensitive Person (HSP), and women of color.