Anxiety therapy helps you understand patterns of fear, worry, physical arousal, avoidance, reassurance seeking, and self-doubt while building skills that make those patterns less controlling. Therapy may focus on thoughts, body responses, behavior, relationships, past experiences, current stressors, and the practical situations where anxiety shows up.

The goal is not to remove every normal feeling of anxiety. It is to increase flexibility, confidence, coping, and your ability to participate in the life that matters to you.

Anxiety is a normal human response to uncertainty, change, risk, and stress. It becomes more concerning when fear or worry is persistent, intense, difficult to manage, out of proportion to the situation, or begins interfering with sleep, school, work, relationships, health, or everyday activities.

You do not need to decide whether your anxiety is “serious enough” on your own. We can look at duration, distress, patterns, functioning, and what kind of support may be useful.

Anxiety may include excessive worry, overthinking, restlessness, irritability, difficulty concentrating, sleep problems, muscle tension, stomach discomfort, headaches, chest tightness, racing thoughts, perfectionism, people pleasing, procrastination, reassurance seeking, or avoiding situations that matter to you.

Symptoms vary, and some physical symptoms can have medical causes. New, severe, or unexplained physical symptoms should be discussed with an appropriate medical provider rather than assumed to be anxiety.

Generalized anxiety disorder, or GAD, involves excessive anxiety or worry about several areas of life that is difficult to control and occurs more days than not over an extended period. It may be accompanied by restlessness, fatigue, concentration problems, irritability, muscle tension, or sleep disturbance.

Not everyone who worries has GAD. Diagnosis considers the complete pattern, duration, distress, functioning, health, substances, medications, and other possible explanations.

A panic attack is a sudden surge of intense fear or discomfort that can include a racing heart, sweating, trembling, dizziness, nausea, chest discomfort, shortness of breath, tingling, feeling unreal, or fearing that you are losing control, dying, or experiencing a medical emergency.

Panic symptoms can resemble physical health problems. New or concerning chest pain, breathing difficulty, fainting, or other severe symptoms should receive appropriate medical evaluation.

No. A person can experience one or occasional panic attacks without having panic disorder. Panic disorder involves recurrent, unexpected panic attacks along with ongoing worry about future attacks or significant behavior changes intended to avoid them.

Therapy can help you understand the panic cycle, respond differently to physical sensations, reduce fear of future attacks, and gradually return to activities or places that panic has made difficult.

Yes. Anxiety can affect heart rate, breathing, digestion, sleep, energy, muscle tension, sweating, temperature, balance, and concentration. These sensations are real and can become part of a fear cycle when the body response itself begins to feel dangerous.

Physical symptoms should not automatically be labeled anxiety. Medical conditions, medications, substances, sleep problems, hormones, and other factors may contribute, so medical evaluation can be an important part of a complete treatment plan.

“High-functioning anxiety” is not a formal diagnosis. It is a common phrase for anxiety that may be hidden beneath achievement, preparation, perfectionism, reliability, people pleasing, or staying constantly busy. Other people may see success while you feel exhausted, afraid of falling behind, or unable to rest.

Functioning on the outside does not tell us how much anxiety, pressure, masking, or recovery it takes to keep going.

Yes. Overthinking can feel productive because the mind is trying to prevent mistakes, rejection, uncertainty, or regret. But repeated analysis often creates more doubt without producing a better decision.

Therapy can help you recognize the loop, identify when reflection has stopped being useful, tolerate incomplete certainty, return attention to the present, and choose the next workable action.

Avoidance often brings immediate relief, which teaches the brain that leaving, postponing, checking, or never trying was what kept you safe. Over time, the feared situation can feel even more dangerous and life may become smaller.

We build manageable steps toward what matters while considering real safety, disability, sensory needs, capacity, and accommodations. The purpose is not to overwhelm you or treat every boundary as avoidance.

Reassurance can help briefly when you feel uncertain or afraid. When it becomes the main way you manage anxiety, the relief may fade quickly and leave you needing another answer, search, check, or confirmation.

Therapy can help you distinguish healthy support from a repeating reassurance cycle and build more trust in your ability to tolerate uncertainty and make decisions.

Anxiety can involve worry, fear, and avoidance. OCD specifically involves obsessions, compulsions, or both. Compulsions may be visible actions or mental rituals used to reduce distress, prevent a feared outcome, or create certainty.

OCD requires accurate assessment and specialized treatment planning. Reassurance and general anxiety coping strategies can sometimes strengthen an OCD cycle. Learn more on the OCD and social anxiety therapy page.

Anxiety and trauma responses can both include fear, avoidance, sleep problems, physical arousal, irritability, or difficulty concentrating. Trauma-related symptoms may be connected to an overwhelming event or repeated experiences and can include unwanted memories, nightmares, dissociation, or strong reactions to reminders. Anxiety can also exist without trauma.

We look at history, triggers, patterns, and current functioning rather than assuming that every anxious response has the same cause. More information is available on the Trauma Therapy page.

Executive functioning demands, sensory overload, communication differences, uncertainty, masking, burnout, repeated misunderstanding, and environments that do not fit can all increase anxiety for neurodivergent people. Anxiety may also be a separate condition that deserves direct treatment.

We distinguish fear-driven patterns from legitimate needs for accommodation, structure, recovery, processing time, or sensory support. Learn more on the ADHD therapy page and the Autism and AuDHD therapy page.

Yes. Therapy can help you notice rigid standards, fear of mistakes, post-social overthinking, concern about judgment, and the belief that you must perform perfectly to remain accepted. We practice flexibility, direct communication, recovery after feedback, and manageable movement toward avoided situations.

More detailed information about these patterns is available on the OCD, perfectionism, RSD, and social anxiety page.

Teen anxiety may look like school avoidance, stomachaches, headaches, sleep problems, irritability, emotional outbursts, perfectionism, procrastination, panic, social withdrawal, reassurance seeking, or the pressure to appear fine.

Therapy can help teens understand the pattern, build emotional regulation and coping skills, communicate needs, reduce shame, and take realistic steps toward school, relationships, independence, and the parts of life anxiety has interrupted. Learn more on the Teen Therapy page.

Adult anxiety may show up in work, relationships, health worries, parenting, decision making, sleep, boundaries, burnout, or the feeling that you must hold everything together. Therapy can help you understand the cycle, respond to stress with more flexibility, communicate needs, and create support that fits your life.

Parent support can also help you respond to an anxious teen with connection and appropriate boundaries without building family life around avoidance or constant reassurance.

My approach may draw from mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, DBT skills, trauma-informed and attachment-based care, Polyvagal Theory, nervous system regulation, experiential work, practical coping strategies, and EMDR-informed support when past experiences are part of the pattern.

Treatment is adapted to your goals, age, neurotype, identity, communication style, current capacity, and the type of anxiety affecting you. One set of tools does not fit every person or every anxiety disorder.

Yes. Evidence-based psychotherapy for anxiety can be delivered through telehealth, and online sessions allow us to practice skills in the environment where many daily stressors occur. Virtual therapy can also reduce travel, waiting rooms, and other barriers to attending consistently.

Telehealth is not the best fit for every person or every clinical situation. We consider privacy, safety, technology, engagement, symptoms, and the level of support you need when deciding whether online care is appropriate.

No. As a marriage and family therapist, I do not prescribe medication. Therapy, medication, or a combination may be appropriate depending on the person and the type and severity of anxiety. If you want a medication evaluation, we can discuss coordinating with a primary care provider, psychiatrist, or another qualified prescriber.

There is no single timeline. Length depends on your goals, symptoms, the type of anxiety, current stress, health, support system, co-occurring concerns, attendance, and how your needs change over time. Some people seek focused support for a specific pattern, while others benefit from longer work involving trauma, identity, relationships, or neurodivergence.

We review progress and goals together rather than assuming therapy must follow a fixed schedule or continue indefinitely.

Routine outpatient telehealth is not an emergency or crisis service. If you or someone else is in immediate danger, call 911 or go to the nearest emergency department. In the United States, you can call or text 988 for the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline.

If your needs require more support than periodic outpatient sessions can safely provide, we will discuss crisis resources, coordinated care, or a more intensive treatment setting.

I provide fully virtual anxiety therapy to teens and adults who are physically located in South Carolina or Colorado at the time of each session. I accept select insurance plans, and self-pay options are available. Because coverage varies by plan, state, and service, visit the rates and insurance page or contact the practice to confirm current details.

You can request an appointment through the secure client portal or use the contact page to ask a question. We can talk about what anxiety has been affecting, what you hope will feel different, and whether online therapy is an appropriate fit.