Book a Free 15 min Phone Call
Recognizing the Alarm
Anxiety doesn't always announce itself as a panic attack. Sometimes it shows up as physical symptoms you can't explain, or a constant background hum of worry that feels "normal" because it's been there so long.
If you are reading this, you might recognize these experiences:
-
The Physical Hijack: Your heart races, your chest tightens, or you feel like you can't breathe—even when there is no immediate danger.
-
The What-If Machine: Your mind generates endless worst-case scenarios (health, money, loved ones). You try to "prepare" for every possibility, but the worry never actually brings relief.
-
The Scan: You are constantly scanning for threats, waiting for the other shoe to drop. You find it hard to fully relax, even in safe places.
-
Avoidance Creep: You have started narrowing your life to avoid triggers; skipping social events, driving certain routes, or avoiding emails. Each time you avoid it, the fear gets a little stronger.
-
Safety Rituals: You check your phone constantly, over-prepare, or seek reassurance from others. These help temporarily, but they keep the anxiety loop alive.
Why You Feel This Way (The "On" Switch)
Anxiety is your nervous system's alarm system stuck in the "ON" position.
Your brain evolved to detect threats and keep you safe. But your brain doesn't distinguish well between a physical threat (a tiger) and a psychological threat (an email).
When the alarm rings, your body dumps stress hormones into your system to help you fight or flee. But since you can't fight an email, that energy gets trapped in your body, manifesting as shaking, racing thoughts, or panic.
Anxiety often develops for understandable reasons:
Past Experience: If you've faced unpredictable environments, trauma, or situations where you couldn't control outcomes, your nervous system learned to stay on high alert as protection.
The Control Trap: When life feels uncertain, anxiety can feel like preparation. But worrying about every possible outcome doesn't give you control—it just keeps you trapped.
Sensitive Nervous System: Some people are wired with a more reactive alarm system. This isn't a flaw; it's biology.
The racing thoughts and physical symptoms aren't a sign of weakness. They are your system trying to protect you using outdated threat assessments.
My Approach: Body First, Mind Second
We don't start by trying to "think" our way out of anxiety. We start by teaching your body that it is safe.
1. Nervous System Regulation (Widening Your Window) You cannot reason with a panic attack. We use concrete, body-based techniques to shift your biology:
Breathwork: Specific breathing patterns (like extended exhale breathing or box breathing) that activate your parasympathetic nervous system—your body's natural calming mechanism. This isn't just "take a deep breath"; it's learning patterns that physiologically shift you out of panic.
-
Grounding practices: Techniques like the 5-4-3-2-1 method or body scanning that anchor you in the present moment when anxiety pulls you into future catastrophes.
-
Progressive muscle relaxation: Systematically tensing and releasing muscle groups to release the physical tension that fuels the anxiety cycle.
-
Mindfulness training: Learning to observe anxiety without being consumed by it. You practice noticing "I'm having anxious thoughts" rather than "I am anxious and it's going to destroy me." This creates distance between you and the anxiety.
The goal is to widen your "Window of Tolerance," the zone where you can handle stress without skyrocketing into panic or shutting down completely. We build your capacity to stay regulated even when life gets difficult.
2. Cognitive Restructuring (The Reality Check) Once the body is calm, we look at the mind. We examine the thoughts fueling the fire—the catastrophizing and the "what-ifs."
-
The Shift: We move from "What if something terrible happens?" to "Even if X happens, I have the tools to handle it."
-
The Nuance: This isn't about positive thinking. It is about accurate thinking.
You'll learn to recognize when anxiety is distorting your perception and challenge worst-case scenarios with realistic alternatives.
3. Reclaiming Your Life (Gradual Exposure) Anxiety shrinks your world; therapy expands it. When you are ready, we work on facing the situations you've been avoiding.
-
The Hierarchy: We start small. We don't jump into the deep end.
-
The Practice: You learn that you can tolerate discomfort, and that anxiety creates a "peak" that always eventually comes down.
-
The Evidence: Each time you face a feared situation and survive it, you build proof that you're more capable than anxiety tells you.
4. Mindfulness & Acceptance Sometimes fighting anxiety makes it worse. We work on:
-
Observing anxiety without judgment; noticing it's present without making it mean something terrible about you
-
Accepting temporary discomfort rather than needing to eliminate every uncomfortable feeling immediately
-
Creating space between you and your anxious thoughts, you are not your anxiety; you are the person experiencing it
Note: These aren't quick fixes. They're skills that require practice, but they work.
What You Can Expect
Change with anxiety is gradual, but relief is possible.
Early Shifts: You might notice you can catch a spiral before it takes over, or that you recover faster after a stressful event.
The Work: Some sessions will be practical (tools and skills); others will be deeper (processing the root causes).
The Result: You won't become a robot who never worries. But you will develop the capacity to experience anxiety without it controlling your decisions. Anxiety might sit in the passenger seat sometimes, but it will no longer be driving the car.
Summary Graphic
