When anxiety shows up, it often isn’t just thoughts. It can feel like your whole body is going into overdrive.
You may find yourself overthinking, anticipating what could go wrong, struggling to settle, or feeling like you need to stay alert to what is happening around you. Sometimes you know you are safe, but your body does not seem to have received the message.
In our work, we slow things down and pay attention to what is happening in real time. I support you with anxiety directly while also looking at what may be underneath it, including nervous system patterns, past experiences, trauma, and learned ways of responding to threat.
Anxiety is not always a problem. Sometimes it is a helpful and appropriate response to what is happening in your life. Other times, it becomes overwhelming, persistent, or disconnected from present-day reality. In therapy, we work with these differently.
Adaptive anxiety is anxiety that is proportionate to a situation and supports you in taking action.
It can help you pay attention, prepare, make decisions, and respond effectively.
With adaptive anxiety, the focus may be on:
The goal is not to eliminate this type of anxiety, but to help you work with it in a way that feels grounded and manageable.
Maladaptive anxiety can be out of proportion, persistent, or no longer connected to what is actually happening in the present.
It can feel like your nervous system is reacting as though something is still dangerous, even when you are safe.
Anxiety can have many roots. Sometimes it is closely connected to what is happening in your life now. Sometimes past experiences, chronic stress, or learned patterns also shape how your nervous system responds in the present.
With maladaptive anxiety, therapy may involve:
If certain situations, places, or experiences trigger fear, we approach them gradually and at a pace that feels manageable. The goal is to help you build confidence without forcing or flooding yourself.
OCD can involve intense anxiety, but OCD is more than anxiety or overthinking.
It can feel like your mind is constantly grabbing your attention, questioning you, and refusing to let anything feel settled or certain. Thoughts can show up uninvited, feel urgent or threatening, and then stick, even when you desperately want to move on.
You may struggle with:
It can feel like your mind will not let something go, even when another part of you knows the amount of checking, analyzing, or reassurance does not make sense.
I work with OCD when it fits within the bigger picture of what you are experiencing. We look at the OCD pattern itself while also considering anxiety, self-doubt, hypervigilance, responsibility, trauma, and nervous system responses when these are relevant to your experience.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) is an evidence-based treatment for OCD.
Rather than trying to get rid of intrusive thoughts or prove that they are not true, ERP helps you change how you respond to them.
This may involve:
In simple terms, ERP helps you learn that you do not need to check, solve, or be 100% certain in order to feel okay.
Over time, this can loosen the cycle of OCD so that it has less control over your life.
We also pay attention to patterns such as self-doubt, hyper-awareness, misplaced responsibility, and sensitivity to uncertainty or perceived threat.
Anxiety and OCD do not always exist separately from the rest of your life.
Sometimes they are closely connected to what is happening now. Sometimes they occur alongside trauma, chronic stress, emotional neglect, difficult relationships, or longstanding patterns of feeling unsafe, responsible, or unable to trust yourself.
When those experiences are part of the picture, we can look beyond the symptoms themselves.
Depending on what you need, therapy may include nervous system work, trauma processing, EMDR, ERP, and learning new ways of responding to fear, uncertainty, and internal experiences.
The goal is not to make every anxious feeling or unwanted thought disappear. It is to help you understand what is happening, respond differently in those moments, and develop a greater sense of safety, confidence, and trust in yourself.
I invite you to reach out for a brief introductory call. We can talk about what you’re experiencing and whether working together feels like a good fit.