In person in Wichita & online across Kansas

Therapy for Anxiety & Panic

Anxiety can feel like it affects everything: your brain, your body, & your relationships….

There’s the “what if” thoughts, the worst-case scenario thinking, getting stuck on mental loops, perfectionism, and overthinking everything. Even if you know the thoughts are exaggerated or irrational, they just keep coming like a smoke detector that just won't be silenced.
You get an upset stomach, chest tightness, panic attacks, headaches, muscle tension, fatigue and insomnia. You might be curled up on the couch with hot chocolate, but that doesn't mean your body plans to chill! Anxiety keeps things tense and jumpy, like you felt as a small child who thought there might be a monster under the bed.
There’s irritability, overwhelm, needing constant reassurance, people pleasing and over-controlling the details. An on-edge nervous system bleeds into relationships in all kinds of way ranging from convincing you to just stay home so you don't risk a car accident, all the way to triggering an emotional lash out at someone who really didn't deserve it (and then you feel awful, on top of the anxiety).

Anxiety is exhausting.

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How Does Anxiety Work?

Anxiety can be due to a nervous system stuck on hypervigilant mode, scanning for what will go wrong next. It didn't get there by accident – it got there because things have gone wrong before! The human brain is wired to pay close attention to everything that helps us survive and once it decides that obsessively scanning the world for things that could go bad is helping you survive, it plans to keep that anxiety revved up because it wants you to keep surviving! What began as a little useful anxiety in a difficult situation becomes a lot of anxiety, all the time and in all the situations. Even when things are going great, your body is still braced and your brain is scanning for disaster.

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Some of these experiences might sound familiar:

convincing yourself you have cancer via googling at midnight (but those weird symptoms - what else could they be?!)

sweaty palms when you think about having to give a presentation at work
compulsively scrolling social media even though it doesn’t make you happy
driving a long way to avoid airplanes because flying is terrifying - or some other phobia that dictates life
saying no to social events because your mind might go blank and your cheeks turn red if a stranger small talks to you
panic attacks that come on out of the blue and leave you worried about the next time
lying awake at night stuck on analyzing the conversation over and over

Anxiety eats up your life. But it doesn’t have to be this way!

Anxiety Treatment

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Anxiety treatment isn't about getting rid of fear or sternly charging yourself to “just calm down already!” (If someone has ever said that to you in the middle of a panic attack, you already know how useless it is.) Effective treatment starts with compassionately understanding why your nervous system is doing what it's doing and then working with your system.

Effective anxiety treatment is also tailored to you as an individual. Not everyone has the same kind of anxiety – some people have a very cognitive experience of anxiety with specific worries, while other people have a very somatic experience of anxiety where they don't exactly “worry” but their body always feels braced for trouble. Through therapy you'll begin to identify your own particular patterns of anxiety because the approach taken in treatment is different for a cognitive version of anxiety than for a somatic version of anxiety.

Anxiety treatment begins with practical tools that support change and your nervous system’s step down from hypervigilance. Therapy offers a space to slow down, make sense of what's happening inside of you and practice new responses with guidance and support.

Anxiety is a natural, protective brain wiring that started working overtime for some reason. In addition to practical tools, we can trace today’s symptoms back to their roots in other experiences. Maybe your anxiety revved up after a traumatic experience. Maybe you learned it in a difficult relationship. Maybe it was taught to you by an anxious family culture or given to you by a chronic stressor in your environment. There are a lot of possible paths toward anxiety becoming important to your brain. But as your nervous system learns that it is safe to relax now, the tools you’re gaining will become easier to use.

Schedule Your Free Consultation

When Anxiety No Longer Rules Your Life

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Imagine your life with anxiety taking up less space. Your thoughts are clearer and less urgent. Sleep comes easier and stays longer. Breath feels fuller and deeper. Conversations can be had without being replayed over and over afterward. Curiosity and playfulness emerge. Friendships are calmer and more authentic. Boundaries are easier to set and communication feels less overwhelming. Decision-making is less fraught and choices feel less catastrophic. Imperfections don't make you spiral and uncertainty doesn't make you feel on edge.

You're just... okay. Ordinary moments feel good. Your mind can settle and your body can relax. You can drink that cup of coffee and savor it, and you can chat with a friend without spiraling. A new sense of peacefulness allows you to soak up the small beautiful moments that anxiety used to drown out. You feel at home with yourself.

Anxiety doesn’t have to keep being the tone-setter of your life. Reach out today to talk about anxiety treatment for you!