How to Overcome Anxiety: Finding Expert Anxiety Treatment in Philadelphia

Are you suffering from anxiety that feels debilitating?  Does it feel like you are stressed out or depleted more than you’d like?  Dealing with an anxiety disorder can be exhausting.  It can be tiring to feel like your mind is a runaway worry train, and all you want to do is make it stop.  It can be scary to feel like your body is surprising or betraying you with sensations that seem to come out of nowhere, like a racing heart, blushing face, or clammy hands.  If you or a loved one is struggling with anxiety, there’s no need to suffer unnecessarily.   In fact, many people are not aware about the strong research showing that therapy for anxiety works!  Your problems are real, but so are the solutions.  When looking for Philadelphia anxiety treatment ‘near me’,  it is important to find a personalized, empirically-supported approach.  Our therapists specializing in anxiety treatment have experience teaching simple and effective strategies to help you learn how to overcome anxiety.

Re-claim your life today and schedule an appointment with one of our expert anxiety therapists.  Before you schedule an appointment, however, read here to learn more about the different types of anxiety and how therapy for anxiety works.

Types of Anxiety Disorders

There are many types of anxiety disorders,  including:

• Generalized anxiety, such as Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
• Specific phobias, ranging from medical to animal phobias
• Anxiety involving interpersonal interactions, such as Social Anxiety (SA)
• Thought or behavior-based anxiety, such as Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Somatic, body-based manifestations of anxiety, such as panic attacks, which are a part of Panic Disorder (PD)
• Anxiety that stems from a traumatic incident, such as Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Comprehensive Anxiety Treatment

Anxiety can be present in a variety of forms – cognitive, affective, physiological, and social/relational– and all four areas are interrelated.

Cognitive/Thinking
Anxiety can involve general worry about a variety of issues, such as in the case of Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD).  Often worry is repetitive, such as in the case of obsessive or ruminative thinking. In other cases, worry is contextual, such as with specific phobias. People have anxiety about all kinds of issues, such as identity, family, relationships, work, illness or death.  Cognitive anxiety treatment focuses on the ‘thinking’ piece of anxiety – learning simple effective strategies to contain, challenge and change repetitive problematic thought patterns.

Affective/Feeling
Runaway emotions have a way of taking on a life of their own. In his 1996 book Emotional Intelligence, Daniel Goleman refers to this as “amygdala hijack.” When our feelings of worry take over our brain, everything gets sped up, including our bodies. Did you know that neurological signals from our emotional brain (e.g. amygdala) travel faster than our rational brain (e.g. frontal lobe)? For this reason, working with feelings – and their somatic or bodily expressions – are central to good therapeutic work.   Affect-focused therapy for anxiety teaches clients how to overcome anxiety using strategies to identify, contain, regulate, and transform difficult anxious feelings.

Physiological
Some people primarily experience their anxiety or stress in their bodies. For example, a frequently known expression of physiological anxiety is a panic attack, which can often feel like it is coming out of nowhere. In all actuality it isn’t, and part of our work is teaching clients to recognize anxiety cues earlier in the process.

We believe so strongly in the relationship between mind and body that we have created an entire section under ‘Psychosomatic Disorders’ to describe these types of issues and their presentations. We encourage you to read more there. It is important to note, however, that just as the body can be an outlet of anxiety and stress, it can also be the first line of recovery. Creating positive sensation and experience in the body is an important way of building relaxation and emotional mastery.

Social/Relational

Social anxiety pertains to anxiety that manifests in a relational context.  In this respect, anxiety responses manifest in an interpersonal context.  These cues become generalized and exacerbated over time.  It is like a negative ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’.  Some people who struggle with social anxiety are naturally introverted and very shy.  That is fine!  Being shy does not cause or lead to social anxiety.  In fact, there are many positive relational aspects of introversion.  On the other hand, someone who is not naturally comfortable with relational interactions may be more likely to repeat and generalize negative social experiences and responses.

Our Approach to Treating Anxiety

We draw upon several treatment philosophies in providing Philadelphia anxiety therapy ‘near me.’  Integrative therapy for anxiety is designed to give clients multiple tools so they can learn how to overcome anxiety.

Anxiety is often a symbolic expression of deeper ‘unconscious’ and/or existential psychological themes. Helping our patients understand and work through these themes can create lasting change.

However, it is difficult to do this type of mentally intensive work in a stimulated state. As a result, our therapists draw upon principles from clinical hypnosis, mindfulness, and other therapeutic techniques to help our clients learn and internalize calm, relaxation, and well-being.

We believe that utilizing imagery, breathing, and focused attention to build positive physiological calm in the body is a great first step. From there, we introduce cognitive and behavioral methods to help our patients hierarchically face their fears using imaginative techniques in a way that feels manageable.

Finally, we believe in the importance of creating a solid, attuned therapeutic alliance grounded in secure attachment.  This relational approach builds trust and safety and creates the necessary foundation to make progress in treating and improving anxiety symptoms.

Begin your journey today towards learning how to overcome anxiety by contacting us to set up an initial appointment.  Our Philadelphia anxiety treatment is more than strategies, tools, and techniques.  Anxiety therapy is an empathic relationship where we are with you every step of the way as you learn how to better understand and master your anxiety.  Hope is around the corner, and you don’t have to feel this way anymore.