Understanding and Treating Anxiety
Anxiety can feel like a constant weight, making it hard to focus, connect with others, or even enjoy daily life. Both biological and environmental factors—like genetics, stress, or life circumstances—can contribute to its development. If you’re feeling stuck or overwhelmed, you’re not alone, and there’s help available.
Living with anxiety often means dealing with physical symptoms like a racing heart, tense muscles, upset stomach, or sleepless nights. These challenges can affect your relationships, career, and sense of self. It’s exhausting, but it doesn’t have to stay this way.
With the right support, anxiety can become more manageable. Together, we can explore strategies to reduce its impact and help you feel calmer, more confident, and in control. You don’t have to face this alone—healing is possible, and I’m here to help.
Understanding Its Impact
Anxiety is the most common mental health challenge, affecting nearly 1 in 5 adults in the United States. Women are more than twice as likely as men to experience an anxiety disorder in their lifetime. Despite being highly treatable, less than 37% of those suffering receive help.
Living with anxiety can feel overwhelming, interfering with work, relationships, and overall happiness. It’s easy to feel isolated or worry something is wrong when anxiety symptoms—like constant worry, tension, or physical discomfort—are always present. These symptoms can steal joy from everyday life and make it hard to be the person you want to be.
The good news? Relief is possible. Understanding your triggers and seeking support are the first steps toward managing anxiety and reclaiming your life.
How Anxiety May Affect You
Anxiety impacts you on many levels; some are obvious, while others are more subtle. Your symptoms of anxiety can include:
- Edginess or restlessness
- Feeling tense, irritable, or easily frustrated
- Fatigue or feeling more tired than usual
- Difficulty concentrating or a blank mind
- Trouble sleeping, whether falling asleep or staying asleep
- Tension in your relationships
- Muscle aches or persistent soreness
- Jumping to negative conclusions or increased pessimism
- A need to control situations or outcomes
How Treatment Can Help
Anxiety can feel all-consuming, but Solution-Focused Brief Therapy (SFBT) provides a practical and empowering framework to help you move forward. Together, we’ll focus on solutions rather than problems, building on your strengths and identifying small, meaningful steps toward a calmer, more fulfilling life.
Discovering What Works
Using SFBT, we’ll explore what is already working in your life and expand on those strategies. This involves:
Recognizing Successes: Identifying moments when anxiety is less intense and understanding what contributes to those moments.
Scaling Questions: Using a 0-10 scale to measure progress and set achievable goals for improvement.
Building a Vision for Change
SFBT helps you clarify what a better life looks like and what steps can get you there. We’ll focus on:
Defining Your Goals: Visualizing what life would look like without anxiety controlling it.
Highlighting Strengths: Drawing on your existing skills and resources to create actionable strategies.
Taking Small Steps Forward
Change happens incrementally, and SFBT emphasizes the power of small, positive actions. Together, we’ll:
Set Manageable Goals: Identify one or two small changes that can make a big difference.
Track Progress: Celebrate successes and adjust strategies as needed to maintain momentum.
By focusing on what is possible and building on what already works, SFBT offers a hopeful and effective path to overcoming anxiety and creating lasting change. Let’s work together to help you take those first steps toward relief and resilience.
