Anxiety Therapy

You've held it together for a long time. But underneath, the worry keeps going. It shows up as trouble sleeping, as a mind that won't quiet down, as the feeling of always being one step behind no matter how much you do. Anxiety is often a signal that's been ignored for too long. Our work is about learning to hear it, slow down, and finally tend to your own needs, not just everyone else's.

What anxiety looks like in high-functioning people

Most people who come to me with anxiety don't look anxious from the outside. They look capable. Productive. Put together. But inside, they're exhausted by the constant vigilance, the overthinking, the low-level dread that follows them through the day.

Sometimes it shows up as perfectionism. Sometimes as people-pleasing. Sometimes as a body that won't fully relax, even when there's nothing left to do. Sometimes as an irritability you can't quite explain. You've probably learned to manage it well enough to keep going. But managing isn't the same as living, and you deserve more than just getting by.

Some of what I hear from people when they first come in:

• A mind that races at night, replaying conversations or running through tomorrow's list
• Tightness in your chest or shoulders that you've gotten so used to you barely notice it
• Saying yes to things you don't want to do because saying no feels impossible
• Feeling responsible for everyone else's emotions and needs before your own
• Second-guessing decisions you've already made, over and over
• A constant sense that you're falling behind, even when you're doing more than enough
• Trouble being still or doing nothing without guilt creeping in
• Irritability that comes out of nowhere and doesn't match the situation

If you recognize yourself in any of that, you're not broken. You've just been running a system that was never built to run this long without a break.

How anxiety therapy works

This isn't about learning a breathing technique and calling it done. Anxiety is a signal. It's telling you something. Our work is about understanding what that something is, where it comes from, and what it actually needs from you.

Using a psychodynamic and attachment-based approach, we'll look at the patterns underneath the anxiety: what you learned early about being safe, what you've had to become to feel loved, what happens inside you when things feel out of control. That's where the real work is, and that's where things genuinely change.

A lot of anxiety comes from old ways of coping that made perfect sense at the time. Maybe you learned that being perfect was the only way to feel secure. Maybe you learned that anticipating every possible problem was how you kept yourself safe. Those strategies worked once. But now they're costing you more than they're protecting you, and you don't have to keep living that way.

What to expect

Your first session is about slowing down enough to actually look at what's going on. I'll ask about what brought you in, what your days feel like, and what you're hoping might shift. You don't need to have a clear picture of the problem. That's what we build together.

From there, we meet weekly. Anxiety tends to fill every available space, and having a consistent place to slow down and pay attention to yourself is part of how things start to change. Sessions are 60 minutes, either in person at my Issaquah office or over video anywhere in Washington.

Most people start to notice that they're reacting less automatically within the first couple of months. The worry doesn't disappear overnight, but you start to catch it sooner. You start to feel less driven by it and more able to choose how you respond. Over time, the grip loosens in a way that feels real and lasting, not like a technique you have to remember to use.

You don't have to be in crisis to start

If you're managing but exhausted, that's reason enough to reach out. You don't have to wait for the anxiety to get worse or for something to fall apart before you deserve support. A lot of the people I work with come in before things hit a breaking point, because they can feel the weight building and they know something needs to change.

I work with people in Issaquah, Sammamish, Bellevue, Redmond, North Bend, Snoqualmie, and throughout the Eastside, and with anyone in Washington via telehealth. The free 15-minute call is a low-pressure place to start.

Questions about anxiety therapy