Anxiety and Stress

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Anxiety shows up in more ways than most people realize, and sometimes, we don’t even recognize it as anxiety. It might feel like:

• Trouble focusing or making decisions
• Feeling stuck, unmotivated, or emotionally numb
• Restless sleep or waking up already tense
• Irritability, low patience, or snapping at people you care about
• Overwhelm from everyday tasks
• A constant sense of dread, even when nothing specific is wrong

For many, anxiety feels like living in a constant state of alert: your mind racing, your body keyed up, and your energy drained from trying to manage it all.

Some anxiety can be helpful. It’s your body’s natural way of alerting you to potential danger, like a smoke detector. But when the alarm won’t stop, or keeps going off even when there’s no real threat, it becomes exhausting and disruptive.

Anxiety doesn’t always look like panic attacks or visible distress. For some people, it shows up as perfectionism, people pleasing, procrastination, or the inability to rest. You may find yourself constantly planning for worst case scenarios, avoiding certain situations, or feeling like you can never fully relax.

Anxiety can take many forms, including:

• Generalized anxiety: constant worry that feels hard to control
• Social anxiety: fear of judgment, embarrassment, or rejection
• Relationship anxiety: worry about being too much, not enough, or abandoned
• Health anxiety: obsessive thoughts about illness or symptoms
• Climate or world-related anxiety: distress about current events or the future
• High-functioning anxiety: you seem put together on the outside, but you’re constantly battling fear or stress internally

Sometimes it’s tied to a clear source. Other times, it’s a vague feeling that follows you through the day; a background hum of unease that you can’t turn off.

I know what it’s like to live with anxiety, and I also know that it doesn’t have to control your life. Anxiety is treatable, and change is possible, even if it’s been part of your experience for a long time.

In therapy, we’ll work together to:

• Understand where your anxiety comes from and what it’s trying to protect you from
• Explore how it shows up in your body, thoughts, and behavior
• Build tools to regulate your nervous system and calm your mind
• Practice setting boundaries, saying no, and managing expectations
• Shift self critical thought patterns into something more supportive
• Develop daily strategies to reduce stress and create more ease

Whether your anxiety is new, lifelong, situational, or hard to explain, you deserve support that meets you where you are.

Therapy gives you space to slow down, understand your patterns, and build a toolkit that helps you feel more calm, confident, and in control of your life. With the right support, anxiety can become something you understand, not something that defines you.

If you’re ready to feel more like yourself again, or maybe for the first time, I’d be honored to help you get there.