Counseling for Anxiety
Worry is a normal part of life — and honestly, a little anxiety can be a good thing. It keeps us alert, motivated, and aware of what matters to us. But for some people, anxiety doesn’t switch off. It lingers even when things are fine, and starts creeping into work, relationships, and everyday moments. That’s when it stops being helpful and becomes something you deserve support for.
Anxiety shows up in the body, the mind, and in how we act. If you are experiencing anxiety, you may notice the following:
In your body
A racing heart, tight muscles, trouble sleeping, stomach issues, headaches, or feeling exhausted
In your thoughts
Constant worry, “what if” spirals, trouble focusing, or expecting the worst
In your feelings
Feeling on edge, overwhelmed, irritable, or like something bad is about to happen
In your behavior
Avoiding situations, pulling away from people, seeking a lot of reassurance, or over-preparing
Anxiety can feel like it’s just who you are. But it’s not. It’s a response — to life, to stress, to experiences that shaped you — and it’s something you can work through. Sequoia Counseling Collective has a team of therapists ready to support you in navigating your symptoms and getting back to a life that feels like yours again.
Common Types of Anxiety
Generalized Anxiety
Generalized anxiety involves persistent, wide-ranging worry that’s hard to switch off — about work, health, relationships, finances, or the future. People with generalized anxiety often feel like their mind is always “on,” bracing for something to go wrong even when things are relatively okay. It’s one of the most common forms of anxiety, and one of the most treatable.
Panic Disorder
Panic disorder involves recurring panic attacks — sudden, intense waves of fear that can feel physically overwhelming, sometimes even like a heart attack. The anxiety around when the next one will happen can become just as disruptive as the attacks themselves, leading people to avoid places or situations where they’ve panicked before.
Social Anxiety
Social anxiety goes beyond shyness. It’s an intense fear of being judged, embarrassed, or perceived negatively by others — and it can make everyday interactions feel exhausting or overwhelming. People with social anxiety often avoid social situations altogether, or endure them with significant distress. This can quietly shrink a person’s world over time.
Specific Phobias
A specific phobia is a strong, persistent fear of a particular thing or situation — flying, heights, animals, medical procedures — that’s out of proportion to the actual danger involved. Even knowing the fear is irrational doesn’t make it easier to face. Phobias can be surprisingly responsive to treatment, even when they’ve been present for years.
Treatment Approaches for Anxiety
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT helps you change your relationship with anxious thoughts rather than fighting to get rid of them. Instead of treating anxiety as something to be eliminated, ACT teaches you to notice your thoughts without getting swept up in them — and to keep moving toward the things that matter to you, even when anxiety shows up. Many people find this approach liberating, especially if they’ve spent years trying to think or reason their way out of anxiety.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
CBT is one of the most well-researched approaches for anxiety. It works by helping you identify the thought patterns and behaviors that fuel anxiety, and gradually replacing them with more balanced, helpful responses. CBT is practical and skill-based, which means the tools you learn in session are ones you can use in your everyday life long after therapy ends.
Animal Assisted Therapy
Sometimes healing doesn’t start with words. Animal assisted therapy incorporates the presence of a trained therapy animal into the therapeutic process, offering a unique source of comfort, grounding, and connection. For people who find it hard to open up, or who feel most regulated in the presence of animals, this approach can make therapy feel more accessible — and more effective.
Emotionally Focused Therapy (EFT)
EFT focuses on the emotional experiences that underlie anxiety — particularly the ways our nervous system responds to perceived threats in relationships and connection. By helping you understand and work with your emotional responses rather than against them, EFT can create lasting shifts in how you experience anxiety day to day. It’s especially effective for people whose anxiety is tied to relational stress or attachment wounds.
Attachment and Interpersonal Therapy
Anxiety often has roots in how we learned to connect with others — the patterns we developed early in life around safety, trust, and relationships. Attachment-informed and interpersonal therapy explores how those patterns show up today, in your relationships and in how you experience the world. This approach can be especially helpful when anxiety shows up most in relational contexts — fear of abandonment, conflict avoidance, or difficulty trusting others.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
EMDR is a structured, evidence-based therapy originally developed for trauma, but increasingly used for anxiety as well. It works by helping the brain reprocess distressing memories or experiences that may be fueling current anxiety — so they lose their emotional charge. Many clients are surprised by how effective EMDR can be, even for anxiety that doesn’t trace back to a single identifiable event.