Anxiety Treatment

❋ About Anxiety

❋ What We Offer

Dr. Steph uses CBT, ACT, and exposure techniques to help you understand anxiety, untangle what's driving it, build tools for coping, and find ways to live without avoidance.

Anxiety is exhausting. It follows you into decisions, relationships, day-to-day activities, and the quiet moments when you're alone with your thoughts. It also takes many shapes, like overthinking, panic attacks, fear of the "what ifs," perfectionism, self-criticism, or even physical symptoms like headaches, stomachaches, or muscle tension.

One of anxiety's most common “tricks” is avoidance. It pulls you to steer clear of the people, places, or situations that trigger it. While it feels like relief in the moment, over time your anxiety worsens and your world starts to shrink. You may find yourself unable to do the things you'd like to do, like handling work or school tasks, socializing with others, or simply showing up for your life the way you actually want to.

Dr. Steph regularly works with children, teens, and adults on anxiety, including parents of little ones who aren't sure how to support their child who worries. Anxiety looks different at every age and therapy is tailored accordingly. For younger kids, that often means parent involvement. For teens, it's about making therapy feel relevant and not like another obligation. For adults, it's about understanding where the anxiety shows up (whether that's at work, in relationships, or just in the constant hum of worry that's hard to turn off) and building practical tools to manage it.

No matter the age, therapy here is practical and customized to you.

FAQs

  • Generally speaking, people with anxiety might find that they are:

    • Worrying more than they would like and can't seem to “turn it off”

    • Avoiding situations, people, or decisions out of fear or uncertainty

    • Struggling with perfectionism or feeling like nothing they do is ever quite good enough

    • Noticing anxiety showing up in their body (tension, stomachaches, trouble sleeping, a racing heart, etc.)

    • Replaying conversations or scenarios long after they're over

    • Feeling like they’re holding it together on the outside but barely managing on the inside

  • If you’re a parent, you may notice your child is:

    • Asking repeated reassurance-seeking questions like "what if something bad happens?" or "are you sure I'll be okay?”

    • Avoiding social situations, new experiences, or activities they used to enjoy

    • Refusing to go to school or avoiding school (e.g., frequent trips to the nurse's office or texting a parent to pick them up early)

    • Acting clingy or struggling to separate from parents at ages when that's less expected

    • Melting down or having big emotions that seem out-of-proportion to the actual event

    • Struggling with sleep, such as trouble falling asleep, having nightmares, or wanting to sleep with parents

    • Seeming “perfectionistic” or very upset by mistakes, grades, or performance

    • Excessively worrying about things like safety, death, health, natural disasters, or the future

    • Becoming irritable or angry out of nowhere

    • Seeming "zoned out" or having trouble concentrating

    • Physically freezing or shutting down in overwhelming situations

  • Stress usually has a clear source (like a deadline, a conflict, or a hard season of life) and tends to be temporary. Once a situation passes, so does the feeling.

    Anxiety is different in that it tends to stick around even when things "should" feel fine, there’s no clear trigger, or when the worry feels much greater than the situation actually warrants. It can feel excessive, hard to control, and like it’s getting in the way of relationships, school, work, or daily life.

    Something worth knowing is that you don't need to figure out which one it is to benefit from therapy either. Therapy can be helpful for anyone navigating stress too, not just clinical anxiety.

    If your anxiety or stress is persistent, getting in the way of daily life, or feels hard to shake, that's worth talking to someone about.

  • Not necessarily. Some people find it helpful to explore where their anxiety came from. Others want to focus entirely on what's happening now and how to manage it. Therapy here is guided by what's most useful for you rather than a predetermined formula.

  • Most likely, yes. But it will happen gradually and at a pace that feels manageable. Avoidance is one of the main things that keeps anxiety going, so part of the work involves gently facing the things that feel hard. You won't be pushed into anything before you're ready.

  • Medication is a personal decision, and there's no right or wrong answer. Some people find it helpful alongside therapy, others prefer to work without it.

    If you're curious about whether medication might be a good fit, Dr. Steph has trusted local prescribers she can refer you to.

    She’s also happy to coordinate care with any existing prescribers if you’re already working with someone.

"If you aren't willing to have it, you will."
-Steven C. Hayes, A Liberated Mind