Anxiety Counseling
in Scottsdale, AZ

Anxiety counseling is talk therapy aimed at reducing the frequency and intensity of anxiety, and at giving you something to do when it arrives.

The focus is to help deepen insight into anxiety triggers, develop adaptive coping strategies to help decrease anxiety symptoms, and find the ways to make life changes to help avoid unhealthy circumstances. Anxiety is one of the more uncomfortable emotions we can experience. It is also highly treatable, and often in a short amount of time.

Our psychologists and counselors use a variety of techniques to treat anxiety including cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), exposure therapy, EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing), family and relationship therapy, and life coaching.

Almost every person has anxiety, but the way their anxiety presents itself can be very different. The following are the most common forms of anxiety.

• Social anxiety. Where individuals feel a great deal of stress, anxious thoughts, and negative self talk when in social circumstances.
• Specific phobia. When an individual is highly anxious in specific situations such as speaking in public, flying on an airplane, being around dogs, or being in tight spaces.
• Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). When an individual has witnessed highly traumatic or anxiety provoking situations that has resulted in them being very hypervigilant, easily triggered and highly anxious when in current situations that remind them of their traumatic event.
• Generalized anxiety. When an individual feels that in most circumstances they experience elevated feelings of anxiety that leave them feeling overwhelmed, distressed and unable to relax.
• Panic attacks. When an individual quickly becomes anxious and experiences acute physiological changes that often include rapid breathing, trembling, increased heart rate, difficulty focusing, feeling faint, nausea, and a feeling of impending doom.

The first session is mostly listening. Your therapist will ask what has been happening, how long it has been going on, what you have already tried and what you want to be different, and by the end of it you will have a rough sense of the approach and roughly how long it might take. You are not expected to arrive with an organized account.

One of the more frustrating things about anxiety is that the triggers and sources of anxiety can seem almost limitless. With so many presenting forms and so many varying causes, anxiety management can seem confusing. Our therapists treat anxiety from a highly individualized approach, specifically tailored to each client’s needs. For example:

• When the root of our anxiety is due to negative, perfectionistic, or highly self-critical thoughts, our psychologists or counselors may use cognitive behavioral therapy to help identify the negative thoughts contributing to the feelings of distress.
• When the cause of anxiety is due to family stressors, our therapists help individuals identify their needs in relationship and find more adaptive ways to communicate or advocate for their needs.
• When the cause of anxiety is due to trauma, our therapists can use EMDR or other techniques to help the individual be less anxious or triggered by their past negative experiences.

Common symptoms of anxiety include:

• Feeling nervous, restless or physical tension
• Feeling a sense of danger, panic or worry
• Increased heart rate
• Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)
• Sweating
• Trembling
• Fatigue
• Trouble concentrating
• Having difficulty sleeping (insomnia)
• Experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems
• Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety

While many can maintain their jobs, relationships, and daily functions, they do so with great struggle and effort. Anxiety can often cause relationship difficulties as people tend to be more frustrated, agitated, less empathetic and less flexible when anxious.

Anxiety can also cause physical difficulties that leave people feeling sick, tired, and more prone to infections. Lastly, it can impact life satisfaction leading to feelings of worthlessness, lack of accomplishment, or fear of failure.

The treatments for anxiety include talk therapy and medication management. Talk therapy will focus on the specific type of anxiety and will help the individual deepen their insight into their distress, identify the triggers for their anxiety, develop adaptive coping skills for these circumstances and look at overall life circumstances and how these may be adjusted to avoid feelings of anxiety in the future.

Cognitive behavioral therapy is the most established approach for anxiety, working on both the thought patterns that fuel it and the avoidance that keeps it alive. Exposure therapy addresses phobias and panic by approaching the feared situation gradually and in a controlled way, so the fear can fall on its own.

EMDR is used where anxiety is rooted in trauma. Relationship and family work is used where the anxiety is driven by a situation rather than by a pattern of thinking. Where medication is part of your care, we coordinate with your physician. We do not prescribe.

Many people choose to seek treatment for anxiety when they feel their efforts to control their anxiety are no longer working. Treatment for anxiety can also be very helpful before an individual’s anxiety gets out of control.

When people are in a calm place, they may be in the best position to proactively make life choices to avoid thought patterns, relationships, and life choices that can lead to anxiety symptoms. So either amid increasing anxiety or before anxiety increases, anxiety treatment can be very helpful.

The first thing a counselor does is separate the anxiety from you. Anxiety is very good at presenting itself as accurate judgment, and having someone in the room who can tell the difference between a real problem and a threat response is most of what makes it treatable.

From there the work is specific to what is driving it. Perfectionistic or self-critical thinking gets a cognitive approach. A phobia or panic gets graded exposure. Anxiety rooted in a relationship or a family situation gets relationship work, and anxiety rooted in trauma gets EMDR. Our psychologists and counselors build the plan around your situation rather than applying one method to everyone, and where medication is part of your care they coordinate with your treating physician.

We see Scottsdale clients in person at our office near Biltmore Fashion Park and online throughout Arizona. Call (480) 999-7070 for a free 10-minute consultation.

Our office is in Phoenix at 6245 N 24th Parkway, near 24th Street and Camelback beside Biltmore Fashion Park, about 20 minutes from Old Town Scottsdale on Camelback Road. We have served the Scottsdale area since 2012, and we also offer online sessions to any Arizona resident.

Yes. Online sessions are available to any Arizona resident, and for anxiety they remove a barrier that is often part of the problem itself. Starting from home is a legitimate way to start, not a lesser version of therapy, and you can move into the office later if that suits you. Call (480) 999-7070 to arrange it.

Biltmore Psychology & Counseling is an out-of-network provider and does not bill insurance directly. If your plan includes out-of-network mental health benefits, we provide a receipt you can submit to your insurer for reimbursement, and many clients are reimbursed for a portion of each session.

Fees vary by clinician and by the type of session, so call (480) 999-7070 and we will give you the current rate before you book anything.