Our therapists provide anxiety therapy in Austin, TX

Janet Kaye: When working with people who are experiencing anxiety, I focus on fitting my approach to the individual. I find that most people benefit from developing a mindfulness practice to become more aware of their thinking and increase their ability to direct their thinking instead of letting it direct them, as well as strategies to examine and change thinking patterns that lead to distress. These skills can then be used in combination with other skills and methods to address the specific needs of the client that may be creating or adding to anxiety such as issues with negative thinking, emotional reactivity, conflict in relationships, and coping with life stressors.

Janet Kaye: I often teach the following tools in anxiety therapy:

• Mindfulness meditation or mindful activity involves learning to notice when the mind drifts, let go of thinking, and return focus to a predetermined word, phrase, image action, or sensory experience.
• Cognitive reframing is used to explore alternative perspectives.
• Cognitive challenging helps clients to question their thoughts and beliefs in order to uncover patterns of thinking that are no longer helpful.
• Cognitive distraction gives clients the ability to move away from intrusive and unwanted thoughts.
• Sensation labeling is a mindfulness technique that assists with disrupting unwanted thinking by focusing on sensory input.
• Strategies for grief processing are used to observe, accept, experience, and release the chaos of emotions that accompany an experience of loss.
• Mental shield imagery develops skills in managing mirror neurons to reduce emotional reactivity to other people's emotions.
• Thinking strategies addresses catastrophic thinking and increase confidence in dealing with undesired outcomes should they arise.
• Positive communication skills such as reflective listening, “I” statements, nonviolent communications, and positive behavior support can decrease conflict and increase skills in collaboration.
• Motivation skills reduce procrastination and avoidance.
• Strategies for gaining acceptance of mistakes and letting go of shame and guilt.
• Task partialization to reduce overwhelm and procrastination.
• Imagery and relaxation strategies for pain management and reduction of medical anxiety.

Janet Kaye: I check in with clients about their progress with their goals and the improvements they are seeing in their symptoms every session. Meaningful progress is evident as the list of progress and successes gets longer and the list of challenges gets shorter.

Brandy: Clients can supplement their time in anxiety therapy by doing some exercise.

Brandy: To prepare for your first anxiety therapy session, you can just bring yourself and try to keep an open mind.