Anxiety & Panic Attack Therapy

Cincinnati, Ohio

Anxiety is one of the most common mental health struggles, but it can be treated.

Anxiety Disorders We Treat

  • People with GAD can worry uncontrollably about ordinary issues such as health, money, work, and family. The biggest fear is “what if…”and these worries occur almost every day for at least 6 months.

  • People with panic disorder have panic attacks and fear when the next attack will strike. These are sudden, repeated periods of intense fear when there is no danger. The attacks come on quickly and can last several minutes or more.

  • People with OCD have uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts (obsessions) and/or behaviors (compulsions) that you feel the urge to do in order to relieve the anxiety. These obsessions and compulsions can start to become the focal point of your life and make it difficult to function and feel at ease.

  • People with phobias have an intense fear of something that poses little threat and you may go to great lengths to avoid the feared object. Your fear may be about specific things such as spiders, flying, going to crowded places, or receiving injections.

  • People with agoraphobia fear and often avoid places or situations that lead you to feeling trapped, helpless, or embarrassed. Being in such places can cause panic and a strong urge to escape.

  • People with social anxiety feel anxious in anticipation of social situations and have strong urges to avoid them for fear of being embarrassed, self-conscious, and judged negatively.

Common symptoms of anxiety

  • Feeling nervous, restless or tense

  • Feeling a sense of impending danger, panic or doom

  • Increased heart rate

  • Breathing rapidly (hyperventilation)

  • Sweating

  • Feeling weak or tired

  • Difficulty concentrating or thinking about anything other than the present worry

  • Having trouble sleeping

  • Experiencing gastrointestinal (GI) problems

  • Having difficulty controlling worry

  • Having the urge to avoid things that trigger anxiety

Woman appearing worried witting at kitchen table with head in hand

How we can help you manage your anxiety

Anxiety can feel overwhelming, like there’s no way out. Therapy is a process of increasing insight and building skills to help people with anxiety disorders understand, identify, and transform their anxiety. Therapists can help you cultivate effective coping skills for stress and anxiety, create routines, build a toolbox of restorative practices, and identify your triggers. Treatment modalities such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) can help you evaluate the negative or harmful thought processes that produce stress and anxiety while examining how your behaviors and reactions trigger or worsen your anxiety. Your therapist can then help you reframe those thought processes to create positive coping techniques and engage in positive behaviors that more effectively manage symptoms of anxiety. Other anxiety and stress relieving activities may include mindfulness exercises, meditation, support group, physical exercise, fidget toys, avoiding caffeine, or deep breathing exercises. Check out some of our treatment options below!

Distressed woman looking anxious and concerned with head in hand

What is Anxiety?

Anxiety is a feeling of fear, dread, and uneasiness. It might cause you to sweat, feel restless and tense, and have a rapid heartbeat. Some people describe this feeling as “crawling out of your skin.” It can be a normal reaction to stress. For example, you might feel anxious when faced with a difficult problem at work, before taking a test, or when making an important decision. It can help you to cope and give you a boost of energy or help you focus. But for people with anxiety disorders, the fear is not temporary and can be overwhelming.

Anxiety disorders are conditions in which you have anxiety that does not go away and can get worse over time. The symptoms can interfere with daily activities such as job performance, schoolwork, and relationships.

Anxiety can be traced back to a variety of factors such as genetics, brain biology and chemistry, stress, lifestyle, and your environment may play a role. Some people experience mild anxiety that feels like stress, while others experience severe anxiety that feels overwhelming and makes daily living difficult. When left untreated, anxiety can feel debilitating and make everyday functioning seem like a chore.

Treatment Modalies we use for Anxiety

  • Cognitive Behavior Therapy (CBT)

    The science of changing troublesome thoughts, emotions, and behaviors. CBT places an emphasis on helping individuals develop coping skills, whereby they can learn to change their own thinking, problematic emotions, and behavior.

  • Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

    Mindfulness based therapy focused on increasing psychological flexibility through six core ACT processes including acceptance, the opposite of experiential avoidance; cognitive defusion, in which negative thoughts are observed mindfully instead of avoided or reasoned away; chosen values; and committed action.

  • Mindfulness Training

    Mindfulness is the human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. Mindfulness helps us put some space between ourselves and our reactions, breaking down our conditioned responses.

  • Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP)

    A specific type of cognitive behavioral therapy for the treatment of obsessive compulsive disorder where clients apply coping skills to triggering situations to reduce intrusive thoughts and to stop/reduce compulsive rituals.