Anxiety therapy in Orange County
The worry that runs in the background of everything. The mind that won't quiet down at 2am. The constant low-grade fear that something is about to go wrong.
Anxiety is the body's alarm system firing when there's nothing concrete to respond to — or firing far louder than the situation actually warrants. It's not a character flaw, and it's not in your head. It's a real nervous system pattern that learned to stay on, and it can be unlearned.
Most anxiety isn't about what it looks like it's about. The 2am worry isn't really about whether you sent that email correctly. The chest tightness isn't really about the meeting at 10am. There's something underneath the surface alarm — an older pattern, a story about what happens if you don't stay alert, a body that learned somewhere along the way that vigilance was safer than rest.
The work is finding what's underneath, lowering the body's baseline activation, and building the skills you'll actually use the next time the alarm fires.
The shape is different for everyone.
Anxiety doesn't always announce itself as anxiety. Sometimes it shows up as physical tension. Sometimes it's a thought pattern. Sometimes it's irritability. Sometimes it's the avoidance you can't fully explain. Some shapes it takes:
The method depends on what's driving it.
The right approach depends on whether the anxiety is being driven by thought patterns, by in-the-moment dysregulation, or by an event the body hasn't fully processed. We figure out which in the first sessions, then bring the matching tools.
For the patterns of thought driving the worry. Tracked every session so we know whether it's actually working.
When the wave is too big to think your way through, DBT skills are what you reach for. TIPP, distress tolerance, regulation tools.
When the anxiety traces to a specific event or set of events, EMDR can resolve what's still firing the body even after the situation has passed.
The alarm can be turned down.
Start with a free 15-minute consultation. We'll talk about what's been going on and what approach would fit.
How do I know if what I'm feeling is anxiety?
Anxiety can look like a lot of things — physical tension, persistent worry, trouble sleeping, racing thoughts, avoidance of situations that feel risky, irritability that comes from being on edge. If it's interfering with how you want to live and you can't reason your way out, it's worth talking to someone about. In a free consultation Janie can give you her honest read.
What methods do you use for anxiety?
Primarily TEAM-CBT (which measures whether the work is actually moving you forward), DBT skills for the in-the-moment overwhelm, and EMDR when there's a specific event or set of events underneath the pattern. The approach depends on what's driving your anxiety — we figure that out in the early sessions.
Will I have to face things that scare me?
Sometimes, but not in the way movies show it. The work is structured and paced. We'd build up to anything difficult together, and the point isn't to make you suffer — it's to give your nervous system the data it needs to recalibrate. Nothing happens without your buy-in.
Can anxiety actually go away?
The relationship to it changes. Most people don't go from anxious to never-anxious; they go from being run by it to having tools that work and a body that's stopped firing alarms at things that aren't dangerous. For most people that's the change that matters.