What Type of Therapy is Best for Anxiety | Therapy Types

picture of anxiety therapy session in San Diego California

Just because I can’t explain the feelings causing my anxiety doesn’t make them less valid.” — Lauren Elizabeth

Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health symptoms in America. It affects 40 million adults according to the National Alliance on Mental Illness. That’s about 1 in 5 people!

Anxiety can be debilitating and make it difficult for you to function normally in your day-to-day life. However, there are many different types of therapies available that can help in treating anxiety and make you feel better.

All these types of therapy have benefits for people with anxiety disorders. But some are better than others at overcoming symptoms in different types of situations or circumstances. For example, EMDR therapy might be beneficial if you’re dealing with an underlying issue such as trauma or abuse. You might be having trouble coping on a day-to-day basis with your mental health condition. Then, it might be more effective to seek out one-on-one sessions with a therapist who specializes in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

Cognitive-behavioral therapy is a type of therapy that focuses on the relationship between thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. CBT can help you identify negative thought patterns and change them. This can in treating anxiety by changing your thought patterns.

How Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Helps With Anxiety

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy is a form of psychotherapy that works to change the way we think about things. It’s all about changing how you perceive your situation and how you respond to it.

When someone is suffering from anxiety, they tend to focus on the negative aspects of their lives. They worry about what might go wrong in the future. They may also have problems with self-esteem and confidence. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy helps people learn to think more positively, which helps reduce their anxiety levels

Cognitive behavioral therapy can help you:

  • focus on the present moment instead of worrying about the future

  • stop making assumptions about situations

  • recognize your own emotions and those around you

  •  manage stressful situations better

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is one of the most effective types of therapy for anxiety.

The CBT Process

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy is based on the idea that our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are interconnected. When we have negative thoughts about ourselves, other people, and the world in general, it can lead to anxiety. Cognitive Behavioral therapy helps people identify these negative thoughts and change them so they don’t cause anxiety.

The process starts with the therapist asking the patients to write down their thoughts when they feel anxious. This is called “cognitive monitoring.” Clients then learn how to challenge those negative thoughts with evidence-based facts. The therapist will also teach the client strategies for coping with situations that trigger anxiety. This way, they can avoid giving in to those negative thoughts in the first place.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

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The goal of ACT is to help mental health patients accept that anxiety is a natural part of life and cannot be avoided. Instead, ACT focuses on helping people become more aware of thoughts and feelings so that they can learn how to live with them in a healthy way. 

In ACT, the therapist teaches patients how to accept their thoughts and feelings as a normal part of being human, rather than trying to change them or attempt solutions outside the present moment.

Three Core Aspects of ACT

ACT is based on three core aspects: acceptance, commitment, and values. The first step involves learning how to accept your thoughts, feelings, and emotions as they are. Do not try to change them or get rid of them. It’s about accepting that having anxiety is normal, but it doesn’t mean anything bad about you as a person.

The second step involves committing to living a healthy lifestyle by eating nutritious food and getting enough sleep every night. You can also commit to regular exercise if you’re able—it helps reduce stress levels! If your goal is to get better at managing your stress levels and symptoms of anxiety, then this step will help get you there faster because the healthier you are physically the easier it will be for your mental health!

The third step involves identifying what matters most in life so that when things get tough or feel overwhelming like they do during an anxiety attack sometimes we can remember what matters most which helps us stay focused on what matters most which helps us manage our stress more effectively. This step helps us realize that even though we feel like the world is closing in around us and we can’t breathe sometimes the truth is that it’s all just an illusion and when we take time to reflect on what matters most in life then all of a sudden it doesn’t seem so bad after all!

How Does ACT Help With Anxiety?

One way ACT helps with anxiety is by helping you to develop a sense of “psychological flexibility.” This means being able to notice when your thoughts aren’t accurate or helpful and then accepting those thoughts as just thoughts—not facts. When you’re able to step back from your thoughts and observe them without judgment, you might be able to view how they’re causing problems for you.

Another way ACT helps with anxiety is by helping you set goals that are meaningful to you and that allow you to live a life worth living. When we’re feeling anxious, it’s hard to focus on long-term goals because our minds are only focused on getting rid of the immediate discomfort we’re experiencing. ACT helps us prioritize what’s truly important so we can start taking steps toward achieving those goals.

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT)

Our anxiety does not come from thinking about the future, but from wanting to control it.”— Kahlil Gibran

Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) is a type of therapy that was developed to treat people with a borderline personality disorder. DBT teaches skills to manage emotions and behavior. It helps people learn how to deal with stress and emotions so they don’t spiral out of control. 

Dialectical behavioral therapy also focuses on positive behaviors. This way, the person receiving treatment has better-coping skills when dealing with difficult situations. DBT can help treat anxiety disorder by teaching you how to react differently when you’re in a stressful situation or feeling anxious.

How DBT Helps With Anxiety

In DBT, clients are taught skills like distress tolerance, emotional regulation, and interpersonal effectiveness. Clients learn to accept their emotions instead of trying to change them or avoid them. They also learn how to better understand the situations that trigger their emotions and behaviors. This way, they can avoid or handle them more effectively in the future.

Clients are also taught mindfulness skills so they can focus on the present moment instead of worrying about what happened in the past or what might happen in the future. With these skills, clients become less impulsive and more aware of their thoughts and actions—which helps them control their anxiety and manage their behavior.

A major component of DBT is distress tolerance skills, which help clients deal with overwhelming emotions and thoughts. Clients learn how to “ride the wave” of intense feelings by using specific coping strategies that are helpful in managing their emotions during a crisis.

Interpersonal Therapy

Interpersonal therapy is a form of psychotherapy that is used to treat mental health issues such as anxiety. It can be used as a standalone treatment or in conjunction with other therapies like cognitive behavioral therapy or dialectical behavior therapy.

The goal of interpersonal therapy is to help you develop better relationships with others by helping you understand how your thoughts and feelings affect your relationships. The therapist will work with you to identify the ways in which your distress affects your ability to build and maintain healthy relationships, and then help you develop skills for building more positive interactions with others.

One of the main goals of this type of therapy is to help you become more aware of how your thoughts affect your emotions so that when something happens around you or even within yourself, it doesn’t cause as much stress because you’re able to recognize it more quickly and respond more effectively.

How Interpersonal Therapy Works

The best part about Interpersonal Therapy is that it focuses on helping you develop tools to deal with your anxiety disorder in a way that you can use in real life.

For example, if your anxiety makes you feel like you need to control everything around you, the therapist will help you learn how to let go of this need for control and practice feeling comfortable with not being in control.

If your anxiety disorder makes it hard for you to trust others or believe what people tell you, the therapist will help you learn how to develop trust and believe others’ words again.

And if your anxiety makes it hard for you to connect with others, the therapist will help build those connections so that they are strong and resilient enough to withstand the pressures of everyday life.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of therapy that uses eye movements and other forms of stimulation to help mental health patients reprocess disturbing memories. Francine Shapiro developed EMDR in the 1980s. She based this therapy on her research about how the brain processes traumatic experiences.

In EMDR, you will lie down on a couch or reclining chair. The psychologist or therapist will guide you through different stages of anxiety disorder treatment. Sometimes you’ll follow an object with your eyes. Other times you may listen to music or the therapist will ask you to to remember something from your past that caused fear or anxiety. Through these various techniques, EMDR helps you address negative associations with events from your past—for example, if someone broke up with you during a bad thunderstorm, this could make thunderstorms feel scary forevermore—and regain control over your emotions and reactions to them by focusing on positive ones instead.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) is a form of clinical therapy that uses eye movements, along with other sensory inputs, to help patients process and heal from traumatic events. Psychologists use it in many different settings to treat things like chronic pain, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and phobias. Most commonly, EMDR is used to treat anxiety disorder symptoms—especially panic attacks and generalized anxiety disorder.

When we experience trauma, our brains can become stuck in a loop that plays out over and over again—we feel like we’re reliving the event over and over again. The mind’s attempt to make sense of what happened can cause us to experience anxiety symptoms or flashbacks. This is because our thoughts are so focused on what happened that we don’t have the space in our minds to think about anything else.

How Does EMDR Help with Anxiety?

EMDR helps us break this cycle by using sensory input to bring us back into the present moment. This helps us realize that although the past event may have happened once before, it’s not happening now. We don’t need to be afraid of it anymore!

EMDR helps people with an anxiety disorder by helping patients process their memories in a more positive way.

The therapist has you focus on an image or sound that triggers your anxiety disorders while they move their fingers back and forth in front of your eyes at a very specific frequency. While you do this, the therapist asks you questions about what’s going on in your mind as they move their fingers back and forth.

They’re looking for patterns that might show up again later in therapy—for example, if someone gets anxious when talking about their divorce, but not when talking about their job; this may be because they’re still feeling hurt from the divorce instead of excited about their new career and new opportunities. 

Somatic Psychotherapy

If you like a therapy treatment that focuses on the body and its functions, then somatic psychotherapy might be a good fit for you. It uses touch, movement, and physical sensations to help people learn to better manage their emotions.

Somatic psychotherapy can also help those who have suffered from trauma or abuse with managing stress and anxiety disorder. This type of therapy does not involve pills. Instead, it relies on the client’s ability to work through their thoughts using action rather than words alone.

How Somatic Psychotherapy Helps With Anxiety

Anxiety disorder is a sneaky, insidious little monster. It can creep up on you when you least expect it, and before you know it, you’re lying awake at night worrying about the fact that you’re lying awake at night worrying about something else.

Somatic Psychotherapy is a great way to help with anxiety disorders because it focuses on the body as well as the mind. We all have internalized clinical programs that tell us how to feel and act in certain situations—for example, if someone gives us a compliment, we might assume they are being insincere and brush them off. These programs are often unconscious, so they can lead us down paths of self-sabotage without our awareness.

Somatic Psychotherapy helps people become aware of these improvement programs and helps them rewrite them in ways that will lead to more happiness and connectedness in their lives. It’s not a magic treatment: it won’t cure your anxiety disorder overnight, but it will give you tools to manage it and make sure it doesn’t take over your life.

If you’re looking for a way to process your emotions without having to talk about them over and over again with someone else then somatic psychotherapy may be right for you!

Play Therapy for Anxiety in Children

Play therapy is a form of psychotherapy that uses the therapeutic power of play. It can help children express their feelings, resolve conflicts and improve relationships with others. A therapist can also use this type of therapy to help children deal with anxiety disorders and other emotional issues.

The child regains his or her sense of control through the use of imagination while they are playing with toys or drawing pictures, rather than engaging in negative behaviors like thumb-sucking or nail biting.

A Play therapist works in many different settings including schools, inpatient psychiatric units, and community mental health companies. If you don’t have access to these types of facilities, it’s possible to receive play therapy at home by hiring a professional who specializes in this type of treatment method – in other words, a licensed therapist.

Many different types of therapies can be helpful for anxiety.

How do you know what type of therapy is right for your anxiety disorder?

There are many different types of therapies that can help people with anxiety. Each approach has its own benefits and drawbacks, but they all have one thing in common: The therapist provides a safe space where you can feel comfortable discussing your concerns without judgment or criticism.

If you’re looking for a therapist to help you manage your anxiety disorders, it’s important to find a therapist who understands how severe your symptoms are and how they impact your life. If this sounds like what you need, visit our website to find a professional therapist near you today!

Best Therapy For Anxiety: Perlman Wellness

Anxiety is a lot like a toddler. It never stops talking, tells you you’re wrong about everything, and wakes you up at 3 a.m.” — Anonymous

The best type of therapy for anxiety disorders depends on an individual’s needs and goals. Talk to a mental health professional therapist if you feel that your anxiety is interfering with daily life or making it difficult for you to achieve what you want in life, such as finding a job, or having satisfying relationships.

Feeling anxious? Don’t hesitate to seek mental health help! Perlman Wellness offers the best therapies for your anxiety disorder.

We’re here to help you deal with your mental health conditions, so you can get back to doing what you love.

We understand that it’s not always easy to find the treatment you need—but we’ve got your back! Our qualified therapists will work with you to develop a treatment plan tailored to your needs and goals. Don’t wait another day. Call our San Diego Therapy office today and start on the path toward the improvement of your life!

FAQs About Anxiety

Should I see a therapist or psychologist for anxiety?

Yes! There are many ways to deal with your anxiety disorder, and seeing a therapist is one of them. A therapist will be able to help you find the root causes of your anxiety disorder, figure out how to manage it, and help develop coping skills that can last a lifetime.

If you’ve been dealing with anxiety disorders for a long time, it’s likely that there are some things in your life that are contributing to it. For example, you’re not sleeping well or eating right. The reason may be that you’re stressed out about something at work. These things can make it harder for you to manage your anxiety symptoms in general. A therapist will be able to help you address those issues so they don’t keep coming up again and again. So they don’t affect other aspects of your life!

What is the 3 3 3 rule for anxiety?

The 3 3 3 rule for anxiety disorders is a simple way to think about how to manage your stress.

It’s called the “3 3 3” rule because it suggests that you should take three deep breaths. Then, look at your situation from a different perspective. Lastly, make a plan for what you’ll do next.

The first part of the rule is taking three deep breaths. This helps calm you down and get your heart rate back down to normal so that you can think clearly.

The second part of the rule is looking at your situation from a different perspective. This helps you see things more clearly and objectively. So, instead of feeling overwhelmed by your emotions, you have time to think about how to deal with them in a healthy way.

The third part of the rule is making a plan for what you’ll do next. That means calling a psychologist or therapist for support. It may also mean taking some time alone to decompress so that you’re ready when people come over later tonight.

Is anxiety a mental illness?

Anxiety is not a mental health illness. It’s a natural response to stress. You can prevent and treat it with healthy lifestyle choices and mental health therapy.

Anxiety is a state of being wherein your body experiences heightened physical sensations. You may have increased heart rate, sweating, muscle tension, and a heightened sense of impending danger or threat. This can lead people to feel on edge, nervous, or scared—and sometimes even experience panic attacks.

Many things cause anxiety disorders. Stressful life events like losing your job cause anxiety. Environmental factors like living in a noisy neighborhood, genetic predispositions, and more cause anxiety as well. Anxiety can also be caused by certain medications, such as stimulants like Adderall.

Anxiety disorders are different from normal anxiety because they cause significant distress or impairment in social or occupational functioning. It has an ongoing pattern of intense fear or worries about everyday situations. It lasts for at least 6 months that’s associated with three or more of the following:

  • Persistent and excessive worry about being ill or having a serious disease;

  • Persistent and excessive worry about having some other condition that you believe causes you great harm; 

  • Persistent and excessive worry about having a serious accident;

  • Persistent and excessive worry about being on the verge of some awful catastrophe; 

  • Feeling as though you have to take extraordinary measures to protect yourself from these threats. Even though there’s little or no evidence that they exist.

What do psychiatrists do for anxiety?

Psychiatrists are not just people who prescribe mental health treatment medications. They are also professionals who can help you develop coping mechanisms. Psychiatry works through your feelings about anxiety and finds the root cause of your anxiety.

This is because psychiatrists have a broad range of skills and knowledge. Their knowledge goes beyond just prescribing mental health treatment medications. Psychiatrists can provide therapy and talk to you about your struggles with social anxiety disorder. They can help you develop a treatment plan that fits your needs and goals.