Anxiety Therapy in Chicago, IL
Anxiety Disorder Therapy
Living with anxiety can be exhausting physically and emotionally. It can affect how we relate to ourselves and others and affect our ability to get through the day. Through therapy, you can gain a better understanding of yourself and your symptoms to help you move with confidence.
What is Anxiety?
Anxiety is a normal part of being human. It can include tension, worry, or unease usually about an upcoming event or something that feels outside of your control. It’s part of the body’s “fight-or-flight” response and is meant to help keep you safe in the presence of a threat.
When anxiety becomes excessive, persistent, or disproportionate to the situation, it can interfere with daily life.
Common Symptoms
Emotional: Fear, nervousness, irritability, dread, restlessness.
Cognitive: Racing thoughts, difficulty concentrating, overthinking, or feeling like your mind is blank.
Physical: Rapid heartbeat, sweating, trembling, muscle tension, shortness of breath, dizziness, stomach upset, or insomnia.
Behavioral: Avoiding certain situations, seeking constant reassurance, or engaging in safety behaviors.
Types of Anxiety We Treat
Anxiety does not look the same for everyone. Below are some of the specific types of anxiety we work with at Centered Healing Therapy.
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GAD involves persistent, hard-to-control worry that spreads across multiple areas of life, including work, health, relationships, and everyday responsibilities. The worry can feel relentless, even when there is no clear threat. Therapy helps you understand the patterns driving that worry and build tools to find steadiness when anxiety feels overwhelming.
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Social anxiety involves intense fear of judgment, embarrassment, or rejection in social situations. It can lead to avoiding conversations, events, or opportunities that matter to you. In therapy, we work to identify the thoughts and beliefs fueling that fear and help you engage with others more freely and with greater confidence.
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Panic attacks can arrive suddenly, causing a racing heart, shortness of breath, dizziness, and a sense of losing control. When fear of the next attack begins shaping your daily choices, it may be panic disorder. Therapy helps you understand what is happening in your body, reduce the cycle of fear, and feel safer in your own skin.
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OCD is characterized by intrusive, unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and repetitive behaviors or mental rituals (compulsions) aimed at easing that distress. The relief compulsions provide is temporary, and the cycle can feel impossible to break. Therapy, particularly evidence-based approaches, helps you disengage from that cycle and reclaim space in your daily life.
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Health anxiety involves excessive fear about having or developing a serious illness, even when medical reassurance has been provided. It can lead to frequent checking, avoidance of medical information, or constant reassurance-seeking. Therapy helps you build a more grounded relationship with uncertainty and reduce the hold that health-related fears have on you.
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Specific phobias are intense, persistent fears of particular objects or situations, such as heights, flying, needles, or animals, that feel disproportionate but very real. Avoidance may provide short-term relief but often reinforces the fear over time. Therapy offers a structured, supportive way to face those fears at a manageable pace and reduce their impact on your life.
You do not have to navigate this alone. Whatever form anxiety takes for you, support is available.
How We Help
Anxiety can feel all encompassing, disruptive, and limiting. We work with each client to better understand each individual experience.
Recognize anxiety as a natural signal of warning
Identify triggers, thoughts, and behaviors surrounding anxiety
Work towards accessing calm and build resilience
Our Approach to Anxiety Treatment
At Centered Healing Therapy, we draw on evidence-based modalities that have demonstrated real results for people living with anxiety. Treatment is not one-size-fits-all. We work with each client to find the approaches that fit their experience and goals.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps you identify the thought patterns and behaviors that fuel anxiety and learn to respond to them differently. By examining the connection between what you think, feel, and do, you can begin to interrupt cycles of worry and avoidance that keep anxiety going.
EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) is a structured, trauma-informed therapy that helps the brain process distressing memories and experiences that may be driving anxiety. When past experiences are stored in ways that keep the nervous system on high alert, EMDR can help bring that activation to a more settled place.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on changing your relationship with anxious thoughts rather than fighting them. It builds psychological flexibility, which is the ability to make room for difficult feelings without letting them dictate your choices or limit your life.
Mindfulness-Based Practices teaches you to notice what is happening in the present moment, with your thoughts, sensations, and emotions, without judgment. For anxiety, this can interrupt automatic patterns of rumination and help you feel more grounded in your body and in the here and now.
Each of these approaches is used intentionally and collaboratively. You will not be pushed into any method. We move at a pace that feels safe and right for you.