Therapy for Anxiety & Stress for Adults & Teens
Telehealth and Virtual Therapy Sessions Offered from Our Offices in Boca Raton, Florida and Roslyn, New York
Anxiety and stress may be a normal part of everyday life, but you don’t have to let it overwhelm you.
You are doing the best you can, AND you can do better. Let’s work together to help you learn the skills to address your anxiety or stress and get you back to feeling like YOU.
Is Anxiety and Stress Overwhelming Your Life?
Here's how to know if YOU MIGHT NEED THERAPY FOR YOUR ANXIETY & STRESS:You seem to be overthinking and second-guessing everything, It’s like your thoughts are eating you alive. You know you’re not in danger, but your thoughts make you feel like you are.
You feel your adrenaline increase, and you go into “fight or flight” or “freeze” modes — even during mundane daily tasks while at work, running errands or taking care of your children.
You have trouble breathing or concentrating and feel your heart pounding during stressful situations, such as giving a presentation at work or going out with a large group of unfamiliar people.
You constantly feel a low level of stress or worry. You keep pushing through your life, but you always feel like you’re a few steps away from being completely overwhelmed.
Your emotions are getting in the way of your daily functioning. You find it hard to do things you enjoy and often say no to activities like social events or going to your kids’ school because you feel anxious.
You’re coping with stress, a life transition or change by avoiding your feelings, self-isolating, or turning to drinking and other substances.
Therapy Can Help With Anxiety & Stress
Individual therapy can help you identify the thoughts and behaviors that increase your anxiety or stress and develop strategies for easing those emotions. In our therapy sessions, we’ll focus on Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), which is the most widely researched and proven method to decrease anxiety.
By exploring the thoughts and behaviors that are causing the anxiety, we can better understand how to modify them. For example, we’ll work together to uncover negative cognitions (aka thoughts), such as “I can’t do this work, because I’m stupid.” Instead, we’ll seek to transform that thought into something more neutral, like “I worked hard and studied, so I will do my best,” as a means to decrease the anxiety you might feel.
Similarly, we can use our therapy sessions to practice more adaptive ways of acting (aka behaviors) when facing anxiety and stress, such as diaphragmatic breathing and progressive muscle relaxation exercises.
Therapy is your opportunity to explore your emotions and develop a toolbox of proven strategies to cope with the anxiety and stress you’re currently experiencing.
What To Expect During Therapy Sessions for Anxiety & Stress
Therapy sessions are 45 minutes and are conducted via video call where we can see and hear each other. You can be in your own environment and sit comfortably in a cozy spot. When you can practice coping strategies in your home, you will be more likely to use them later because you have already generalized them to your specific setting.
We start by reflecting on your accomplishments since the last session and any to-do tasks we discussed. We’ll also discuss the last week and any wins where you successfully navigated the anxiety or stress in your life.
Then, we’ll dive into current issues and bumps in the road. This takes the longest because we are problem-solving and doing challenging tasks. We’ll use strategies informed by Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, which allows you to change your emotions, thoughts and behaviors. Everyone is different, so different skills may work for you. Some people love deep breathing and muscle relaxation, while others go for a thought-challenging approach.
At the end of the session, we’ll set an expectation for growth over the next week. I may “assign” something to do, like journaling about your emotions each day, writing down your negative/stressful thoughts, or capturing in your journal a time when you challenged the negative thought and made a more neutral thought.
A Customized Therapy Treatment Plan to Help You with Anxiety & Stress
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Identifying & Describing Stress and Anxious Feelings
Your treatment plan usually begins with developing your ability to identify and describe your emotions.
We’ll explore more words for emotions – not just angry, sad and worried – but higher-order emotions like disappointment, frustration, tension, anxiety, depression or panic.
You’ll also learn how to identify an emotion as soon as you feel it, so you can cope with it earlier before it progresses to a higher level of intensity.
Finally, we’ll develop a scale to rate your feelings. For example, allowing you to recognize and manage a level 4 stress before it turns into a level 10 panic attack.
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Building Healthy Coping Strategies
Next, we’ll focus on building the coping strategies that will be most helpful for you.
We’ll work together to develop a toolbox of coping strategies that will work for you at each level. You might choose to focus on deep breathing exercises when you’re feeling stressed at a level 3, but you’ll need a more intensive coping strategy for a level 10 panic attack.
At this stage, we’ll also anticipate and problem-solve for stressful situations, including handling a conflict with a friend or spouse, preparing for a presentation at work, or attending a large social activity.
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Ongoing Support
The final stage of your treatment plan involves you maintaining your coping strategies and continuously implementing them in your daily life – along with normal venting and problem solving.
Some folks choose to end their therapy sessions at this stage, because they have developed and are using the coping skills they developed in their daily life.
Others choose to continue therapy, as they enjoy ongoing support with problem-solving, talking through stressors, and celebrating wins.
Throughout your treatment plan, you will have access to support between sessions via text messaging or phone calls, as necessary.
Therapy for Anxiety & Stress
Frequently Asked Questions
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Everyone is a good candidate for therapy. You don’t need a big “problem” to enjoy the benefits of therapy. If you want to learn more about yourself and live a more fulfilling life, then therapy is for you. If your stress or anxiety is directly impacting your daily life and preventing you from doing things you want or need to do, you will likely benefit from therapy.
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Research shows that the client-therapist relationship is one of the main predictors of success in therapy. Perhaps you did not connect well with the past therapist. It’s worth a try.
Also, you may have been at a different stage of readiness. Maybe someone told you to go to therapy, but you weren't that invested in it. Or maybe you weren’t ready to change — and now you feel more ready — you will likely connect better and be more invested in going to therapy.
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Our weekly sessions last 45 minutes. I work with clients as long as necessary to get you to place of well-being. In some cases, this can take 6-12 sessions. In others, clients may work with me for a year or longer to address their concerns.
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Insight Psychology Group offers telehealth and virtual therapy sessions from its offices in Roslyn, New York and Boca Raton, Florida.
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Individual therapy is $300 per session.
I am an out-of-network provider for insurance companies. That means I don’t accept direct payment from insurance companies. However, I can provide you with the necessary paperwork to submit to your insurance company for reimbursement if you have out-of-network benefits.
Most people are very successful in receiving reimbursement from their insurance companies for individual therapy sessions.
Ready to learn strategies for coping with your stress and anxiety?
I offer free consultation calls to ensure we’re a good fit. Whether you have questions about therapy, are ready to work together, or want to learn more about my therapeutic approach, let’s talk!