Anxiety Therapy

Anxiety doesn’t look the same for everyone. It’s more than just feeling nervous before a big event. Whether you’ve spent years white-knuckling through daily life — heart racing, mind spinning, always bracing for what comes next — or you’re just starting to recognize that constant dread as something more than stress, you deserve support that takes it seriously. Anxiety isn’t a personality flaw or a lack of willpower. It’s your nervous system doing exactly what it was designed to do, just without an off switch. Our therapists work with children, teens, and adults experiencing anxiety in all its forms. The racing thoughts at 2am, the chest tightness before a meeting, the slow grind of perfectionism that never lets you rest. We use evidence-based approaches that go beyond coping skills, helping you understand why your nervous system responds the way it does and build lasting relief from the inside out.

Common Reasons for Seeking Anxiety Therapy

Constant Overthinking:

While overthinking something can be a normal experience occasionally, it can sometimes spread to an all encompassing experience where you feel unable to turn your brain off. This anxiety symptom is most frequently associated with Generalized Anxiety Disorder but can be experienced in a lot of other mental health conditions as well. When overthinking becomes such a consistent pattern, it feels like a part of someone’s daily cadence. They feel like their anxiety accompanies them through every part of the day; they wake up worrying about what lies ahead of them that day and go to bed worrying about if they will get good sleep that night. Whenever they successfully manage a stressor, they feel momentary relief and then their brain immediately searches for and finds the next potential threat that lies ahead; suffocating any chance for feelings of peace or contentment.

What Does Inside An Anxiety Therapy Session Look Like?

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Sure. I'm Emma Ashley and I work with Mid-Michigan Therapy in East Lansing. We're just down the road from Michigan State University and I work with a large amount of students dealing with anxiety. Tell us about some of the common experiences you hear from your college students that you help with anxiety. Yeah. Um, you know, I typically hear that they feel on edge or that they can't turn their minds off. You know, they may acknowledge that they have trouble sleeping because maybe they're just lying awake trying to solve problems that haven't happened yet. You know, for example, you know, we clients may come in like, you know, I'm super worried that I you know, like I have to go to a party and I might see this ex-friend or my ex-partner. I don't know how I'm supposed to act or like what I'm supposed to say. You know, what do you think I should do? You know, I have a lot of clients come in talking about, you know, I have I was supposed to send all these emails to my professors and I you know, I get nervous. I don't want them to think that I'm dumb. You know, so I go over it and over it and over it and like I know I'm not stupid and I can tell the email looks good, but I still worry about it. Um, you know, or maybe just avoiding certain tasks that just seem difficult, you know, like making a phone call to make appointments, you know, it's kind of nerve-racking because I don't know who the person is on the other side of the phone and I just don't want to talk to people when they're on the phone. Emma, you've shared that one of your go-to interventions for anxiety is helping clients de-catastrophize. Can you give us an example of what that would look like? Yeah, absolutely. So, many college students, you know, they do come in really anxious and totally upset that they're going to fail their courses. So, they may say, you know, like, "Emma, like I'm going to fail. My parents are going to be so mad. I'll have to pay more money. Like I just don't know what to do. I won't be able to graduate on time." Um, so this is a situation where we might use de-catastrophizing. And in this, I like to push clients to look at the situation from a broad view, taking the emotion away, and then using more critical thinking skills. So, for example, if we are worried about failing an exam, and then there are for failing the course, you and I might look at um look at your course together, and see how many points is this exam worth versus how many points are available in the class. And then, how likely is it really to result in the failure of the course? What do you guys do in session when the worst-case scenario has happened, and you've calculated, and it looks like the college student is actually likely to have failed that class? Yeah. So, that is a really does happen, and it's not an easy thing to deal with, understandably. So, in decatastrophizing, we like to really break it down into really small chunks. So, you know, we have this anxiety, we have this worst-case scenario that has now happened. So, at that point, I might push the client, you know, to see like, "Well, how might you feel in a day?" They may say, "Well, it's only a day later, so I'm probably going to still be upset and anxious. I don't think I'm really going to feel that different." And okay, yes, it has only been 1 day. You know, so I may ask, "Well, what about in a month? How do you think you may feel?" Well, 3 days later, I guess, you know, maybe I'm acknowledging that this isn't the end of the world, and I maybe I can recover from this. You know, I've talked to my parents, I've done certain things to make me feel a little bit better. Awesome. Then I may ask, "Well, what about in 3 months?" And they may say, "Well, in 3 months, I'm already on to my new semester, and I've talked to my advisor, I've signed up for the course, you know, I've been able to forgive myself for not doing as well as I'd hoped, and now I'm able to look forward." So, if you're a college student in Michigan, I'd love to work with you in person or virtually, so feel free to reach out.

Social Anxiety:

Intense fear of being criticized or rejected anticipating and during social interactions. These social interactions could be anything from presenting in front of your job or in a classroom, performing in front of people, hanging out with friends or colleagues or even being in public, worrying about how people are perceiving you, as you walk through campus or down a hallway. Social anxiety symptoms can happen before an interaction (i.e. trying to plan out the conversation and come up with the “perfect” responses”), during the interaction (i.e. hypervigilantly examining facial expressions and tone to find any hint of criticism) and after an interaction (i.e. replaying the conversation in your mind over and over, second guessing all of your responses). Symptoms could be as mild as feeling sweaty and jittery getting on stage or as intense as being worried you will be viewed as “annoying” or "obnoxious" but saying “hi” to someone new or unfamiliar.

A comfortable, sensory-friendly therapy office for anxiety therapy at Mid-Michigan Therapy in East Lansing MI

Perfectionism & Burnout:

Perfectionism is not the same thing as having high standards. While from the outside perspective these two can look very similar (i.e. pushing yourself, long hours spent on projects, a focus on details) there is one critical difference; the internal motivation. People with high standards want to do their best and are able to enjoy the process of growing and learning (i.e. the joy of understanding a new concept in class or perfecting a craft). However, for people struggling with perfectionism, their motivation for their high standards are usually a defense mechanism to protect themselves from their own insecurities or anticipated criticism from others (i.e. if I get an “A” on this test than others won’t think I am stupid or if I score at least ten points in the next game others on the team will have to like me). People struggling with perfectionism are only concerned about the outcomes; did they or did they not “measure up.” This leads to a lot of “all or nothing thinking” with thoughts like, “Either I am going to do this perfectly or not at all.” Because if a perfectionist were to try something and fail at meeting their own perfectionistic expectations, it is viewed as another piece of evidence indicating them not being “good enough.” This is how burn out is a likely outcome because someone committed to being perfect and then feeling like a failure when they do not achieve this standard eventually gives up and says, “I can’t do this and I’m so tired of trying.” Lastly, perfectionists tend to try and motivate themselves with a lot of self-criticism (i.e. “I can’t believe you messed that part up, I bet everyone else got that part right”). This ineffective tool at motivating themselves also becomes the mechanism that perpetuates their own insecurities.

Panic Attacks:

This is where your anxiety shows up primarily in physical sensations. Even if the anxiety started as worries in your mind you reach a point of sudden, overwhelming physically distressing symptoms (i.e. nausea, chest tightness/pains, difficulty breathing/knot in your throat, feeling hot/sweating, feelings of derealization (an out of body experience or that you are in a dream) and feelings of death (having a “feeling” that you are about to die with no evidence to support this other than your body sensations).

CBT and Trauma-Informed Anxiety Treatment at Mid-Michigan Therapy

We don’t just want you to cope with your symptoms; we want you to heal the root cause. Our clinical team utilizes evidence-based approaches tailored to how your brain works. Depending on your specific needs, your therapist may integrate:

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): To identify and rewire the thought patterns that fuel your panic.
Mindfulness & Somatic Practices: To help regulate your nervous system and bring your body out of "fight or flight" mode.
Trauma-Informed Care: Because chronic anxiety is often the nervous system's response to past unresolved experiences.

To start feeling calmer schedule an in-person session at our East Lansing office or book a virtual therapy session in Michigan today