Overwhelmed by Anxiety? Discover a Path to Serenity with Acceptance and Commitment Therapy

Anxiety Therapy

Anxiety is a natural, human experience. Everyone feels anxious at times, whether it’s due to stress, uncertainty, or a feeling of being overwhelmed. Anxiety can be fleeting or it can become a persistent presence in our lives, affecting everything from work and relationships to our overall well-being. I understand how challenging anxiety can be, but I also know that it can be managed, and even transformed, through the right therapeutic approach.

Anxiety is more than just worry—it’s a complex emotional and physiological response to perceived threats or stressors. While some anxiety can be helpful, motivating us to take action or avoid danger, chronic anxiety can lead to feelings of helplessness, fear, and isolation. You are not alone in this struggle, and you don’t have to face it without support.

Normalizing Anxiety as a Human Experience

It’s important to recognize that anxiety, although uncomfortable, is part of being human. Many of us experience anxiety in response to life’s pressures. It’s a response to uncertainty, change, and sometimes trauma. In our work together, we normalize these experiences. You are not broken or weak for feeling anxious. In fact, acknowledging your anxiety is the first step toward taking control and making meaningful changes.

My Approach: The Six Pillars of Making a Life That Works

I guide you through a six-pillar approach to help you manage and transform your anxiety. These pillars are based on the principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which encourages a mindful, values-based approach to living:

  1. Contacting the Present Moment (Be Here Now): I teach you how to connect with the present moment, reducing worry about the past or future.
  2. Defusion (Watch Your Thinking): You’ll learn how to step back from anxious thoughts, seeing them for what they are—temporary, non-definitive mental events.
  3. Acceptance (Open Up): Instead of resisting difficult emotions, we work on embracing them, fostering resilience and reducing internal struggle.
  4. Self-as-Context (Balancing Self-Identity): You’ll focus on recognizing the self that endures beyond your anxiety, helping to balance your identity.
  5. Values (Know What Matters): Together, we will identify your core values to guide your decisions and align your life with what truly matters to you.
  6. Committed Action (Do What It Takes): Finally, I support you in taking consistent, value-aligned actions to build a life that feels meaningful and fulfilling.

A Five-Question Process for Managing Anxiety and Panic Attacks

I teach a five-question process to help you navigate moments of anxiety or panic with clarity and self-compassion:

  1. Acknowledge: Recognize the thoughts, feelings, and physical sensations you are experiencing. Anxiety often starts with noticing what’s happening in your body and mind.
  2. Validate: Ask yourself, “Does this make sense?” For example, “It makes sense that I feel anxious because I was never taught healthy coping skills.” Validating your feelings allows you to make sense of them in the context of your life.
  3. Identify the Catastrophic Belief: What catastrophic belief might you be holding onto? This could be thoughts like, “I can’t handle this,” or “I’m not enough.” These beliefs can magnify anxiety, but they’re not the full picture.
  4. Challenge with Truth: What is the real truth? Often, the truth is, “I can handle this,” or “I am capable of managing my feelings.” Acknowledging the truth helps to undermine anxiety’s power, making space for a more grounded perspective.
  5. Willingness and Opposite Action: Finally, are you willing to take action aligned with your values? This step is where meaningful change happens. By taking opposite actions—like gratitude, positivity, or self-care—you begin to live out your values, even in the face of anxiety.

Ready to Take the First Step?

I’m committed to helping you manage anxiety with compassion and effective strategies. If you’re ready to begin your journey toward a more peaceful and fulfilling life, I invite you to schedule a free 15-minute consultation.

Take the first step today by reaching out to set up your consultation. Together, we can explore how The Six Pillars of Making a Life That Works and the five-question process can help you reclaim your life from anxiety.

What people often get wrong about anxiety

Usually the very beliefs that keep it in charge.

A smiling Colt Gordon with curly hair and a beard is wearing a white shirt, standing in front of a colorful landscape background and a bookshelf.

The Misconception

Anxiety is a chemical imbalance in my brain.

The Reality

That explanation was repeated for decades, but the research doesn't support it as the cause of anxiety. Anxiety is better understood as a learned, patterned response — shaped by your history, your family system, and what you've practiced. That's more hopeful, not less: patterns can be reworked.

The Misconception

Asking people to reassure me helps my anxiety.

The Reality

Reassurance is relief on a payday-loan schedule — it feels good now and the anxiety returns with interest, because you've taught it that the worry required an answer. Learning to sit with "maybe" is the skill that actually pays down the debt.

The Misconception

Avoiding the things that make me anxious is managing my anxiety.

The Reality

Avoidance is anxiety's favorite food. Every avoided situation delivers short-term relief and teaches your brain the danger was real — so the anxiety grows and your life shrinks. Moving toward, with support and at your pace, is how the trend reverses.

The Misconception

Breathing exercises should be enough to fix anxiety.

The Reality

Grounding tools have their place, but if relaxation techniques were curative, anxiety disorders wouldn't exist. Lasting change comes from changing your relationship with anxious thoughts and reclaiming avoided territory — the tools just make the work more comfortable.

The Misconception

I need to calm down before I can do the thing.

The Reality

Waiting to feel calm before acting means the anxiety sets your schedule. Willingness runs the other direction: take the values-aligned action with the anxiety present. Feelings follow behavior far more reliably than behavior follows feelings.

The Misconception

If I think it, it must be true.

The Reality

Your mind produces thousands of thoughts a day, and it optimizes for safety, not accuracy. An anxious thought is a loud passenger, not a prophecy. "Is this a fact, or just a loud voice?" is a question that changes everything — don't believe your own PR.

The Misconception

If my body is alarming this hard, there must be real danger.

The Reality

Your alarm system can't tell the difference between a bear and a thought about a bear. Racing heart, tight chest, dread — that's the fire alarm going off over burnt toast. A core anxiety skill is checking: is there an actual bear? Usually, there's no bear.

The Misconception

My anxiety means something is wrong with me.

The Reality

Anxiety is your mind doing its evolutionary job — scanning for threats and trying to keep you safe. It's part of being human, not evidence of being broken. The problem isn't that you have anxiety; it's when anxiety has you.

The Misconception

Strong people don’t struggle with anxiety.

The Reality

Some of the strongest people I've worked with — veterans, first responders, high performers — carry heavy anxiety, usually because they've spent years white-knuckling it alone. Strength isn't the absence of anxiety. It's what you do while it's present.

The Misconception

The goal of therapy is to eliminate my anxiety.

The Reality

Chasing zero anxiety is itself an anxiety-maintenance program — what you resist, persists. The goal is to change your relationship with anxiety so it can ride along without driving. Ironically, that's also when it tends to quiet down.

    Real questions about anxiety treatment deserve real answers

    Medication, how long it takes, and what happens if you panic mid-session (short version: we work with it). Anything else, the free 15-minute consultation exists for exactly that.

    Let's Talk

    Set up a 15-minute free consultation.
    The hardest part is reaching out — so we keep it small. Fifteen minutes, no paperwork, no pressure. If I'm not the right fit, I'll say so and point you to someone who is. Either way, you leave with a next step.
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