anxiety therapy

Anxiety can cause changes to your thinking, such as having never-ending “what if” thoughts or always jumping to the worst case scenario. When you are anxious, you will usually feel this physically in your body. Examples include headaches, stomachaches, nausea, rapid heart beat, and many others. Anxiety can make it hard for you to focus, have troubles with sleeping, and cause you to have panic attacks. All of these uncomfortable sensations can cause you to lose confidence in your abilities and even begin to avoid going to certain places or doing certain activities because of fear or worry. There are many signs and symptoms of anxiety. Many people have experienced the feeling of anxiety during difficult transitions in their life, while others have a more chronic anxiety condition that limits their ability to enjoy life.

We treat a wide range of issues within anxiety disorders. This includes generalized anxiety, social anxiety, separation anxiety, health anxiety, phobias, panic disorder, agoraphobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder (although this is no longer classified as an anxiety disorder in the DSM). 

 Counseling for anxiety can help you to get your life back. Therapy for anxiety can help you find new ways to relax. It can help you to learn more helpful ways of thinking. Working with an anxiety therapist can help you learn how to face your fears. You can learn strategies that are proven by research to help you start living again. Working with a therapist who specializes in anxiety disorders can help accelerate your progress. Anxiety is the most treatable mental health condition there is, so there is no reason for you to continue to suffer.

When you start therapy, you can expect the first 1-2 sessions to include us getting to know one another. During these sessions, you will be going through, what we call the “assessment phase.” We will ask about your history and ask questions to understand your current struggles with anxiety. We don’t rely on ourselves to assess your symptoms and the severity of your anxiety, we include screening and assessment tools to provide objective information about your anxiety symptoms. 

Then we will move into treating your anxiety. During this phase of your treatment, we will collaborate with you on your goals. Maybe you have one goal or even three goals for treatment. That’s totally fine. We can help you prioritize what to work on first to keep things simple. 

When working with State of Mind Therapy, you can expect us to teach you about anxiety and how it works. Often times clients we work with get much relief just from learning more about their anxiety. But that’s not enough to create lasting change. We will then work on practicing skills and trying new things. You will likely practice new skills in the office in order to get feedback and talk about any challenges. But even that is not enough! We believe it is important for you to practice these coping skills outside of counseling sessions. So if “homework” isn’t for you then it’s unlikely you will see much progress when working with us.

When you work with you State of Mind Therapy, you will find that we are all about giving you practical tools with a hands-on approach. We consider ourselves more of a teacher or coach than a “healer”. 

Yes! Jenny Matthews works with kids ages 9 and up. Jenny is passionate about working with parents on how to help their child or teen use their anxiety skills. Learn more about our work with children and teens.

How do you work with parents?

If you have ever taken your child to therapy before, you may have been passively involved in the process. Maybe you sat in the waiting room most of the time or even dropped your child off for anxiety counseling. Have you ever wondered what your child was learning and if your time and money was being well spent? And even if your child was benefiting from anxiety therapy, you may have felt like YOU didn’t know how to help your child. This is why when we work with children and teenagers, we include parents in the sessions. Again, my approach is practical and about skill building, which means parents to understand how to reinforce these skills at home. Parents are often present for the entire session and other times they have separate sessions for further support. If your child or teen is not willing or able to participate in anxiety therapy, then working with parents alone is another highly effective option. You can also sign-up for one of our workshops for parents of kids and teens with anxiety!

We help people with anxiety in-office and virtually. We are located outside of Minneapolis (on the border of Edina and Bloomington, MN.) Or from where-ever you are, using online therapy. We don’t help people overcome anxiety with a typical “talk therapy” approach. We use evidenced-based treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT). These are considered short-term treatment approaches. 

Although this answer varies per individual, you can expect to see improvement from anxiety within 12-15 sessions. We recommend beginning anxiety therapy on a weekly basis for the first 4 sessions, and then move to bi-weekly if needed. 

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (also known as CBT) was developed by Aaron Beck and is considered the gold standard for treating anxiety disorders. With this counseling approach, you will learn how your thoughts lead to anxious feelings. Furthermore, you will learn how these anxious thoughts and feelings change your behavior. Some of the techniques include reframing your thoughts, relaxation strategies, and exposure to feared situations. CBT is considered a short-term treatment, so you don’t have to worry about being in therapy forever. CBT is also considered an active treatment approach, which means that you don’t have to talk about your childhood issues and try to figure out the “root cause.”