Living with anxiety & OCD
Living with anxiety or OCD can feel like carrying an invisible, relentless weight. On the outside, you may be managing your daily life, but internally, your mind and body are on high alert—constantly scanning for threat, predicting worst-case scenarios, or trying to think your way out of distressing feelings.
Anxiety and OCD are not personal flaws or failures of willpower. They are complex responses shaped by our nervous system, lived experiences, and the heavy cultural expectations placed on us to keep everything under control.
Anxiety & OCD can feel like:
- Persistent Worry & Intrusive Thoughts: Living with constant "what-if" loops, overthinking, or sudden, unsettling thoughts and fears that feel difficult to quiet.
- Compulsive Loops & Reassurance Seeking: Feeling an intense urge to perform specific actions, mentally review events, or repeatedly seek reassurance to temporarily soothe uncertainty.
- Nervous System Overdrive: Experiencing physical tension, a racing heart, shallow breathing, stomach tightness, or an underlying sense of restlessness and exhaustion.
- Hypervigilance & Avoidance: Feeling constantly on guard or gradually shrinking your world to avoid situations that trigger distress.
- Self-Blame & Frustration: Feeling exhausted by the internal alarm system and struggling with harsh self-criticism for feeling overwhelmed.
How I can help
My approach to therapy for anxiety and OCD is rooted in compassion, evidence-based therapies, collaboration, and respect for your lived experience. Together, we work to help you step out of fighting your internal world so you can build genuine trust in yourself and reconnect with what matters most.
In our sessions, we might:
- Regulate Your Nervous System: Learn body-based, somatic practices to step out of fight-or-flight and cultivate a felt sense of physical and emotional safety.
- Unhook from Intrusive Thoughts: Shift your relationship with anxious mental loops so distressing thoughts lose their power and no longer dictate your choices.
- Gently Face Feared Scenarios: Use trauma-sensitive, gradual exposure work to safely face uncertainty and reduce reliance on compulsions or avoidance.
- Build Distress Tolerance Skills: Develop practical tools to soothe panic, manage overwhelming emotional waves, and ground yourself in moments of high tension.
- Examine External Pressures: Examine how societal expectations and systemic stressors contribute to self-doubt, helping you de-pathologize your distress and reclaim your agency.
I often draw from Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) skills, Polyvagal theory, and trauma-informed, feminist principles when working with anxiety and OCD.
