Feeling Overwhelmed & Exhausted by Your anxiety

what does counseling for anxiety look like?

Counseling is meant to help you gain control over thoughts and emotions that that have been creating major road blocks in your life. Together, you and your therapist will work to address the emotions, physical sensations, and thoughts that have you feeling stuck on the spin cycle. You will learn new ways to approach situations and relationships that will leave you feeling more balance and in control of your life.

You and your therapist will start with meeting together weekly for 45 to 55-minute sessions. You will get the most out of therapy with at least an 8-week commitment to weekly sessions. It has been found that when therapy is done less frequently in the initial stages, it often takes longer to make and sustain positive progress. Most triggers for anxiety develop and are sustained during long periods of time in your life, and it often takes considerable time and effort to properly address these in ways that can be life changing and sustainable. After you have reached a strong foundation in treatment you and your therapist can discuss decreasing sessions to biweekly or looking towards a successful termination process. We encourage you to explore, in the initial treatment process, what successful completion would look like to you. This allows us to stay on track with your goals and needs and ensures you get the most out of the treatment process.

Session Breakdown

Prior to Your First Session: You will receive a link to your patient portal where you can complete your opening paperwork and background assessments. This gives your therapist a chance to review your information and better prepare for your intake appointment, and saves valuable time during that first appointment.

Session 1: This will be your official ‘intake’ appointment. With most of the opening paperwork out of the way, this initial session will include meeting with your therapist to review the factors that led you into counseling and to begin to structure the counseling relationship as well as discussing the details of informed consent in counseling.

Your therapist will explore your past/current family history, medical/mental health struggles,  and current supports or stressors you are dealing with.  This will allow you to set goals and objectives for treatment and begin to map out what you want to gain from counseling. 

Session 2-3: In your next few sessions you will work with your therapist to explore your current coping skills and focus on enhancing these. You may identify coping strategies that have been unhealthy or discover a general lack of available resources and skills. Your therapist will work with you to set a strong foundation of skills prior to addressing the underlying causes of your anxiety. This ensures that you have the abilities to manage any trigger areas that may be arise in future sessions.

Sessions 4+: After a comfortable foundation has been laid with identifying and developing coping techniques in the first few sessions, treatment will then focus in on the root causes of your anxiety and your ability to understand and overcome them. This may include identifying or addressing unhealthy relationships, processing past traumas, combating phobias, or developing healthier levels of expectations of yourself and those around you. There is no designated length of time for this stage as every person and situation is unique. Your therapist will keep an open and interactive dialogue with you regarding how you are working through this stage. This two way communication ensures treatment stays aligned with where you are, where you are wanting to be and your progress along that path.

Termination/ Final 1-2 Sessions: At Angelus, we understand that the ultimate goal of therapy is to get to the point where you do not need to come in anymore. We see it as our mission to work ourselves out of a job by empowering you to manage the traumas, triggers, and daily trials that you may experience in healthy and adaptive ways. We work to give you the tools and skills to balance the thoughts, emotions, and physical sensations that may accompany anxiety. Through the process of treatment, you will likely step down from a weekly frequency as you practice these new skills in your natural environment. Your last one or two sessions will focus on reinforcing these skills and developing a follow up plan for maintaining your gains, after the completion of the treatment process.

“TUNE UP” Sessions: (As needed) In the counseling process, we sometimes need check in sessions after the completion of the ‘official’ treatment process. This is not unusual and is not a failure in treatment. It is much like the process of taking your car in for a yearly tune up or oil change to address the normal wear and tear it acquires by driving in the Western Pennsylvania weather. This can keep everything aligned and running smoothly and may only last two to three sessions.