Conditions / Anxiety
Help with anxiety in Tempe, AZ
Anxiety is the most common reason people call us, and most of them have been putting off the call for months. This page is a plain description of what it looks like and when an hour with somebody is worth it.
What it looks like day to day
Anxiety does not always look like panic. More often it looks like a day that is fine from the outside and exhausting from the inside. Some of what people describe:
- Rehearsing conversations before you have them, then replaying them after
- Checking things you already know you checked
- Saying yes when you meant no, because no felt like a confrontation
- A body braced for something it cannot name: jaw, shoulders, stomach
- Tiredness that sleep does not fix
- Avoiding the thing, then dreading the avoidance
- Or the wave that arrives with no warning and feels entirely physical
Some people get the physical version, some get the thinking version, most get both in different weeks. This is not a checklist and you do not have to match all of it.
When it is worth getting help
There is no threshold you have to cross first. The useful question is narrower than whether it is bad enough:
- It has stopped being occasional
- It is deciding things for you: what you do, where you go, who you see
- The people close to you have noticed
- The things that used to help have stopped helping
- You are spending energy managing it that you would rather spend elsewhere
If any of that sounds familiar, an hour with somebody is a reasonable next step. It commits you to nothing beyond the hour.
350 x 190 · real photo, no stock
If it is urgent right now rather than ongoing, the three numbers at the foot of this page are answered any hour of any day.
How we approach it
These are the approaches our clinicians are trained in and use for anxiety. Which one you get is a conversation, not an assignment.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
Identifying the thoughts and beliefs connected to your anxiety, and examining them during sessions.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy
Practising skills for managing intense emotions, tolerating distress, staying present, and navigating difficult situations.
Trauma-Informed Therapy
Exploring anxiety with attention to past experiences, current triggers, personal boundaries, and your sense of safety.
Solution-Focused Therapy
Identifying current concerns, discussing practical next steps, and building on the strategies and strengths you already use.
Clinical content on this page reviewed by Breeanna Horton, LCSW · 15 September 2026.
What does not vary: in the first session your therapist tells you what they would try and how the two of you would know whether it is working. If it is not working, you change it.
Which service applies
Most people with anxiety start with therapy. Some want to know whether medication is worth considering, which is a different appointment. You can do either first.
Psychiatric Evaluations
One sixty-minute appointment with a psychiatric provider, at our Tempe office.
About Psychiatric EvaluationsQuestions people ask
Is this just stress, or is it anxiety?
Will talking about the panic make it worse?
What if my anxiety is about something real?
An hour is not a commitment
Thirty seconds to ask, a short phone call within one business day, and you will know the cost before anything is booked.