Anxiety Therapy

Man sitting on a boulder looking into the distance. Concept of hope

Has Fear Or Self-Doubt Become The Governing Voice In Your Life?

Despite your accomplishments, success, and even the praise from others, do you still feel like you’re somehow “not good enough”? Do you feel held back by:

Overthinking, indecision, “analysis paralysis,” or critical self-talk?
Risk aversion, avoidance behaviors, catastrophic thinking, or panic attacks?
Perfectionism, people-pleasing, fear of judgment, or worries about your likability?

Perhaps you’re looking into anxiety therapy because you simply don’t feel comfortable in your own skin—it’s like you can never really be yourself. Or maybe you spend so much time and energy trying to prove your worth that it’s causing digestive issues, trouble sleeping, or mental and physical burnout.

For High-Achievers, Anxiety Can Show Up In Subtle Ways

Sure, there’s the constant worry and persistent sense of dread, but anxiety can creep into your life in other ways. Perhaps you’re headed toward success but suddenly find yourself questioning if you really want to continue down the path you’re on. Maybe you’ve checked off all the boxes—you’re happily married, have kids, and make good money—but somehow you still feel stuck and unfulfilled.

On the other hand, you may find yourself in a place where nothing has turned out the way you wanted—your relationships, career, dreams for the future. It’s as if you’re passively watching life play out, disconnected from yourself and too fearful to really live the way you want to.

Anxiety makes your whole world grow smaller and smaller until it feels like you’re trapped, but there is a way out. Working with a therapist can help you resolve feelings of inadequacy, improve your confidence, and reduce anxiety symptoms while offering you clarity and direction for living the life you were meant to.

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Even High Achievers Struggle With Anxiety And Perfectionism

After all, we live in a world that’s obsessed with success, materialism, and the next best thing. Exposure to highly curated feeds of how awesome and carefree everyone else’s life appears to be fuels an existential fear of missing out.

Career sites, like LinkedIn, make us unconsciously worry about the appearance of falling behind with their endless opportunities for “leveling up” and the visible achievements of others. What’s more, the endless pursuit of perfection and validation leaves little room for friends or family, creating an epidemic of loneliness—particularly among men.

Why Is It So Hard To Navigate An Anxiety Disorder Without Therapy?

Most high achievers, especially men, tend to be over-reliant on “problem solving,” so they treat uncomfortable emotions/thoughts as problems to be solved. A lot of my clients are great problem-solvers (likely a reason behind their success). However, approaching anxiety the way they do other challenges often makes it worse.

The truth is, most people are not equipped with the skills needed to manage the whole spectrum of human emotions. For men, in particular, the cultural expectation to be stoic, self-sufficient, and never emotional complicates this issue, forcing many to suffer in silence.

Working with an anxiety disorder specialist gives you permission to be yourself, drop your guard, and let someone else do the heavy lifting for a while. Whether you’re stuck, stressed, burned out, or worried about the future, anxiety therapy can help you find a greater sense of peace and calm through it all.

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Anxiety Therapy Clears Path Toward Healing And Growth

If you’re living with anxiety and reading this page, it probably means you’re ready to put the same drive that made you successful into optimizing your well-being. Therapy for anxiety is a vehicle for doing just that. It gives you a chance to better understand yourself, your internal experiences, and the reasons behind certain behaviors without the expectation of having to figure it all out by yourself.
Working with an anxiety counselor allows you the space and, more importantly, the time to work on yourself—to heal whatever is driving the fears and insecurities holding you back. It also helps you identify your motivations and values while giving you concrete skills and steps you can take for creating a future that truly aligns with who you are and what gives your life meaning.

Want To Know More About How Anxiety Therapy Works?

When we meet, I’ll start by looking at three different pillars of your background. First, I’ll work with you to build a problem-focused history to better understand where current behaviors and struggles come from.

Then, we’ll talk about how your life currently looks, what is and isn’t working, and how aligned your situation is with where you would like to be. Lastly, I’ll ask about what you value and find important, as well as what improvements you’d like to make to your life in order to create a framework for the future you want to build.

My job is to help you better understand unproductive patterns of behavior and make you more aware of your internal experiences so you can take those behaviors off autopilot. Ultimately, I want to collaborate with you to build workable, sustainable skills that enable you to continue living the highest quality of life after we wrap up anxiety treatment.

In Anxiety Therapy, We Do More Than Just Talk

Rather than just talking and listening, I use a collaborative, solution-focused approach to anxiety disorder treatment that helps clients actively solve problems and find better ways of getting things done:

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) focuses on limiting the visceral tendency to avoid uncomfortable thoughts and emotions by improving the relationship between those internal experiences and approaching them in a more psychologically flexible way.
Experiential Work, often including mindfulness, role-play, and creative expression, gives you a chance to practice skills in the office, working with real emotions and problems in real time. Because it helps clients reconnect to their values and conceptualize a more accurate version of their ideal life, it’s great for people who are not sure of what they want to do.
Attachment Theory looks at anxiety through the lens of family history and how those relational dynamics influence patterns of behavior that are no longer beneficial, especially in relationships. It also gives clients a way to interrupt those patterns and do things differently.

Oftentimes, I’ll provide optional homework or experimental exercises that allow clients to practice new skills between sessions. In all cases, I strive to tailor anxiety treatment according to each client’s unique personality, experiences, and goals for counseling.

You’ve Prioritized Your Success—Why Not Your Well-Being?

I’m a firm believer that, although behavioral change can be tricky, with the right support, you really can make it stick. Like anything with a learning curve, you might start out slow, but as you build self-awareness, improve confidence, and treat the wounds at the heart of your symptoms, the limitations of anxiety gradually fade. Eventually, you hit a period of exponential growth and momentum that enables you to make big changes that benefit your career, relationships, and every other area of your life.

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Still Have Questions Or Concerns About Therapy for Anxiety Disorders?

It is fine to start therapy even if you aren’t entirely sure what the problem is or what your goals are. Those are things we can figure out together. Values are a cornerstone of my practice and we can start with clarifying those. Oftentimes, that alone will give us direction and tell us what we need to address. Everything else we can figure out as we go.

Therapy doesn’t have to be a long-term endeavor. While many clients complete their initial goals in six months to a year, they often begin to notice changes within the first month or two. Those early changes build momentum throughout the course of therapy. Plus, I’ll equip you early in the process with insight and skills you can practice and continue to use outside of session to manage symptoms and overcome challenges on your own.

I approach anxiety therapy as a collaborative experience. That means you and I will talk openly and regularly about whether the work we are doing is effective and what we may need to adjust to get the most out of treatment.

I recommend that we check in at around six sessions to make sure there is some early progress and that we are moving in the right direction. Six sessions is usually a good sample size to see some early results and provide some guidance.

Let’s Expand Your World Of Possibilities

If you feel like a passive participant in your life, living solely within the confines of what anxiety allows, I want to help you discover what you are truly capable of. You can call (720) 285-3115, email me, use our scheduling calendar, or click on the contact button below to set up your free, 20-minute consultation.

Robert Allison Counseling offers in-person and online therapy for anxiety disorders in Denver, Highlands, Sloan’s Lake, Jefferson Park, and throughout Colorado.

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