Therapy for Anxiety
at Princeton Psychotherapy Center
Anxiety is one of the most common reasons people seek therapy — and one of the most common reasons people talk themselves out of it. If you find yourself wondering whether your anxiety is really bad enough to warrant help, whether you should just be able to handle it, or whether others have it worse — that self-questioning is itself a hallmark of anxiety disorder. Therapy can help you understand where your anxiety comes from, develop real tools for managing it, and loosen its hold on your daily life.
We treat anxiety using a range of research-supported approaches, including CBT, DBT, psychodynamic, and psychoanalytic therapy. To learn more about each condition and how we work, you can browse by concern below or scroll through the full list.
Generalized Anxiety
Disorder (GAD)
Generalized Anxiety Disorder is what it feels like to have a mind that won't stop. People with GAD often experience tension in their minds and bodies: constant worry, nervous anticipation, an ever-present sense that something is wrong or that the other shoe is about to drop. They know, on some level, that their worries aren't fully rational, and yet they can't seem to get out of their own heads. That gap between knowing and feeling is one of the most frustrating aspects of GAD.
Starting therapy can feel daunting when you're already exhausted and overwhelmed, and facing anxiety head on can feel scary. But anxious thoughts that are hard to sit with alone often feel different when you explore them with the support of a therapist. Many people find that this process itself brings relief, and also makes anxiety more manageable and less depleting.
Research consistently shows that treatment for GAD can be highly effective.
Panic Attacks & Panic Disorder
A panic attack is one of the most frightening things a person can experience. The physical symptoms — heart racing, difficulty breathing, dizziness, nausea, a fuzzy sense of unreality — can be so intense that many people believe they are having a heart attack. There is often an overwhelming sense of doom, a feeling that something is terribly wrong, even when there is no clear threat. Many people feel embarrassed that they can't get control of it, or worry that they are losing their minds.
Once you've experienced extreme anxiety or panic, the fear of it happening again can become its own source of anxiety and dread. This creates two layers of fear: whatever originally triggered the panic, and the terror of the panic itself. Over time, people may begin to avoid situations where panic might occur — certain places, physical sensations, even activities like exercise that raise the heart rate. This avoidance can quietly shrink a person's world, leaving them feeling weak and powerless.
Depending on what's driving the panic, treatment may involve gradual exposure work, grounding and self-soothing skills, or exploring frightening feelings with a therapist who can help you work through them. But panic, which can feel so overwhelming and uncontrollable, can respond well to treatment.
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
OCD often involves unwanted thoughts that can feel impossible to dismiss — tormenting, persistent, and outside your control. For many people, there is an excruciating gap between knowing that the fears aren't fully rational and being unable to stop them anyway.
People with OCD often feel a powerful urgency to perform certain rituals or behaviors. But once they're done, the cycle can begin again almost immediately. Over time, OCD can become exhausting and all-consuming, gradually taking over more and more of your life.
Our therapists have specialized training in the gold-standard treatments for OCD, Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). These are structured, research-supported methods that have helped many people regain a sense of control over their lives.
Phobias
A phobia becomes a problem when avoiding it starts to cost you something. It can feel easy to justify the avoidance when the feared situation comes up infrequently. But some of these things, like needles or flying, can get in the way of things you want or need to do, like going to the doctor or traveling. Over time, you may find that you've been organizing your life around the fear in ways that feel increasingly limiting.
It can be hard to imagine ever not having the fear, but research-backed treatment for phobias can be effective. It works by carefully and gradually approaching what feels out of reach, at a pace that feels manageable. Before any exposure work begins, we help you develop the tools you need to get through it. The goal is never to flood or overwhelm, it's to help you do the things that matter most to you.
Our Approach to Therapy for Anxiety
Our therapists draw from different research-supported approaches, including CBT, DBT, psychodynamic, psychoanalytic, and integrative therapy. Each offers a different path to change, and you may find that one resonates more than another depending on your symptoms and what feels right for you.
CBT is a structured, skills-based approach that works by helping you understand anxiety and what keeps it going. Much of what maintains anxiety is a set of thought patterns that feel automatic and true — like catastrophizing — but that can be examined and reframed. CBT helps you identify these patterns, question them, and develop more balanced ways of thinking. It also builds practical skills for managing the physical and emotional experience of anxiety — self-soothing, quieting the anxious mind, and redirecting your attention toward fuller engagement in the things that matter to you.
Psychodynamic and psychoanalytic approaches emphasize understanding ourselves in a developmental context — not just intellectually, but emotionally and experientially. They explore the ways we have learned to navigate emotional and relational challenges over the course of our lives, how those ways of coping have become rigid or limiting over time, and how anxiety can signal that those ways of coping aren't working as well anymore. The goal is not to eliminate that protection but to increase flexibility, finding less limiting ways of moving through the world. The therapeutic relationship is central to this work. Exploring your inner life with another person — and feeling heard, understood, and seen — is itself part of the process of change.
Many people benefit from an integrative approach that draws on both CBT and psychodynamic thinking. In practice, most of our therapists integrate elements of both, while tending to be more grounded in one than the other. This is part of why the match between you and your therapist matters — finding someone whose approach feels like the right fit for you.
Get in Touch
We work in-person in Princeton, NJ and virtually across NJ, NY, and more than 40 states. Whether you're ready to get started or just have questions, feel free to reach out — we're happy to help you figure out your next steps. You can contact us by text, email, or through the form below to schedule a free 15-minute phone consultation.
Social Anxiety
Social anxiety is more than shyness or introversion. It involves an intense fear of judgment or evaluation in social situations — saying the wrong thing, being watched, not knowing how to act. Many people know that others aren't thinking about them as much as it feels like they are, and yet the anxiety persists.
Social anxiety can be exhausting because it extends beyond the social situation itself, coloring what comes before and after. The anticipation of socializing can make you dread seeing others. In the moment, it can make you feel so preoccupied with monitoring yourself that it's hard to fully engage. And the replaying afterward — going over what was said, what might have been perceived, what went wrong — can feel tormenting and feed more anxiety about socializing next time.
Beginning therapy for social anxiety can feel daunting. It may be hard to know what you would get out of it, or whether it's worth the discomfort. But many people find that as their social anxiety becomes more manageable, they feel more comfort with themselves and their lives feel more connected and fulfilling.
See below for more on our approach.