Therapy for Anxiety in Melbourne
Anxiety does not always look like obvious fear. It can show up as constant thinking, rehearsing conversations, monitoring how you are coming across, difficulty settling, irritability, or a persistent sense that something is about to go wrong.
At other times, anxiety can feel intensely physical. Your heart may race, your breathing may change, your body may tense, or you may feel a strong urge to escape, seek reassurance or regain control.
You may know that you are safe, while your body continues to respond as though there is a threat.
Anxiety can show up as
• overthinking and replaying conversations
• panic attacks or fear of panic returning
• social anxiety and self-monitoring
• worry that is difficult to switch off
• tension, restlessness or difficulty sleeping
• reassurance seeking or repeated checking
• avoiding places, situations or difficult conversations
• becoming overwhelmed, numb or disconnected under stress
• harsh self-criticism after anxious moments
Why insight may not be enough
Anxiety often has a protective function. Your mind and body may have learned to anticipate danger, rejection, criticism or loss of control before you have time to think about what is happening.
This is why telling yourself to calm down or think differently may help only briefly. The response is not simply a mistaken idea. It is also an emotional and physical pattern shaped through experience.
Therapy can help you understand what activates the pattern, how you respond to it and what allows you to remain more present when anxiety appears.
A relational and somatic approach
My approach combines conversation with attention to what is happening in the present moment. This may include physical tension, changes in breathing, impulses to escape or seek reassurance, and the thoughts or meanings that arrive with them.
We do not need to force anxiety away for therapy to be useful. The aim is to build a greater capacity to experience it without immediately being organised by it, so that your responses become less automatic over time.
Where a more structured behavioural approach would be useful, we can also work with specific patterns of avoidance, checking or reassurance seeking.
Practical details
• 60-minute sessions
• $180 for new individual clients
• Northcote appointments on Tuesdays and Thursdays
• Abbotsford appointments on Wednesdays
• Online appointments across Australia
• No GP referral is required
• Medicare rebates are not available
Starting therapy
You are welcome to book one session and see whether the approach feels useful. A free 15-minute introductory call is also available if you would like to ask questions first.