Anxiety Treatment

Anxiety Treatment Washington DC

Psychological Wellness Group Is Here to Help You Manage Anxiety – From Prevention to Intervention

Everyone experiences anxiety from time to time and not all experiences of anxiety are bad. Anxiety is a common response to stress and can signal a need to examine and address sources of stress.  It can also signal a need to examine work-life balance.

When sources of anxiety are avoided and episodes of anxiety are ignored, anxiety can become persistent or overwhelming and can begin to interfere with effectiveness at work, interpersonal relationships, and/or an overall sense of well-being. Anxiety is the most common psychological health difficulty with research indicating that around 18% of the population will experience an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives.

At the Psychological Wellness Group, we believe that recognizing and seeking treatment for early symptoms of anxiety is the best way to prevent more severe consequences from arising. If you recognize any of the below symptoms of anxiety, we encourage you to reach out for help.

• Cognitive: Excessive worry, racing thoughts, unreasonable fears, unwanted thoughts, concentration difficulties
• Behavioral: Avoiding, isolating, changes appetite, excessive exercise, a tendency to over-work or over-schedule yourself, substance over-use or abuse
• Mood: Irritability, restlessness, fatigue, difficulties with relaxing, hyper-vigilant, anger management difficulties
• Body: Sleep difficulties, appetite changes, gastro-intestinal difficulties, elevated heart rate, frequent headaches or migraines, jaw clenching, nausea.

Research has shown that anxiety is highly responsive to treatment and we are here to help. All of our clinicians are highly skilled in preventing and treating a wide range of anxiety disorders. Some of the specific anxiety disorders we treat include:

• Generalized Anxiety Disorder
• Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
• Phobias
• Panic disorder
• Social Anxiety
• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

We draw upon evidence-based practices to ensure efficient and effective treatment. A few of the interventions we use to treat anxiety include:

• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
• Integrative mind-body stress reduction techniques
• Eye Movement Desensitization Therapy (EMDR)
• Exposure and Response Prevention
• Graduated exposure
• Problem Solving Therapy
• Attachment Re-processing
• Insight oriented therapy
• Mindfulness

Below are a few apps and web resources our team endorses for helping to manage experiences of stress and anxiety:

MooreMomentum: Allows users to sign up for free weekly life coaching exercises to improve core health areas to include: career and finances, physical health, mindset, relationships and emotional health.

Calm: Includes guided meditations which many find helpful for lowering stress, feelings of anxiety, and achieving a more restful sleep. The app includes: sleep stories, breathing programs, masterclasses, and relaxing music.

Headspace: Research indicates that mindfulness is effective in helping lower stress. The headspace app is perfect for individuals new to mediation and includes short guided meditations that progress to longer meditations as your ability to meditate increases.

What’s UP: A mental health app that utilizes clinically proven CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and ACT (Acceptance Commitment therapy) methods to help you cope with Depression, Anxiety, Anger, and Stress.

This Way Up: Offers three self-help courses for people seeking assistance with anxiety or depression. Users begin by taking a ten-item symptom test, and then proceed onward to select a course if it is deemed to be useful. Each of the courses consists of three lessons which can be taken weekly.

GGOC: Aims to improve OCD symptoms, specifically negative thinking by increasing the user’s awareness of negative thoughts and training the brain to challenge them.