Anxiety is one of the most common mental health challenges, but the good news is that it’s also highly treatable. Research has identified several evidence-based therapy approaches that can help individuals manage anxiety more effectively.
If you’re considering therapy for anxiety, understanding these methods can help you make an informed decision about what’s best for your needs.
1. Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

What It Is:
CBT is one of the most widely researched and effective therapies for anxiety. It focuses on identifying and changing unhelpful thought patterns and behaviors that fuel anxiety. CBT highlights how your thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are all interrelated, often referred to as the "cognitive triangle."
How It Works:
Helps you recognize distorted thinking, such as catastrophizing, labeling, or black-and-white thinking.
Teaches strategies to challenge and reframe negative thoughts.
Provides tools to face fears through gradual exposure, reducing avoidance behaviors.
Why It’s Effective:
CBT equips you with practical skills to manage anxiety by improving your ability to recognize when your thinking pattern is distorted [1].
2. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)

What It Is:
ACT focuses on accepting anxiety as a natural part of life rather than trying to eliminate it. It encourages you to live a meaningful life and focus on what matters, even when anxious thoughts or feelings are present.
How It Works:
Encourages mindfulness and acceptance of uncomfortable emotions.
Enhances distress tolerance and frustration tolerance
Helps you clarify your values and priorities, and take actions aligned with them.
Reduces the power of anxiety by changing how you relate to it.
Why It’s Effective:
ACT fosters psychological flexibility, helping you focus less on fighting anxiety and more on building a fulfilling life [2]. This approach involves staying present, open, and engaged, while intentionally taking actions rooted in your personal values. ACT also helps you cultivate a meta-cognitive perspective—stepping back to observe your thoughts rather than being consumed by them. By doing so, it reduces the power and impact of unhelpful thoughts, allowing you to respond to challenges in a way that feels authentic and purposeful.
3. Exposure Therapy

What It Is:
Exposure therapy is a specialized technique often used to treat phobias, social anxiety, and other specific fears. It involves gradually confronting anxiety-provoking situations in a controlled way. You might work with your therapist to create a fear 'hierarchy' or ladder, gradually facing each step at your own pace to effectively reduce anxiety or overcome the phobia.
How It Works:
Creates a hierarchy of fears, starting with less distressing situations.
Gradually exposes you to those fears, helping to desensitize your anxiety response.
Builds confidence in your ability to handle feared situations.
Why It’s Effective:
Repeated exposure reduces avoidance behaviors and helps retrain your brain to view feared situations as less threatening [3]. Avoidance fuels anxiety; it offers short-term relief, but long-term distress. Exposure therapy is the antidote!
4. Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR)
What It Is:
Originally developed for trauma, EMDR is also effective for anxiety, especially when past experiences contribute to current symptoms.
How It Works:
Uses guided eye movements or other bilateral stimulation to process distressing memories.
Helps reduce the emotional charge of past events that trigger anxiety.
Why It’s Effective:
EMDR is based on the idea that unprocessed traumatic memories are stored in the brain in a way that can lead to ongoing emotional and psychological distress. Through bilateral brain stimulation (like guided eye movements or bilateral tapping), EMDR helps reprocess these memories and reduce their emotional intensity [4].
5. Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR)

What It Is:
MBSR is an evidence-based method that combines mindfulness meditation and body awareness to reduce stress and anxiety.
How It Works:
Teaches you to observe your thoughts and emotions without judgment.
Encourages present-moment awareness to reduce rumination and worry.
Includes techniques like deep breathing and body scans.
Why It’s Effective:
MBSR helps you build a calm, grounded mindset, improving your ability to manage anxiety over time [5]. ACT and CBT also very often include elements of mindfulness. By intentionally focusing on the present moment, mindfulness helps strengthen attention, observation without judgment, emotion regulation, acceptance and awareness of thoughts/feelings, and may even rewire the brain! Specifically, research suggests that regular mindfulness meditation is linked to decreased amygdala activity (reduces the brain’s stress response and emotional reactivity), increased prefrontal cortex activity (enhances decision-making, focus, and impulse control), and thicker gray matter (improves areas related to memory, self-awareness, and learning) [6-9].
6. Psychodynamic Therapy
What It Is:
Psychodynamic therapy explores the deeper, unconscious roots of anxiety, often focusing on unresolved conflicts or patterns from childhood.
How It Works:
Examines past experiences and how they shape current behaviors and emotions.
Identifies recurring patterns in relationships or thought processes that contribute to anxiety.
Why It’s Effective:
By addressing the root causes of anxiety, psychodynamic therapy fosters long-term emotional growth and self-awareness [10].
7. Group Therapy

What It Is:
Group therapy involves meeting with others who share similar experiences, guided by a therapist.
How It Works:
Provides a supportive environment to share experiences and learn from others.
Reduces feelings of isolation that often accompany anxiety.
Offers opportunities to practice social skills in a safe space.
Why It’s Effective:
Group therapy helps build community and normalize your experience, reducing shame and stigma [11].
8. Medication-Assisted Treatment

What It Is:
For some, medication prescribed by a psychiatrist or primary care provider can complement therapy by reducing symptoms of anxiety.
How It Works:
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) are commonly prescribed to treat anxiety. They work by inhibiting the reuptake of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that plays a key role in mood regulation, thereby increasing its availability in the brain. Increased serotonin levels can help reduce anxiety symptoms [12].
While medication can provide significant relief, it’s most effective when used alongside therapy and other coping strategies.
Why It’s Effective:
Medication can provide relief from severe symptoms, creating space to engage more fully in therapy.
Which Approach Is Right for You?
The best therapy approach depends on your unique needs, preferences, and experiences. Many people benefit from a combination of methods or therapy paired with medication. A licensed therapist can help you explore your options and develop a treatment plan tailored to you.
My training is rooted in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), with a strong emphasis on the ACT model of acceptance and committed action. When appropriate, I integrate elements of exposure therapy or explore internalized messages from childhood, incorporating approaches that might feel more psychodynamic in nature. Together, this creates what could be described as an 'integrative' or 'eclectic' approach. Ultimately, after our first appointment, we’ll discuss your goals for treatment and collaboratively develop a plan that feels aligned with your needs and preferences.
Conclusion: Anxiety Is Treatable
Anxiety can feel overwhelming, but it’s important to remember that effective treatments exist. Whether you’re drawn to practical skills in CBT, the mindfulness practices of ACT, or deeper exploration in psychodynamic therapy, there’s an approach that can help you feel more grounded and in control.
If you’re ready to take the first step toward managing your anxiety, schedule a consultation today.
References
Hofmann, S. G., Asnaani, A., Vonk, I. J. J., Sawyer, A. T., & Fang, A. (2012). The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy: A review of meta-analyses. Cognitive Therapy and Research.
Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (2016). Acceptance and commitment therapy: The process and practice of mindful change. Guilford Press.
Craske, M. G., Treanor, M., Conway, C. C., Zbozinek, T., & Vervliet, B. (2014). Maximizing exposure therapy: An inhibitory learning approach. Behaviour Research and Therapy.
Shapiro, F. (2018). Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapy: Basic principles, protocols, and procedures. Guilford Press.
Kabat-Zinn, J. (2013). Full catastrophe living: Using the wisdom of your body and mind to face stress, pain, and illness. Bantam Books.
Fox, K. C. R., Dixon, M. L., Nijeboer, S., Girn, M., Floman, J. L., Lifshitz, M., Ellamil, M., Sedlmeier, P., & Christoff, K. (2016). Functional neuroanatomy of meditation: A review and meta-analysis of 78 functional neuroimaging investigations. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 65, 208–228. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.03.021
Garrison, K. A., Santoyo, J. F., Davis, J. H., Thornhill, T. A., Kerr, C. E., & Brewer, J. A. (2013). Effortless awareness: Using real-time neurofeedback to explore states of effortless awareness and clarity. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 440. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2013.00440
Tang, Y. Y., Hölzel, B. K., & Posner, M. I. (2015). The neuroscience of mindfulness meditation. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 16(4), 213–225. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn3916
Hölzel, B. K., Carmody, J., Vangel, M., Congleton, C., Yerramsetti, S. M., Gard, T., & Lazar, S. W. (2011). Mindfulness practice leads to increases in regional brain gray matter density. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 191(1), 36–43. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pscychresns.2010.08.006
Shedler, J. (2010). The efficacy of psychodynamic therapy. American Psychologist.
Burlingame, G. M., McClendon, D. T., & Alonso, J. (2011). Cohesion in group therapy. Psychotherapy.
National Institute of Mental Health. (2020). SSRIs and anxiety disorders. Retrieved from NIMH.gov.
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