Anxiety Therapy in Manhattan, New York

Anxiety is a natural response to stressful or frightening situations. Anxiety activates the sympathetic nervous system, causing you to be more vigilant and so capable of detecting and responding to threats easier. However, many people’s anxiety is maladaptive: sometimes they feel anxious when there isn’t anything to be anxious about, sometimes their anxiety is severe and disproportionate to what is going on, and sometimes they feel a constant hum of anxiety that follows them through the day or week. In those cases, the anxiety response has become miscalibrated to the environment and no longer serves the adaptive function it once had.

If you’ve tried therapy in the past and didn’t experience the relief you hoped for, you’re not alone, and it doesn’t mean therapy can’t work for you. Anxiety is complex, and outcomes often depend on the fit between you, the therapist, and the therapeutic approach being used. Sometimes prior therapy focused more on immediate symptom relief than on the deeper patterns that keep anxiety going. In other cases, the pace, style, or goals of the work may not have aligned with what you needed at that time in your life. It’s also common for anxiety to shift forms over time, which can require a different strategy than what you previously tried. At Lexington Park Psychotherapy, we take time to understand what has and hasn’t been helpful for you before. Together, we look at the self-reinforcing cycles that sustain anxiety - including patterns of avoidance, overthinking, or chronic self-pressure - and work to interrupt them in a way that feels practical and sustainable. Many people find that a different therapeutic relationship, a more targeted approach, or simply returning to the work at a new stage of life makes a meaningful difference. If you’re feeling discouraged, that reaction makes sense, but it may still be very possible to make progress with the right fit and focus.

Different approaches to anxiety therapy target different things. Cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) for anxiety can be very helpful to address current issues and learn skills for interrupting anxious thought patterns; psychodynamic psychotherapy and internal family systems (IFS) can be particularly helpful to create lasting change by examining deep systems of thinking and feeling that sustain anxious thought patterns; mindfulness and acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) can help you learn to regulate your nervous system to reduce the frequency of anxious symptoms and resolve them quicker when they arise. At Lexington Park Psychotherapy, our therapists integrate these approaches into a single, dynamic treatment program tailored to your needs.

One of the top reasons people come to therapy is due to job stress. Work is one of the most important parts of our lives , not only because we spend a third of nearly every day working but because it is a powerful hinge upon which much of our lives turns. Some people spend decades preparing for future careers that don’t actually make them happy; others identify with what they do and feel a strong sense of pride or purpose in their work, so each mistake or misstep feels devastating; others dread going to work but need the income; others love the title but secretly wish they were somewhere else; others are working so hard to get to that next rung, but can’t quite seem to get there. Job and career stress occupy such a central role in our lives that it is primed to trigger anxieties.

Feeling stressed at work is normal, but if it persists or is interfering with your quality of life you might want to consider therapy. Here are 5 signs work-related stress is too much 1. Sleep disturbances or “revenge” bedtime procrastination. The Sign: The same list of things to do tomorrow cycles through your mind as you toss and turn at night. You wake up in the middle of the night remembering about an email you forgot. You stay up late into the night—not working, but mindlessly scrolling or watching TV—because it is the only time you feel you "own." This leads to chronic sleep deprivation, which further impairs your ability to handle the next day’s stress, creating a downward spiral. 2. Relational problems. Stress and anxiety keeps you ‘on edge’ in a state of constant nervous system activation. That can reduce your threshold for anger, causing you to be irritable or uncharitable with others. The Sign: You argue more often with friends or your partner. You find yourself becoming uncharacteristically cynical, irritable with coworkers, or emotionally "numb." You may start to feel that your work doesn't matter or develop a sense of resentment toward your clients or colleagues.   3. Brain-fog/Decreased efficiency - When stress is too high, the brain's prefrontal cortex (responsible for executive function) begins to shut down. The Sign: You find yourself staring at the same email for 20 minutes, struggling to make simple decisions, or forgetting routine tasks. You might feel like you are working harder than ever but producing lower-quality work, creating a cycle of frustration and further stress. 4. Physical symptoms - Chronic stress manifests in physical ailments that have no other clear medical cause. The Sign: Frequent tension headaches, jaw clenching (TMJ), digestive issues, or a weakened immune system (getting "every cold" that goes around). If you are using over-the-counter pain relief or sleep aids as a daily necessity to function, the stress level is likely toxic. 5. Substance use – The most critical sign that stress has become unmanageable is when you begin to use substances (alcohol, prescription meds, or recreational drugs) as a functional tool to either start, survive, or end your work hours. The Sign: You develop a "ritualized reliance" on substances to regulate your performance or mood. This could be relying on alcohol or sleep aids every night just to force your brain to stop "looping" on work tasks. If you feel you cannot physically or mentally exit "work mode" without chemical assistance, the stress has surpassed your natural coping mechanisms.

Therapy is an extremely effective treatment for anxiety of all kinds. People sometimes try to treat their anxiety themselves with exercise or going on vacation, and while these can provide temporary relief, they do not address the underlying causes that sustain persistent anxiety or give rise to severe anxiety responses. Psychotherapy can help you understand the patterns of thinking, feeling, and behaving that cause anxiety – even if it is a normal stress response – and help to decalcify those patterns so you can feel better.

Absolutely. Different people have very different anxiety responses. For some people, it persists for days, weeks, even months as an ambient feeling of discomfort; others report feeling struck by an overwhelming feeling that stops them in their tracks; others say that they can feel it come on strong and then leave almost at random; and others can predict the moments it will come on (for example, giving a presentation at work; going on dates, etc.) and wish it felt more manageable. Therapy can help understand what causes anxiety to come on (as well as what causes it to get stronger and stronger) and what causes it to leave, and help you gain some control over it.

Anxiety therapy at Lexington Park Psychotherapy is tailored to your life and needs. Our therapists are trained in multiple evidence-based modalities and will create a treatment plan that is designed to meet your needs, not force you into a box. Therapy is a highly personal activity and we know work and life can be demanding – we offer morning and evening sessions as well as in-person and virtual/remote therapy.

Therapy is a deeply personal activity. There is no one-size-fits-all treatment and so there is no way to know in advance how quickly you will start to feel better. Many people begin to notice small shifts within the first few weeks of consistent therapy—such as better understanding their anxiety, feeling more hopeful, or having a few more tools to manage difficult moments. More meaningful and lasting changes, however, typically develop over a longer stretch of focused work. The timeline varies widely and depends on the severity and duration of the anxiety, whether it tends to be situational or longstanding, how much avoidance or overthinking has become habitual, how consistently sessions and between-session practices are maintained, and several other factors. For some people, noticeable improvement emerges within a few months; for others working with more entrenched patterns, the process can take longer. Rather than aiming for quick symptom suppression, effective anxiety therapy focuses on shifting the underlying cycles that keep anxiety going. As this work progresses, many people report not just fewer spikes of anxiety, but a greater sense of control in their lives and comfort in handling stress.

The short answer is: Yes, effective anxiety therapy is designed to create lasting change, not just temporary relief. While practical coping tools (like breathing strategies or grounding techniques) can be helpful in the moment, meaningful progress usually comes from addressing the underlying patterns that keep anxiety going. In therapy, we look at the deeper cycles that tend to sustain anxiety over time. By understanding how these patterns developed and how they operate in your daily life, therapy can help reduce anxiety at its roots rather than simply managing flare-ups as they arise. This process often involves building new ways of responding to anxious thoughts and sensations, increasing tolerance for uncertainty, and gradually altering long-standing emotional and behavioral habits. The goal is not to eliminate anxiety completely (which isn’t realistic for anyone), but to help you relate to it differently so it has less power over you.