Anxiety Therapy
Therapy for anxiety can help you stop the never-ending cycle of worry and live a life with peace and satisfaction. With over a decade of experience, we help individuals tackle anxiety to live fulfilled lives.
Do You Want Relief from the Relentlessness of Your Mind?
Are you a chronic overthinker? Perfectionist?
Are what ifs ruling your life?
Do you find it hard to relax because of constant worry and uncomfortable physical symptoms?
Feeling overwhelmed and drained from your anxiety?
Anxiety can truly be debilitating. Nowadays, we wear so many different hats and manage so many responsibilities. It truly feels like you’re racing against the clock to get everything done. It’s exhausting to doubt and second-guess every decision you make, in hopes that you’ll do it perfectly.
You don’t have to be a prisoner of your own mind, allowing your fears to keep you hostage. You can challenge and replace those worried thoughts with more helpful and constructive ones. Anxiety therapy can help you detach from your thoughts, freeing you from the captivity of anxiety.
Why Do I Have Anxiety?
Many factors contribute to having anxiety: genetics, your temperament, external stressors, ability to solve problems and manage your emotions. Anxiety occurs when our brains detect a threat or any type of dangerous situation in their environment. We worry about our ability to handle or cope with that threat.
It might be hard to separate the good and bad of anxiety. For many, anxiety motivates us to be successful and get things done (hello high achievers and perfectionists!). It may even feel like anxiety has protected us because we are always one step ahead. But living in “stress” mode is not sustainable; it’s important to figure out when our anxiety is helping us and when it’s hurting us.
Therapy for anxiety can be helpful in identifying the root of your worries, assist you in developing skills to manage your anxiety successfully and be able to appreciate the upside of anxiety (yes, they’re upsides) while letting go of the parts that are harming you.
Our Specialities
We specialize in helping people struggling from all forms of anxiety to thrive and fully connect with themselves and others. Additionally, we have expertise in the following:
Generalized Anxiety Disorder
Panic Disorder/Panic Attacks & Physical Symptoms of Anxiety (headaches, stomachaches, sleep difficulties)
Health Anxiety
Social Anxiety
Obsessive Thinking & Racing Thoughts
Anxiety due to perfectionism & career/work stress
Anxiety due to race-based stress
Anxiety due to identity issues & family stressors
Anxiety Therapy With EMTG
Our style is highly engaging yet warm and friendly. We will create a safe and supportive environment by being consistent and reliable. We will be non-judgmental, so you feel free to express yourself openly without fear of criticism or rejection. We will validate your feelings, so you feel heard and understood while also offering gentle challenges to help you shift your mindset. Anxiety therapy with EMTG will help you get tangible results. Here’s some goals clients have had in treatment:
Understanding where anxiety stems from and the biological purpose of it.
Understanding the mind-body connection and how our bodies respond to stress and anxiety
Building coping strategies so you have healthier ways to manage triggers, anxiety, and emotional dysregulation.
Learning about how certain lifestyle factors can exacerbate anxiety
Exposure work to confront the things you’ve been avoiding because of the anxiety, allowing you to reclaim parts of your life.
Incorporating thought work to manage ruminating thoughts
Exploring the past and identify if there are other factors impacting your anxiety
Building self-confidence in ability to navigate life’s uncertainty
Anxiety therapy isn’t just about decreasing anxiety—it’s also about becoming more confident in your ability to handle anything thrown your way. You won’t need to seek constant reassurance because you will trust yourself.
Therapeutic Techniques We Use
Our approach to anxiety therapy is integrative, using a blend of evidence-based practices that target both the mind and body:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) helps you challenge unhelpful thinking patterns.
Exposure Therapy/Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP), a specialized form of CBT for anxiety and OCD that encourages you to face your fears. During exposure therapy, you'll rate your anxiety level at the start of each exposure, and track how it changes as you work through the exposure. You'll focus on resisting compulsions like checking, reassurance seeking, or avoidance.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) provides skills to manage intense emotions and develop emotional regulation.
Psychodynamic Therapy explores past experiences that may influence your current feelings and behaviors. By understanding and processing these old wounds, you can break free from negative patterns that are impacting your daily life in the present moment.
Results From Anxiety Therapy
Our clients report:
Improved sleep
Less panic attacks
Confidence in managing uncertainty and confidence in themselves
Better coping strategies
Feeling grounded and more at peace in their bodies
Better work and/or academic performance
Decrease in headaches, stomachaches and other physical symptoms
Ability to enjoy life more
With time, you’ll stop feeling like the anxiety controls you, and instead, you’ll feel confident and hopeful about the present and the future.
About Dr. Shaneze Gayle Smith
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I’m an anxiety specialist with extensive experience guiding both teens and adults through life’s challenges- licensed for therapy in 41 states.
Trained by experts in the field of CBT, I've gained invaluable insights into the unique dynamics of anxiety and stress, learning to approach therapy with a unique, holistic and personalized lens. My training emphasizes the unique nature of everyone’s experience. From my own lived experiences with anxiety, and perfectionism, I know firsthand the usefulness of being able to tackle one’s anxiety.
I've worked extensively with professionals, parents, creatives, and families from all walks of life in different settings (hospital & private practice) with varying circumstances around their anxiety. Regardless of one’s background, we’ll identify where your anxiety stems from (identify and evaluate triggers), learn coping strategies (or reduce use of the unhealthy ones) and practice using those coping skills in your everyday life to ensure that your results will be sustainable. Practicing skills also lets us know what works and doesn’t which allow us to problem solve and create plan that’s tailored for you.
These tools are just the beginning of lessening your worries and have the life that you always wanted. You can get to a place where you feel like you have control over your life again.
Education
PhD in Clinical Psychology, Seton Hall University (Health Psychology & Child/Adolescent Focus)
Psychology Residency, Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center
MS in Forensic Psychology, Walden University
Medical School (3 years), Rutgers-New Jersey Medical School
BA in Cell Biology and Neuroscience, Rutgers University
Credentials
Trained by experts in the field in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) for anxiety disorders and obsessive compulsive disorder.
Expertise in anxiety, panic attacks, rumination and OCD
Over a decade of experience working with anxious individuals
About Vernee Brooks, LPC, LMHC
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Anxiety can feel like a never-ending nightmare. Together, we’ll manage your worries and help you feel confident with whatever life throws your way- I’m licensed for therapy in New York, New Jersey & Texas.
Anxiety is one of the most common ailments treated in children and adults. Anxiety and panic can come out in many forms and have un-known causes for the person experiencing it. That’s where I come in. I have 15 years of experience helping people uncover the triggers behind the anxiety, pin pointing areas it affects their life, and learning to manage it. Throughout my time working with various populations in differing settings such as Mental Hospitals, Group homes, In-patient facilities, out-patient facilities, and in home, I have aided countless people in taking back their mind from the grips of anxiety.
We do not have to live in our dysfunction. The goal won’t be to completely eradicate the anxiety, as a normal human emotion it does serve a purpose, but we will learn to diminish and better manage it… together.
Our anxiety does not have to control us… let’s get to work!
Education
M.S. in Clinical Mental Health Counseling, Walden University
BA in Psychology, Rutgers University
Credentials
Advanced training in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) for anxiety disorders.
Expertise in anxiety and panic attacks due to race-related stressors, work/career stress and interpersonal relationships (romantic & family)
15 years of experience working with anxious individuals
Getting Started Together
We’ll meet you where you are at. Our approach is compassionate and collaborative, with a focus on building trust in the therapeutic relationship.
Instead of feeling dread and doomed to live with fear, worry, and self-doubt forever, you can learn how to co-exist with and manage your anxiety in a healthy way. You’ll finally be able to live in the present moment, feeling more joy and fulfillment.
Anxiety Therapy FAQs
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A: Yes! Incorporating thought work significantly improves anxiety. You are not your thoughts. Let me repeat this. You are NOT your thoughts. The foundation of thought work is the knowledge that you are not your thoughts. You—who you are at the deepest level—are separate from the voice of the mind.
Additionally, your thoughts—not your circumstances—determine your feelings. In our work together, we will identify, evaluate and respond to your negative thoughts, the thinking traps you’ve been falling into that have been fueling your anxiety. We will replace them with more adaptive and helpful thoughts. Additionally, for those who have harder time challenging the thoughts, we learn ways to accept and create distance from those thoughts. For example, original thought “I’m going to do a terrible on this test” Challenging the thought might look like “what’s the evidence that supports this?” Accepting and creating distance from that thought will look like “I’m having the thought that I’m going to do a terrible on the test.” When you acknowledge the thought for what it is…just a thought…it will have less power over you.
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A: Facing your fears head on is the Ultimate Anxiety Killer. Exposure therapy is another subset of CBT that involves gradual exposure to situations that you have been avoiding due to anxiety. You’ll go to that work event that you’ve been dreading, go on that date you’ve been canceling and put yourself in situations where you’ll tolerate the uncertainty that comes with life. The anticipatory anxiety is always worse than the action itself, and through these exposures, you’ll learn that….while strengthening your coping skills and becoming more confident in your ability to handle anything thrown your way. We’re not going to be able to control everything that happens in life, but believing that you can handle whatever that is…you’ll finally feel empowered in your life! (see what I did there 😊)
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A: Medication in addition to therapy can be significantly helpful in managing anxiety. I have worked with individuals who were not comfortable with medication and preferred more holistic approaches to anxiety such as use of essential oils, decreasing alcohol use (hangxiety is a real thing!) and exercise to name a few. Additionally, I also have clients on medication and in those cases can collaborate with prescribers to make sure your treatment team is all on the same page!
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A: There’s a lot of overlap - you may feel a similar sense of being overwhelmed or racing thoughts when both anxious and stressed. People also use the words interchangeably, which doesn’t help. A helpful distinction is that stress is the activated response we have to a real external pressure or situation happening in the present. A stress response has a cause and effect relationship with existing circumstances. Anxiety is a broad spectrum of physical, mental, or emotional responses we have to a perceived or hypothetical future situation. These scenarios have not yet come to pass and may never occur.
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A: Yes, everyone does experience anxiety about possible future scenarios from time to time. However, if your anxiety is frequent, persistent, and starts getting in the way of your work, relationships, health, personal goals, or daily routines then therapy is definitely recommended.
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Absolutely, there’s other relaxation techniques! I will never push you to try or do anything that you are not interested in. I have found that sometimes people who have not found mindfulness or relaxation techniques effective have not received adequate coaching or support in their skills practice, making it unlikely that they would feel any real benefit (like clients who’ve said deep breathing doesn’t work but weren’t doing it properly). We’ll review what has or hasn’t worked for you and try something new if needed but deep breathing strategies (also yoga, meditation, relaxation techniques) can be significantly help with the physical manifestations of anxiety because they manage your anxiety on a biological level.