You can take back control.
Therapy for anxiety in NYC & across New York
You’re always stressed. Overwhelmed. Spinning in thoughts and possible scenarios.
Being hard on yourself is second nature.
“I’m not good enough” is a constant and exhausting refrain in your head.
Your body always feels tense and taking a deep breath is hard.
Anxiety just keeps showing up and you’re sick of it.
You long to feel....
...a sense of ease in your body and mind.
...more confident about your decisions.
...connected to feelings like calmness and joy.
Anxiety therapy can help you feel calm, grounded & confident
Together, we’ll slow down your familiar anxiety spinning - using breath, simple mindfulness exercises, and guided music listening. I’ll help you learn how to soothe your anxiety when it shows up and how to stop it from always driving your thoughts and responses.
Then we can dive deeper and get curious about the origins of your anxiety- including when it started showing up & what it might be trying to do for you. And figure out how you can both acknowledge it and let go of what’s not working.
I’ll guide you through a creative and embodied exploration of your relationships, the stories you tell yourself and the roles that hold you back from showing up in calm and confident ways.
Music therapy can help reduce your anxiety
Music therapy helps you get to the root of your anxiety and helps you access your mental, emotional, and physical body in a unique, profound way.
While some of my clients are trying therapy for their anxiety for the first time, my clients often come to me because traditional talk therapy has only gotten them so far.
There is value in talking about your anxiety - the patterns, the spirals, the scenarios - but anxiety is not just experienced in words and thoughts. Anxiety also lives in your tight shoulders, shallow breath & repetitive loops of your overwhelmed nervous system.
Our work together will help you move out of the spinning and repetitive thoughts that accompany anxiety and into connecting to your body in simple and safe ways. When you’re connected to your body and breath, you can tend to your nervous system and your anxiety in a deeper and more holistic way.
Together we’ll figure out how to help you show up in ways that feel more grounded and confident.
What does a music therapy session for anxiety look like?
When we explore different creative techniques, whether it’s responding to a piece of music or making sounds with the body or an instrument, we change your relationship to your anxiety and the situations that are tricky for you.
Session by session, you begin to build your own inner resources so you can respond to your thoughts and the events of your life with a sense of ease and calm. While we always shape our time based on your needs and inclinations, a session can often include a mix of the following:
Music-assisted relaxation. We use live or recorded music to support mindfulness and encourage deep relaxation. Helping your nervous system move out of fight/flight/freeze is a really important part of anxiety therapy - you can learn how to connect with your body and your breath even when you’re feeling anxious.
Musical improvisation. You don’t need to have any musical knowledge or experience to improvise. Improvisation can look like humming together or choosing and playing an instrument that represents a certain feeling.
Ultimately, it’s about exploration and learning to be okay enough with messiness and the unknown in a safe and supportive way (which is probably so closely related to your anxiety).
Music and imagery. This process combines deep listening to intentionally chosen recorded music with creating visual imagery to explore issues/areas of tension and develop internal strengths and resources.
Combining these proven creative techniques with other, more “traditional” talk therapy approaches, you’ll find a way to understand and manage your anxiety and establish a new sense of flow and joy.
