anxiety therapy
For many people, anxiety isn’t about a single stressful event…it’s the steady hum underneath everything that flares up at certain times.
You might describe yourself as a planner, an over-thinker, or someone whose mind starts going a million miles per minute and won’t shut off. Even when things are “fine,” your body feels revved up, tense, or on guard. You wake up feeling exhausted, rely on coffee or energy drinks to get through the day, and feel scattered, drained, maybe even burned out.
Many clients tell me:
“I feel stressed for no reason”
“It feels like whiplash from life”
“It feels like me against my feelings”
“I’m on a hamster wheel and never able to get off”
This kind of chronic, background anxiety is incredibly common, especially for millennials and helpers, and it’s not a personal flaw.
Why Anxiety Feels So Constant
From a somatic and parts-of-self (IFS) perspective, anxiety isn’t random or “just your lot in life”. It’s often a protective part of you that learned early on it had to stay alert.
When parents are emotionally immature, inconsistent, or stressed, children miss out on the felt sense of safety that comes from being emotionally attuned to. You might have had everything you needed physically (housing, food & water, education, toys, clothing, etc.), but without that emotional safety, the nervous system adapts. It learns to scan for danger, anticipate problems, and stay ten steps ahead just in case.
We are also raised within a broader culture and society that can reinforce anxiety through chronic pressure to perform, scarcity mindsets, comparison, overscheduling and overstimulation, systemic insecurity, and unspoken rules about worth, success, and belonging. Even with well-intentioned caregivers, growing up in a culture that prioritizes productivity over presence, achievement over attunement, or individual survival over collective care can keep the nervous system in a near-constant state of vigilance.
Over time, these combined relational and cultural stressors can wire anxiety into adulthood, not as a flaw, but as a learned strategy for navigating an environment that didn’t consistently feel safe.
That anxious part of you may have helped you:
Stay connected
Avoid rejection
Keep things from falling apart
Be “good,” capable, or low-maintenance
But, it was never meant to work this hard forever.
Common Signs & Symptoms of Anxiety
You might notice some of these patterns in yourself:
Constant low-level tension or restlessness – never fully feeling able to “turn off”
Racing thoughts, mental loops/overthinking, or getting stuck in anxious thought spirals
Difficulty falling or staying asleep (“I can’t turn my brain off”)
A body that feels on guard: tight jaw, neck and shoulder tension and pain, tight hips, constricted throat and chest, or a fluttering heartbeat
Headaches/migraines, a pit in your stomach, or feeling sick and tense
Trouble relaxing or being still – always planning, doing, striving
Feeling disconnected from your body (“I get stuck in my head”)
Procrastination, avoidance, shutting down, or withdrawing when overwhelmed
Needing noise or substances to feel okay – TV on, doom scrolling, shopping, or using weed just to “turn your brain off”
Knowing logically that things are fine, yet still feeling nervous or uneasy
If this sounds familiar, it’s not because you can’t “handle it.” It’s because your nervous system may never have fully experienced an essential early rhythm: being emotionally filled through connection and acceptance, having room to pull away when full, and then settling back into ease and relaxation. This is what healthy early relationships are meant to provide. Many millennials missed out on this, not just because of emotionally immature parenting, but because they were raised within a culture that was also emotionally immature shaped by chronic stress, disconnection, and societal pressures that disrupted this natural cycle of safety and rest.
“Getting Curious” About Anxiety (Yes, Really)
Let’s be honest, most people come to therapy because they want their anxiety gone, not because they’re excited to get curious about it. If you could eliminate anxiety by sheer willpower or by trying harder, you would have done it already.
In our work, we do get curious about anxiety, not to keep it around, but because understanding what your anxious parts are protecting is what actually helps reduce anxiety, soften its intensity, and eventually help it stop running your life.
When anxious parts feel seen, supported, and less alone in your body, they don’t have to work so hard.
How Somatic IFS Therapy Helps
In our work together, we won’t just be coping, managing symptoms and getting by…instead we will get to the root of your anxiety and help your body and your parts learn a new way…one rooted in safety, connection, and presence.
Using a trauma-informed, somatic IFS, and intersectional feminist approach, we’ll explore:
How anxiety shows up in your body (tension, fatigue, restlessness, shutdown, etc.)
Which parts of you are stuck in “go-go-go” or “brace for impact” mode
How to unblend from anxious parts without ignoring, fighting or judging them
Rather than pushing through or controlling symptoms, we gently support your nervous system in rewiring and settling.
Over time, you may begin to notice:
Fewer anxious thought spirals, so your mind doesn’t hijack your entire day
More ease in your body – fewer moments of bracing, pushing through, or holding it all together
Feeling more excited for life and able to actually enjoy it
Energy returning for the things you want to do, not just what you have to do
Sleeping when you’re tired instead of lying awake with a racing mind
Feeling more “in control” of your emotions, without suppressing or judging them
Stress or conflict no longer derailing you for days or weeks
Relationships feeling easier, less draining, and more mutually fulfilling
Greater presence – being here now instead of stuck in your head
A growing sense of aliveness, excitement, and openness to life again
As your nervous system settles and parts of you feel safer, many people notice they feel less scattered, less irritable, and more steady inside…not because they’re trying harder, but because their system no longer has to work so hard.
you deserve to feel at ease in your own body
Anxiety Doesn’t Have to Run Your Life
Anxiety may have helped you survive, but it doesn’t have to be your default setting anymore.
Anxiety therapy at Wildflower Wellness offers a space to retrain your inner system through understanding, connection, and care so that what once felt like constant background noise can soften into something steadier: a grounded confidence that you can meet life without always being 10 steps ahead or bracing for it.
Let’s help your body remember what calm can feel like.