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Anxiety Therapy
Anxiety can feel like your mind won’t switch off. You might be functioning on the outside, but internally you’re bracing for something to go wrong. Some people experience anxiety as racing thoughts and constant “what ifs.” Others feel it in their body: a tight chest, a churning stomach, dizziness, breathlessness, or a sense of being on edge.
A certain amount of anxiety is part of being human. It’s your brain’s threat system doing its job. The problem is when that threat system becomes oversensitive, starts firing too often, and pulls you into patterns that shrink your life.
At Hampstead Psychology, we offer evidence-based therapy for anxiety in London and online across the UK. Our work is specialist, thoughtful, and practical. We help you understand what is driving your anxiety, and we support you to change the patterns that keep it going.
When anxiety starts to take over
People often tell us they’ve been “coping” for a long time. They’ve developed ways of managing anxiety that help in the short term, but come with a cost over time. That cost might look like avoiding situations, over-preparing, constantly checking, seeking reassurance, or trying to control every variable.
You might recognise some of these:
You overthink conversations, decisions, or future events, and your mind keeps looping back.
You feel tense or on high alert, even when things are objectively “fine.”
You struggle to switch off at night, and worry feels louder in the quiet.
You avoid certain places, social situations, travel, meetings, or appointments.
You google symptoms, monitor your body, or repeatedly check that you’re “okay.”
You feel a surge of panic, dread, or a rush of physical sensations that can be frightening.
You feel stuck between wanting reassurance and knowing reassurance never lasts.
If any of this sounds familiar, it doesn’t mean you’re weak. It usually means your brain has learned to treat uncertainty as danger. Therapy is about helping your nervous system and your thinking patterns recalibrate, so that life starts to feel bigger again.
Clinical Psychologist
Counselling Psychologist
Consultant Psychologist
Clinical Psychologist
The types of anxiety we commonly help with
Anxiety isn’t one single problem. It can show up in different forms, and it matters that therapy fits the pattern you’re experiencing.
Generalised anxiety (GAD) often feels like persistent worry across multiple areas of life—health, work, relationships, finances—with a sense that your mind is always scanning for risk.
Panic attacks and panic disorder can involve sudden, intense surges of fear and physical symptoms such as breathlessness, chest tightness, dizziness, numbness, sweating, or feeling unreal. Many people start avoiding situations where panic might happen, which can gradually narrow life.
Social anxiety can look like fear of judgment, embarrassment, or being “seen” in a way that feels unsafe. You might replay interactions afterwards, avoid speaking up, or feel constantly self-conscious.
Phobias are intense fears linked to specific situations or objects (such as flying, needles, vomiting, driving, or animals). They often lead to avoidance that can become more restrictive over time.
Health anxiety often involves fear about bodily sensations or the possibility of illness. It can drive checking, reassurance seeking, repeated GP visits or tests, or constant online searching, even when you logically know it isn’t helping.
Obsessive-compulsive patterns can include intrusive thoughts and urges, and behaviours or mental rituals aimed at reducing anxiety (such as checking, counting, repeating, or mental reviewing). The aim of therapy is not reassurance, but learning a different relationship with uncertainty.
Stress-related anxiety and burnout often shows up when your system has been running “hot” for too long—high responsibility, perfectionism, or relentless pressure—until your body starts signalling that it can’t sustain it.
If you’re not sure what category you fit into, that’s completely fine. Many people have a blend, and therapy begins by mapping your specific anxiety pattern clearly.
What keeps anxiety going
Anxiety is maintained by a set of understandable loops. The details vary from person to person, but the structure is often similar.
A thought, sensation, memory, or situation triggers a sense of threat.
Your mind tries to solve the threat by thinking more, planning more, checking more, or avoiding risk.
In the short term, that reduces anxiety. You feel relief.
But your brain learns, “Good thing we did that — it must really have been dangerous.”
So the threat system becomes even more sensitive next time.
This is why anxiety can feel so persistent. It isn’t a lack of insight. It’s the way relief-based strategies train the brain.
Therapy helps you step out of these loops in a way that feels safe, structured, and sustainable.
How therapy for anxiety works
At Hampstead Psychology, we draw on approaches that are strongly supported by psychological research and are widely used in evidence-based practice. That often includes CBT, ACT, compassion-focused work, and schema-informed therapy. The exact blend depends on you.
For some people, the work is about changing how they relate to worry and intrusive thoughts, so you’re no longer dragged around by them. For others, it’s about gently reducing avoidance and safety behaviours, so your nervous system learns it can cope and settle. For many people, it’s also about working with self-criticism, perfectionism, and the internal pressure that keeps anxiety switched on.
Therapy for anxiety isn’t about becoming a different person. It’s about becoming freer—more able to choose how you respond, rather than living under the rules anxiety sets.
What to expect from sessions
We begin by understanding your anxiety in context. Not just symptoms, but patterns: when it flares up, what it says to you, what you do next, and what impact it has on your life and relationships.
From there, we develop a shared map of what’s maintaining the problem, and we agree a direction for therapy. Sessions are collaborative and active. You’ll come away with a clearer understanding of what’s happening in your mind and body, and practical ways to begin shifting it.
We work at a pace that is both compassionate and effective. The goal is not to push you, but to help you build confidence through steady, meaningful change.
How long does therapy take?
This varies. Some people benefit from focused short-term work. Others need longer, especially when anxiety has been present for years, is linked with trauma responses, or is tied into longstanding patterns like perfectionism or self-criticism.
In your first phase of therapy, we’ll help you get a sense of what might be most helpful for you and the likely pace of change. We’ll keep reviewing progress together so therapy stays purposeful.
Anxiety therapy in London and online
We offer anxiety therapy in person in London, and online across the UK. Many clients choose online therapy for convenience and flexibility, and it can be just as effective as in-person work for many anxiety presentations.
If you’re looking for a service that combines clinical-level expertise with a human, thoughtful approach, we’d be happy to help.
Meet The Team
At Hampstead Psychology, all of our psychologists have extensive training to doctoral level and decades of experience in their field of expertise. You will be matched with a psychologist that has the knowledge and skill to help you understand and overcome your problem - not just in the short term but for good.
