Anxiety therapy
When your mind won't stop checking, planning, bracing.
Evidence-based anxiety treatment using CBT, ACT and mindfulness-based approaches — for generalised anxiety, panic, social anxiety, health anxiety, and the anxiety that often sits quietly alongside ADHD, autism and trauma.
Anxiety is a nervous system pattern, not a character flaw
Most people living with persistent anxiety have spent a long time being told — by themselves or by others — to calm down, relax, stop overthinking. If those instructions worked, no one would be here. Anxiety is a nervous system that has learned to anticipate threat, and it cannot be talked out of that by willpower. What it can do is learn, slowly, that it is allowed to stand down.
Therapy for anxiety is about changing the relationship between you and your anxiety — not eliminating it (anxiety is useful, in the right dose) but shrinking it back to a proportionate size. The work uses evidence-based tools that have been researched and refined over decades, chosen based on what is actually going on for you rather than a one-size-fits-all protocol.
Presentations
Forms of anxiety we work with
Generalised anxiety
Persistent, diffuse worry that moves from topic to topic — work, health, the people you love, whether you locked the back door. Often comes with physical tension, sleep difficulty, and mental exhaustion.
Panic & panic disorder
Sudden episodes of intense fear with significant physical symptoms — racing heart, shortness of breath, dizziness, dread. Often leads to avoiding places or situations where a previous panic attack occurred.
Social anxiety
Significant anxiety in social or performance situations, driven by fear of judgement or embarrassment. Can range from quiet dread before events to complete avoidance of social life.
Health anxiety
Preoccupation with possible illness, often fuelled by bodily sensations, research loops, or repeated medical reassurance that never quite settles. Particularly common after a frightening medical experience.
Phobias
Specific, intense fears — flying, driving, needles, confined spaces, animals — that cause meaningful disruption to life. Phobias typically respond well to structured, paced exposure-based treatment.
Anxiety alongside neurodivergence
Anxiety is extremely common alongside ADHD and autism — often driven by a world not built around that wiring. Treatment here has to account for the whole picture, not pretend the anxiety exists on its own.
The approaches we use
Most anxiety work draws on one or more of the following, selected and blended based on what fits you.
Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT)
The most extensively researched therapy for anxiety, with decades of evidence. Focuses on the connection between thoughts, emotions and behaviours — and on the specific patterns that keep anxiety running. Includes cognitive work, behavioural experiments, and, where appropriate, graded exposure.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
ACT focuses less on changing the content of anxious thoughts and more on changing your relationship to them. For people whose anxiety has become treatment-resistant, or whose self-criticism fuels the anxiety, ACT is often more useful than pure CBT. Research evidence for ACT in anxiety continues to build.
Mindfulness-based approaches
Mindfulness — in the clinical, evidence-based sense, not the app-store sense — is woven into most work with anxiety. It offers tools for noticing anxiety as it arises rather than being overtaken by it, and for building the capacity to stay grounded in the body during difficult moments.
EMDR where there is a trauma component
Where anxiety has a clear origin in a specific experience — an accident, a medical event, a frightening episode — EMDR can target the underlying memory rather than just the symptoms downstream of it. See the EMDR page for more.
What sessions cost
Individual sessions are $230 for 50 minutes. With a Mental Health Care Plan from your GP, Medicare rebates $98.95 per session for up to 10 sessions per calendar year, leaving a gap of $131.05.
NDIS, TAC and WorkCover funding are also accepted. See full fee information →
What sessions look like in practice
An initial session is largely about understanding — what the anxiety looks like for you, when it started, what it has cost you, what you have already tried. From there we build a formulation together, and decide on the first few areas to focus on.
Subsequent sessions are collaborative. There is often between-session practice, but it is realistic and paced — no one is handed thirty worksheets in week two. We review what is shifting and what still needs attention. The work ends when you feel you have what you need to keep going, not according to a fixed schedule.
Telehealth is a well-established delivery mode for anxiety therapy and is covered by Medicare on the same terms as in-person sessions. For some people — particularly those whose anxiety makes leaving the house difficult — telehealth is the more accessible starting point.
Questions we hear about anxiety therapy
What kinds of anxiety do you work with?
Generalised anxiety, social anxiety, health anxiety, panic, phobias, and performance anxiety are all within scope. We also work with the anxiety that often sits alongside ADHD, autism, and trauma — where standard anxiety treatment alone may miss the underlying picture.
Which therapies do you use for anxiety?
Primarily Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), both of which have strong evidence bases for anxiety. Mindfulness-based practices are woven in where useful, and EMDR is available where anxiety has a clear trauma component.
How long will it take to feel different?
Most people notice early shifts — often a greater sense of understanding their pattern — within the first few sessions. Sustained change usually takes longer and depends on how long the pattern has been in place. We work collaboratively to set realistic expectations early.
Is anxiety therapy covered by Medicare?
Yes. With a Mental Health Care Plan from your GP, you can access a Medicare rebate of $98.95 per session for up to ten individual sessions per calendar year. The gap payment after rebate is $131.05.
Can I do anxiety therapy via telehealth?
Yes. Telehealth is a well-established delivery mode for anxiety therapy and is covered by Medicare on the same terms as in-person sessions. For some people — particularly those whose anxiety makes leaving the house difficult — telehealth is the more accessible starting point.
Related areas of care
EMDR therapy
Where anxiety has a clear trauma origin, EMDR can target the underlying memory directly.
Read more →ADHD assessment
Anxiety is one of the most common companions to adult ADHD, and often shifts significantly once the underlying pattern is named.
Read more →Telehealth psychology
If leaving the house is itself part of the difficulty, telehealth is often a lower-friction starting point.
Read more →Anxiety is treatable. The right starting point matters.
Book an initial session, or start with a free 15-minute call to ask any questions before deciding.