Anxiety
Management
Anxiety is not a weakness of character, and it does not go away by not thinking about it. It is an alarm system set too low — and systems can be reset.
How anxiety works
Anxiety has three parts that feed one another: a thought ("something bad is going to happen"), a bodily reaction (racing heart, tightness, breathlessness) and a behaviour that looks protective (avoidance, checking, seeking reassurance). The third part is the decisive one: every time you avoid something, the anxiety subsides briefly and learns that avoidance worked. So it grows.
The cognitive behavioural approach works on all three. It does not try to convince you that "there is nothing to worry about" — you have heard that already and it did not help. It works on what makes the anxiety return, and on what can interrupt it.
Where it helps
- Generalised anxiety: constant worry that jumps from topic to topic, tension in the body, a mind that will not switch off at night.
- Panic attacks: sudden episodes with palpitations, dizziness and the fear that something is wrong with your heart — and the fear of the next one, which is often worse.
- Social anxiety: intense discomfort at being exposed, speaking in front of others, phone calls, meeting people — and the endless post-mortem afterwards.
- Health anxiety: constant monitoring of bodily signals, repeated tests, momentary relief and then the same again.
- Performance anxiety: at work, in exams, in not making the mistake that will reveal that you are not good enough.
- Separation and attachment anxiety in relationships, where distance is always read as threat.
How we work in practice
We begin by mapping it: when it appears, what triggers it, what you do immediately afterwards and what you gain in the short term. Very often this alone changes the sense that it "comes out of nowhere".
Then come the tools: techniques for regulating breathing and arousal in the moment, cognitive restructuring for the thoughts that feed the cycle, and graded exposure — at a pace you set — to what has been avoided. Between sessions there are small experiments in daily life; that is where half the work happens.
Alongside this we work on the level beneath the symptom: what this anxiety is actually afraid of. It is rarely the palpitations — it is loss of control, shame, or being left alone.
At a glance
- ForAdults with anxiety symptoms
- Duration50 minutes per session
- SettingAt the practice in central Thessaloniki, or online
- ApproachCognitive behavioural (CBT) with EFT elements
- AppointmentsBy phone or through the contact form
Frequently asked questions
Arousal-regulation techniques usually bring some relief within the first few sessions. Substantial change — anxiety no longer returning at the same intensity — takes longer, because it requires actually testing things that have been avoided. We review progress together at regular intervals.
That is not a psychologist's decision: medication is a medical act, prescribed by a psychiatrist. In some cases the combination of psychotherapy and medication is what is indicated, particularly when symptom intensity makes therapeutic work impossible to start. If I think so, I will tell you directly and we will work together with your psychiatrist.
Yes, and they are among the conditions that respond best to the cognitive behavioural approach. The key is not learning to “endure” an attack, but getting the body to stop interpreting its own signals as danger — at which point it stops producing them.
There is no entry threshold. The criterion is not how serious it looks from outside, but whether it gets in your way: whether you avoid things you want, whether you sleep, whether your day is organised around not being caught out by it. If so, it is serious enough.