What we treat
Anxiety Therapy in Natick, MA
Therapy for anxiety at Aurora Counseling Associates is for the child who has stopped going to school, the teenager who cannot sleep, the parent whose mind starts spinning the moment the house is quiet, and the adult whose body has decided that everyday situations are emergencies.
Recognizing it
Does this sound like you?
Anxiety rarely announces itself. It usually shows up as something else first.
- You lie down exhausted and your mind starts its shift the moment the room goes quiet.
- You have reread the same paragraph four times and still could not say what it said.
- You draft the message, delete it, redraft it, and eventually do not send it.
- Your body reacts before you have decided anything: the chest, the stomach, the jaw.
- You have started declining things you used to say yes to, and telling yourself you are just busy.
- People describe you as calm, which is either funny or infuriating depending on the day.
If several of those landed, that is worth a conversation rather than another year of managing it. If none did and something is still wrong, that is worth a conversation too. Anxiety is not the only thing that keeps a person up.
What anxiety can look like
Anxiety wears many costumes. Some are obvious; others get missed for years.
Generalized anxiety
chronic worry that jumps from topic to topic, a baseline tension that does not turn off, a feeling of bracing for something.
Social anxiety
dread of being watched, judged, or required to perform in groups; school refusal in younger clients; the social burnout that comes from masking constantly.
Panic
sudden surges of physical symptoms, often without an obvious trigger, that feel like something is medically wrong; fear of the next panic attack becomes its own problem.
Health anxiety
persistent worry about illness, checking, googling, reassurance-seeking that does not reassure.
Performance and academic anxiety
the test-taker who knows the material and freezes, the public speaker who avoids any role that involves talking, the perfectionism that has stopped being useful.
Anticipatory anxiety
distress about an event before it happens, often more intense than the event itself.
Anxiety masked as something else
irritability, controlling behavior, avoidance, somatic symptoms like stomachaches and headaches, sleep disruption.
We also work with anxiety in the context of OCD, trauma, neurodivergence, perinatal experience, and identity exploration. Anxiety rarely shows up alone.
How we treat anxiety at Aurora
Our anxiety work is grounded in evidence-based approaches:
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)
identifying the thought patterns that feed anxiety, testing them against what happens, building new behavioral responses. CBT is the most-studied treatment for anxiety and a foundation of our work.
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)
rather than trying to think yourself out of anxious feelings, learning to make room for them while moving toward what matters to you.
Mindfulness-based approaches
building the capacity to notice anxious thoughts and physical sensations without immediately reacting to them.
Exposure-based work, when appropriate
carefully, collaboratively, never thrown at someone before they are ready. Exposure is what changes the brain's relationship to feared situations and is essential for many forms of anxiety, especially panic, social anxiety, and OCD-spectrum concerns.
Trauma-informed approaches
When anxiety is rooted in past experiences that the body has not finished processing.
Across ages
How the work changes with age
For children, we often work through play and parent guidance in parallel; for teens, we balance individual work with family communication when it helps. For adults, the work often starts with mapping the anxiety patterns and quickly moves into building skills you can use between sessions.
We coordinate with prescribers when medication is part of the picture. Therapy can work on its own; for moderate to severe anxiety, the combination often works better than either alone.
What to expect
Sessions are 45 to 55 minutes, typically weekly to start. Many clients see meaningful change in 8 to 16 sessions for a specific anxiety concern. Longer-term work makes sense when anxiety is woven into deeper patterns or when other concerns are present.
You should leave the first session with a clearer picture of what is going on and what we plan to do about it. The goal is not to make anxiety disappear (that is not how the nervous system works) but to change your relationship with it so it stops running the day.
Insurance and rates
Many clients see meaningful change in 8 to 16 sessions for a specific anxiety concern.
Who you would work with
Clinicians who offer Anxiety Therapy
Read how each person works before you reach out. If you are not sure who to ask for, we will help you choose.
Ruth Hanning, LMHC
Laura Buckley, LMHC
Eren Santana-Bykofsky, MA
These clinicians list this as a specialty. Most of our team works with it in some form, so if you have someone in mind, ask and we will tell you whether the fit makes sense.
Questions
Common questions
Do I need medication for anxiety, or is therapy enough?
Is anxiety ever just "normal stress"?
How long until I notice a change?
Can my teenager come on their own, or do I need to be involved?
Do you treat panic attacks?
Do you treat OCD?
Where to next
Related areas we work in
Get started
Ready when you are
If anxiety is shaping more of your life than you want it to, request an appointment or call (508) 650-0991. We will talk through what you are working on and match you with a clinician.