5 Tips for Choosing the Best Anxiety Therapist in Wilmington, NC
Starting Your Search for an Anxiety Therapist
Looking for an Anxiety Therapist on Google is Like Opening the White Pages and Looking for Mary Smith…
You’ve been experiencing anxiety and you’ve finally decided it is time to search for a therapist.
First, you sit down and begin your search. So you go to google because “google it” is always the answer and google knows everything.
Next, you type in “anxiety therapist near me” and now you have about 10 pages or more of therapists located near you and that’s about 140 plus options of therapists in the surrounding area! That’s a lot and when your anxiety already has you feeling overwhelmed how do you know where to start?
Finally, you begin sifting through and as you are going through the list you notice there are therapists that are psychologists, counselors (LPC), social workers (LCSW), and psychiatrists. Some therapists use specific treatment models such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT), and eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR). The options are endless and how are you supposed to know what is going to work for you or what you need?
It’s overwhelming.
As an anxiety therapist in Wilmington, NC, I’m going to give you my top 5 important things to consider when looking for or narrowing down your search for the best anxiety therapist.
I am a licensed social worker and specialize in counseling for women experiencing anxiety, perfectionism, burnout, and imposter syndrome. My online counseling practice is based out of Wilmington, NC and I offer online anxiety therapy to anyone located in North Carolina and Maryland.
Schedule your free 15 minute consultation to work with me and keep reading to check out my 5 tips for choosing the best anxiety therapist for you.
5 Tips for Choosing the Best Anxiety Therapist for You
There are so many things to consider when choosing the best therapist. Some things you may have thought about and others you haven’t. Check out these 5 tips and see what resonates to you. Do any of these matter more to you than others?
Tip #1 - Location: Where is the anxiety therapist located? Is the therapist convenient to your home or office location? Does that even matter to you? Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic this may have been one of the top determining factors when choosing an anxiety therapist. But now having online therapy or virtual therapy as an option gives you more flexibility. You can see an anxiety therapist in your same town, in the next county over, or on the other side of the state.
For more information on online therapy check out these helpful blog posts:
Is Online Therapy Right for Me?
Benefits of Using Online Therapy for Anxiety Relief
Tip #2 - Anxiety Treatment Model: As I mentioned above when doing your google search you may have noticed therapists may use certain treatment or therapy models. Some of these therapy models work very well with anxiety treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) tends to be considered the gold star of treatment for anxiety related disorders.
To learn more about anxiety therapy models I use you can check out these blog posts for more information:
What is CBT therapy?
What is ACT Therapy?
What is Mindfulness and How is it Used in Anxiety Therapy?
Tip #3 - Anxiety Specializations: There are different types of anxiety disorders and identifying how your anxiety shows up is important to understand. Some types of anxiety disorders include Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), Social Anxiety, Phobias, Panic Disorder, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). Certain anxiety disorder may also require specific treatments as well.
To learn more about anxiety and generalized anxiety disorder check out these helpful blog posts:
Understanding Your Anxiety and How to Treat it
The Difference Between Anxiety Attacks and Panic Attacks
Tip #4 - Experience: This information you may not know right away. Some anxiety therapists will put on their website about their experience and others may not. This is a great question to ask your therapist though. What I can tell you though is therapists spend a lot of time, energy, and money to develop and hone in on their skills and specialities. Therapists go to school for years and put in a lot of hours into in internships. In addition, therapists take licensure exams from their professional boards and have to complete continuing education training courses to meet board requirements to renew their practicing license every few years. Therapists also engage in supervision and consultation groups with peers to continue learning.
Tip #5 - Your Comfort Level: This one may be the single most important tip on this list. I fully believe in order to be successful in therapy there needs to be a level of comfort and the possibility to have a positive healthy therapeutic relationship. This is one of the reasons why I offer a free 15 minute consultation, in order to determine if the potential client and I would be a good fit working together while keeping in mind all the other tips above.
Is there a tip that is most important to you? What is it that you look for when searching for an anxiety therapist?
4 Questions to ask your new therapist during a consultation call
Continue reading to find out how to get started in therapy at Calm Waters Counseling.
Starting Anxiety Therapy at Calm Waters Counseling in Wilmington, NC
Finding the best anxiety therapist for you is only half the battle. The next step is to move forward and contact the therapist to get started in therapy. At Calm Waters Counseling, I have made the process pretty easy and convenient.
Follow the steps below to get started in therapy at Calm Waters Counseling.
Schedule your free 15 minute consultation
Complete the brief questionnaire sent to your email
Meet with your anxiety therapist in Wilmington, NC
Start living the life you’ve always wanted
Other Services Offered at Calm Waters Counseling in Wilmington, NC
Learn more about me and my Wilmington, NC online based counseling practice, Calm Waters Counseling. I specialize in therapy for women providing anxiety treatment, treatment for perfectionism, therapy for imposter syndrome, and burnout counseling.
I provide online therapy for anxiety to anyone located in Maryland and North Carolina. To learn more about the online therapy services I provide in each of these states, click below.
Online Anxiety therapy in Maryland
Online Anxiety therapy in North Carolina
To learn more and get some questions answered about starting therapy at Calm Waters Counseling, click the button below.
Written by: Laura Rippeon, LCSW, LCSW-C
Updated 3/12/23