We are a private therapy practice in Downtown Seattle specializing in the use of evidence based therapy (CBT combined with psychodynamic and existential therapy) to treat anxiety and a wide range of anxiety disorders - including irrational fears (phobias), chronic stress and worry (GAD), social anxiety (social phobia), panic attacks (panic disorder), obsessive thinking and compulsive behavior (OCD/OCPD), and traumatic stress (PTSD).
Many of our most intelligent, creative, and capable individuals will never reach anywhere near their full potential. They will never become who it is they are meant to be, despite not having anything standing in their way. If you are one of these individuals, or you know one of them, then you know just how frustrating this problem can be.
What holds them back are their anxieties - chronic and oppressive parts of themselves that are built upon fear and experienced variously as indecision, lack of focus, apprehension, panic, and so on…
However, not all anxieties are experienced. Because the experience of anxiety is so unpleasant, much of it is habitually forced out of awareness through defense mechanisms - maladaptive ways of coping that are often not recognized or understood by those whose lives are governed by them. Avoidance, chronic distraction, and addictions to both substances and behaviors are just some of the ways that anxiety is suppressed without being dealt with.
For those suffering from anxiety, the best course of action is to seek treatment from a therapist. By any standard of measurement, therapy is remarkably effective. This has been made clear by thousands of individual studies and hundreds of meta-analyses that have been conducted over several decades.
Therapy works better even than medication - and unlike medication, therapy offers tremendous long-term benefits (1). Those who successfully complete it are happier, healthier, and more productive than their peers (2); and with new found levels of self-understanding they are able to stop worrying and procrastinating, gain confidence, and start experiencing life more richly and fully (3).
Furthermore, getting treatment for your anxiety may add years to your life and save you a substantial amount of money on healthcare costs (4). This is because chronic stress plays a costly role in disease onset and progression. Those who complete therapy for anxiety stand to substantially reduce their risk of cardiovascular disease (5), cancer (6), and dementia (7).
"So, first of all, let me assert my firm belief that the only thing we have to fear is fear itself — nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance."
― Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Research Cited:
(1) Hollon, S. D., Stewart, M. O., & Strunk, D. (2006). "Enduring effects for cognitive behavior therapy in the treatment of depression and anxiety." Annual Review of Psychology, vol. 57, 285–315.
(2) VandenBos, Gary R.; DeLeon, Patrick H. (1988) "The use of psychotherapy to improve physical health." Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, and Training. vol. 25(3), 335-343.
(3) Haycock, Laurel A; McCarthy, Patricia; Skay, Carol L. (1998). "Procrastination in college students: The role of self-efficacy and anxiety." Journal of Counseling and Development, vol. 76(3). 317-324.
(4) Simon, G., Ormel, J., VonKorff, M. and Barlow, W., 1995. “Health care costs associated with depressive and anxiety disorders in primary care.” American Journal of Psychiatry, 152(3), pp.352-357.
(5) Celano, C.M., Daunis, D.J., Lokko, H.N., Campbell, K.A. and Huffman, J.C., 2016. “Anxiety disorders and cardiovascular disease.” Current psychiatry reports, 18(11), p.101.
(6) Chida, Y., Hamer, M., Wardle, J. and Steptoe, A., 2008. “Do stress-related psychosocial factors contribute to cancer incidence and survival?”. Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology, 5(8), p.466.
(7) Greenberg, M.S., Tanev, K., Marin, M.F. and Pitman, R.K., 2014. “Stress, PTSD, and dementia.” Alzheimer's & Dementia, 10(3), pp.S155-S165.
The point of anxiety is to keep us from physical harm. In this respect, it has been a tremendously helpful evolutionary adaptation. For hundreds of thousands of years, it kept our ancestors out of harms way by sounding alarms in their heads and by making them feel incredibly uncomfortable in dangerous situations. You are alive today, in no small part, because some ancestor of yours became anxious when they heard the sound of a nearby lion.
However, anxiety has outgrown its usefulness. Our lives are nothing like the lives of our distant ancestors. We do not need anxiety to live long and healthy lives. Quite to the contrary, our worrying is literally killing us. There are no lions in our cities - and our knowledge about the world generally suffices to keep us from walking out into traffic or jumping off tall buildings. Unlike our distant ancestors, we suffer not from a lack of fear, but from an overabundance of it.
The most anxiety provoking parts of our lives would be far better handled without the attendant anxious feelings. Job interviews, first dates, work deadlines, and even crisis situations would go much more smoothly if only we were calm, confident, and able to bring a clear mind to the task at hand. This is the point of therapy for anxiety.
… The time will soon be past when it will be enough for you to live like shy deer hiding in the woods. Eventually knowledge will stretch out her hand to take what is due to her.
— Friedrich Nietzsche
Finding the best therapist is all about finding the best fit. All the therapists at Seattle Anxiety Specialists have backgrounds and sub-specializations that uniquely position them to serve particular clients.
If you are not sure which therapist would be the best fit for you, there is no need to worry. Any of our therapists can do a first session with you to help you get a better sense of what your therapeutic needs are. You can also email our administrative assistant with any questions you might have at info@seattleanxiety.com
Email: jim@seattleanxiety.com
Washington State Department of Health License Number: MG60929529
Before returning to graduate school to become a therapist, Jim had a successful career in tech spanning two decades. His experiences working as a researcher at NASA’s Ames Research Center, as a Senior Program Manager at Microsoft, and also as a Senior Business Intelligence Analyst at T-Mobile, make him an exceptionally good fit for individuals confronting the unique stresses of working in the tech industry.
In addition to his work with individuals, Jim also has extensive training and experience providing couples therapy and family therapy.
Email: jennifer@seattleanxiety.com
Washington State Department of Health License Number: LH60793990
Prior to joining the practice, Jennifer had a successful private practice in the Bay Area specializing in treating Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and other anxiety disorders using Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). She has spent a substantial amount of time involved in research at UC Berkeley and Stanford University. She is also a graduate of the International OCD Foundation’s intensive Behavior Therapy Training Institute (BTTI).
Jennifer also loves working with parents on anxiety related to raising children and with Asian Americans on anxieties related to cultural identity.
Email: jerome@seattleanxiety.com
Washington State Department of Health License Number: MC60775744
Jerome is an associate therapist in the practice and also teaches full time at a local university. He designs courses for advanced students on the significance of trauma and what it means for us to process and heal from traumatic experiences. He has also published numerous articles and a recent book focused on understanding our relationship to our past.
Prior to his graduate studies in Psychology, Jerome earned a PhD in Philosophy, still teaches Philosophy at the college level, and as a result is also an exceptionally good fit for clients struggling with issues of purpose, meaning, and personal identity. He can also provide therapy in German.
Email: jennie@seattleanxiety.com
Washington State Department of Health License Number: SC60659093
Jennie is an associate therapist in the practice and also heads our integrative and mental health consulting. Prior to joining the practice she was lead medical social worker at the Polyclinic, a department and role within the Polyclinic that she founded and developed. Jennie has also spent a substantial amount of time involved in research at the University of Washington, has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University, and has been an invited guest on a number of popular podcasts and television shows.
Jennie specializes both in utilizing exposure therapies for phobias and OCD, as well as in utilizing ACT, a modern variant of CBT that is highly effective in helping individuals overcome Generalized Anxiety Disorder.
Email: liz@seattleanxiety.com
Washington State Department of Health License Number: MC60894405
Liz is an associate therapist in the practice and also serves as adjunct faculty at a local law school. Prior to studying Psychology and becoming a therapist, she had a successful career as an attorney. Liz's background and experience give her an unusually keen understanding of the stress and anxiety associated with working in a high-stakes professional environment. She helps clients navigate the existential questions and interpersonal challenges often found therein, and thrive in the face of them.
Liz is also trained as a professional mediator and conflict coach.
Email: chris@seattleanxiety.com
Washington State Department of Health License Number: SC60855388
Prior to joining the practice, Chris worked extensively in developing and implementing experiential-based therapy programs designed to ease stress and anxiety. He is trained in advanced Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) through programs at the University of Washington and the Medical University of South Carolina.
In addition to his work at Seattle Anxiety Specialists, Chris has worked with non-profits to develop support groups for LGBTQ+ teens and has served as lead guide for a wilderness therapy program based in the rainforests of Hawaii. Chris has also spent a substantial amount of time working as a mental health researcher at the University of Michigan.
Email: case@seattleanxiety.com
Washington State Department of Health License Number: LH60875123
Case has worked for many years in a wide variety of settings, from psychiatric clinics to homeless shelters, providing psychotherapy to clients struggling with severe mental health issues. The clinical expertise he has developed in these settings, using evidence based methods such as Brief Solution Focused Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), make him a great fit for clients with particularly acute and challenging symptoms such as panic disorder and chronic suicidal ideation.
Case also has extensive experience managing the often complex interrelationships between anxiety, substance abuse, depression, and additional diagnoses such as Autism Spectrum disorders and ADHD.
Email: sonya@seattleanxiety.com
Washington State Department of Health License Number: MC60982402
Sonya is an associate therapist in the practice. Prior to joining Seattle Anxiety Specialists, she provided therapy for patients at Johns Hopkins, utilizing evidence based therapies such as CBT and ACT to treat patients struggling with anxiety disorders as well as those struggling with issues such as depression, chronic pain, and chronic illness.
In addition to her work as a therapist, Sonya has spent a substantial amount of time involved in research. Much of this has been through the Johns Hopkins' School of Public Health.
Note that Sonya is also a native French speaker and can provide therapy in French as well as in English.
Email: rachael@seattleanxiety.com
Washington State Department of Health License Number: LF60914997
A trained artist before going to graduate school for Psychology, Rachael has exhibited her work in local art galleries and has created album art for local PNW bands. She brings these worlds together in her therapeutic work, helping her clients learn to express themselves with confidence.
Rachael has partnered with the Seattle Children’s Hospital Gender Clinic to provide gender affirming therapeutic and medical care for trans and non binary youth. She serves Seattle Public Schools and King County in an advisory capacity to improve the quality of healthcare of trans youth in Seattle schools. She also provides guest lectures for Psychology students at local universities. Rachael excels at providing art and play therapy, in addition to CBT. She is also experienced in navigating Seattle public school systems with special focus on IEP and 504 plan implementation.
Email: blake@seattleanxiety.com
Washington State Department of Health License Number: LH60884873
Blake serves as the director of the practice and also provides group therapy, gives talks, provides professional consultations, and leads workshops on stress and anxiety for organizations in the Seattle area.
In addition to his work as a therapist, Blake has pursued a wide range of other professional interests. He has taught Philosophy and Logic at the college level, curated a lecture series for a group of art galleries in the Portland area, and worked as a writer for Max Baucus (U.S. ambassador to China under the Obama Administration).
Anxious individuals tend to be highly creative and intelligent, but these attributes are a double-edged sword. Able to examine situations from many angles, to see possibilities that require them to think outside the box, and to analyze consequences in elaborate detail - they can easily fall into the trap of surface level anxiety.
At the same time, these individuals often possess searching minds, an inability to rest content with simple answers, and a selective but often obsessive focus that leaves them frequently misunderstood by friends and family members.
Without a space in which they can be understood and can explore their own mental complexity, such individuals experience stagnation, frustration, and a persistent sense of being ill-at-ease in the world. Truly comprehensive treatment provides that space - a space in which both powerful insight and authentic expression are born.
“The largest part of what we call 'personality' is determined by how we've opted to defend ourselves against anxiety and sadness.”
― Alain de Botton
Anxieties are as complex as the people who suffer from them. Comprehensive approaches to treatment respect this complexity, addressing surface level manifestations of anxiety, but also going deeper - because those parts of our anxiety that we are able to articulate are only the tip of the iceberg.
We employ an integrative model of treatment, designed to address anxieties at multiple levels of depth.
The first phase addresses anxieties that result from ingrained patterns of conscious and semi-conscious thinking. To treat these, variants of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy are used.
Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is usually the first line of treatment for anxiety disorders, especially for individuals who suffer from more acute symptoms. It is an active form of therapy in which thinking patterns are identified, analyzed, and deliberately changed through targeted interventions.
The scientific evidence supporting CBT is overwhelming (1, 2). It works well and it works quickly. In contrast to many other forms of therapy, CBT can usually be completed in just a few months.
Our therapists utilize a number of specialized variants such as PE, ERP, ACT, TF-CBT, CPT, SFBT, MBCT, and REBT.
The second phase addresses anxieties that are the result of unresolved, and often unconscious, interpersonal and intrapersonal tensions. Because these tensions are buried, therapy must look beyond conscious thinking patterns. This requires a contemporary and scientifically vetted version of the psychoanalytic (often called "psychodynamic") approach.
Psychoanalytic therapy has been refined for over a century since it was originally developed by Sigmund Freud. It is an exploratory form of therapy in which the client's personal history and the complex dynamics of their life are examined in depth. The purpose of analysis is to develop insight and a deeper understanding of self that can set us free from these tensions.
Although difficult to study, given the open-ended and exploratory nature of the therapeutic approach, psychoanalytic therapies have been shown to be effective in a number of studies (3, 4). Our therapists utilize evidence based versions of this approach to treatment, such as Schema Therapy (5).
The third phase addresses anxieties resulting from more fundamental understandings about one's self and one's world. These are understandings that shape one's perception of reality and that can have a profound effect on anxiety. Deconstructing one's fundamental understandings creates space for a more radical kind of transformation - and for this purpose, a version of existential therapy is used.
Drawing on the insights of thinkers such as Friedrich Nietzsche and Jean-Paul Sartre, it is an avant-garde approach to treatment not often found outside of the European continent.
Although difficult to study given the complexity of its conceptual foundations, versions of existential therapy have been shown to be effective in a number of clinical studies (6). Some psychologists have even claimed, quite controversially, that "only this type of therapy can replace emptiness with fulfillment and meaning and thus engender authentic, creative solutions to the challenges of this age" (7).
Research Cited:
(1) Hofmann, S. G., & Smits, J. A. (2008). "Cognitive-behavioral therapy for adult anxiety disorders: a meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials." The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, vol. 69(4), 621-32.
(2) Hofmann, S. G., Asnaani, A., Vonk, I. J., Sawyer, A. T., & Fang, A. (2012). "The efficacy of cognitive behavioral therapy: a review of meta-analyses." Cognitive Therapy and Research, vol. 36(5), 427-440.
(3) Leichsenring, F., Abbass, A., Luyten, P., Hilsenroth, M., & Rabung, S. (2013). "The emerging evidence for long-term psychodynamic therapy." Psychodynamic Psychiatry vol. 41: 361–84.
(4) de Maat S, de Jonghe F, de Kraker R, Leichsenring F, Abbass A, Luyten P, Barber JP, Rien V, Dekker J. (2013). "The current state of the empirical evidence for psychoanalysis: a meta-analytic approach." Harvard Review of Psychiatry, vol. 21(3): 107-137.
(5) Bamelis, L.L., Evers, S.M., Spinhoven, P. and Arntz, A., 2014. "Results of a multicenter randomized controlled trial of the clinical effectiveness of schema therapy for personality disorders". American Journal of Psychiatry, 171(3), pp.305-322.
(6) Vos, Joël; Craig, Meghan; Cooper, Mick. (2015). "Existential therapies: A meta-analysis of their effects on psychological outcomes." Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, vol. 83(1), 115-128.
(7) Bugental, James F. T.; Bracke, Paul E. (1992). "The future of existential-humanistic psychotherapy." Psychotherapy: Theory, Research, Practice, Training, vol. 29(1), 28-33.
Our therapists have given talks and provided workshops to a number of audiences from within the U.S and abroad.
If you are interested in getting in touch with us to discuss a fee and our availability to give a talk or to do a workshop for your organization, please send an email to: blake@seattleanxiety.com
Some of the academic venues at which we have presented research:
Mind, Method, and Morality, a conference co-hosted by the University of Pittsburgh & Carnegie Mellon University
An annual meeting of the Society for Philosophy and Psychology hosted by Brown University
The first Aarhus-Paris Conference in Social Ontology and Cognition, organized by researchers from the University of Copenhagen, the Ecole Normale Supérieure, and MindLab at Aarhus University
Frontiers of Rationality and Decision: the final workshop of a European research network funded by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research and hosted by the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
The Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society Conference, hosted each year by the University of Oxford
A conference to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the Publication of Bertrand Russell's The Problems of Philosophy, hosted by the University of Glasgow & the Centre for the Study of Perceptual Experience
At a conference on the nature of human autonomy hosted by Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland
At the 13th annual conference of the International Society for the Study of European Ideas at the University of Cyprus in Nicosia
An annual meeting of the Portuguese Society for Analytic Philosophy, hosted by the Universidade do Minho
At an event hosted by the Freiburg Institute for Advanced Studies at Albert-Ludwigs-Universität in Freiburg, Germany
An annual meeting of the Humanistic Psychology Society of the American Psychological Association
At a meeting of the Institute of Philosophical Research at Seoul National University in Seoul, South Korea
“If anyone is unwilling to descend into himself, because this is too painful, he will remain superficial in his writing... If I perform to myself, then it’s this that the style expresses. And then the style cannot be my own. If you are unwilling to know what you are, your writing is a form of deceit.”
― Ludwig Wittgenstein
If you'd like to view our current availability and schedule time for a psychotherapy session, simply visit our reserve an appointment page. It only takes a couple of minutes to select a therapist and view their ability for a session.
Waiting List: If there are no appointments available in the secure client portal, please reach out to us over email so that you can be put on one of our waiting lists. As clients are always at various stages of the therapeutic process, it may only be a short time until a time opens up.
Note that sometimes our waiting list can become very long and that we can never guarantee that we will be able to see you by a certain date. Therapists may decline to add potential clients to their waiting list as well, if they don’t believe they will have an opening in the foreseeable future.
The best way to get ahold of us is by email. You can email your therapist directly using the contact information listed in their profile (here).
*Keep in mind that communications via email are not secure. Although it is unlikely, there is a possibility that information you include in an email can be intercepted and read by other parties besides the person to whom it is addressed. If this is a concern for you, consider instead either calling us at (206) 309-5990 or sending messages through Hushmail (the HIPAA compliant encryption service that manages our email and which you can use for free, provided you set up a password with us beforehand). At the very least, you should always omit personal identifying information from your emails, such as your birth date or personal medical information.
Consultations: Sometimes potential clients ask for a free short initial consultation prior to jumping into an hour long therapy session. However, there are a number of clinical, ethical, and legal reasons for which we do not provide such consultations. One of these reasons is that we need to spend at least an hour with most clients before getting a clear sense both of what's going on and of what kind of treatment approach might be suitable. For this reason, our first time together will be treated as an initial session. Usually these initial sessions include some psychoeducation and initial forays into our therapeutic work together. Keep in mind that engaging in an initial session, or in any subsequent sessions, in no way obligates you to continue therapy with us. If at any point you feel like we are not well matched, we will be happy to try and provide you with a referral to another therapist in the area who we think fits what you’re looking for in a provider.
Referrals: Sometimes during the course of therapy, usually within the first or second session, we will refer individuals to other therapists in the area, or to another type of clinician altogether, if we feel like they would be better served.
The self exploration undertaken in therapy is interesting and valuable for its own sake. However, therapy can and should also be seen as an investment. Your mind is by far the most valuable asset that you have. This means that through committing yourself to exploring and improving yourself mentally, you stand to enrich your life considerably. The insights and depth of awareness that come through therapy are not only helpful on an emotional level, helping us to feel less anxious for example, but also provide a whole host of other benefits. Great successes, both in our personal and professional lives, are often possible only because of the investment we have made in ourselves up to that point.
"There are risks and costs to a program of action. But they are far less than the long-range risks and costs of a comfortable inaction."
― John F. Kennedy
Standard Rates: Each 60 minute individual therapy session is billed at $250 and each 90 minute group psychotherapy session is billed at $100 per session per participant (see below for details about insurance reimbursement and our cancellation policies).
Billing Process: The credit, debit, or HSA card on file will be charged following each appointment, usually on the following business day. A statement for insurance reimbursement that you can submit to your insurance company will be created for you on the first day of each month and will be available for you to download from the secure client portal.
Health Savings Accounts and Flexible Spending Accounts: Health savings accounts (HSA) and flexible spending accounts (FSA) can be used to pay for medical expenses such as therapy and can often significantly decrease the cost of treatment. Please feel free to use either of these as your means of payment if you have them as a medical benefit through your employer.
Tax Deductions: Medical expenses, including out-of-pocket costs for psychotherapy, can often be deducted on your income taxes. You should speak with an accounting professional to determine whether you would be eligible for such a deduction.
Insurance Reimbursement: Most insurers cover a significant portion of our fees. If you decide to seek reimbursement from your insurance company, we will provide you with a detailed invoice (sometimes called a "superbill") that will make this process simple and straightforward. It usually only takes a couple of minutes to submit a claim and your insurance company's claims person can walk you through what steps to take if you have any questions.
Like many therapists, we choose not to be under contract with insurers. Being "in-network" (under contract) would mean agreeing to much lower reimbursement rates for our services and would mean many hours of extra (unpaid) paperwork each week. Being "in-network" would also greatly diminish our ability to provide adequate confidentiality, because these contracts stipulate that we must hand over our client's confidential treatment information (therapy notes) to the insurer.
Keep in mind that it is your responsibility to learn about your particular insurance plan and about what portion of services they will cover. The number for your insurance company should be listed on your insurance card. Our services are usually covered as part of the "out-of-network" portion of healthcare plans.
Common frustrations among patients in healthcare include waiting for an appointment to start and feeling rushed during an appointment. These are unfortunate side effects of a practice called "double booking". This practice exists to compensate for the fact that a substantial number of patients will cancel their appointments late (without enough notice for another patient to utilize the time) or simply no-show (without giving any notice). Double booking eliminates down-time for doctors and increases the efficiency of their practice. Many believe that the benefits outweigh the costs.
We follow boutique healthcare guidelines and never double-book appointments. The benefit to you is that you will never waste your time sitting in a waiting room, not knowing when your appointment will start. Your appointments will always begin on time and will never have to be rushed or cut short. The hour you reserve is held exclusively for you.
No waiting. No rushing.
In place of double-booking, there is a 24 hour cancellation policy in effect. What this means for you is that you won't be billed for a cancellation, for any reason, as long as you give at least 24hrs notice. For example, if you schedule an appointment for noon on Tuesday, you will have up until noon that Monday to cancel without being charged.
All reasons for missing the cancellation deadline or for not showing up for your appointment are valid and understandable. Whether you've fallen ill at the last minute, your work has forced you to stay late, a snowstorm has made it unsafe for you to drive into the city, or even if you just forgot - missing your appointment is never something someone does intentionally. Although exceptions to the cancellation policy are not made, if for whatever reason you cannot make it into the office for your appointment, you will always have the option of doing a video or phone session during the hour you have reserved.
Weekly payment for group sessions are treated as a membership fee that you pay to reserve a spot in the group. They are only waived when a meeting is cancelled by the therapist leading the group. Although notifying your group therapist that you cannot make it to your group is very much appreciated, you will still be billed the weekly fee.
Thank you for your understanding.
Location: Our offices are located at 1904 3rd Avenue in Seattle, Washington.
Waiting for Your Appointment: If you are coming between the hours of 8:00 am and 6:00 pm (Mon-Fri), the building should be unlocked. If you arrive early, please feel free to make yourself comfortable in the waiting room.
Weekend and Evenings Appointments: For those meeting with us after hours (after 6pm), or on the weekend, please wait at the 3rd avenue entrance. We will meet you there at the time of your appointment.
Professional Consultations: These are made available for a number of different purposes. We provide consulting to other mental health professionals, to parents and family members of those suffering from anxiety, as well as to those working in primary care, human resources, management, education, and a number of other related fields.
Psychiatric Diagnostic Evaluations: These are interviews with the client intended to determine an appropriate diagnosis and treatment recommendation. The first session with a client is usually considered an informal psychiatric diagnostic evaluation. A more formal psychiatric diagnostic evaluation or assessment may be carried out at another point if circumstances warrant.
Psychotherapy Sessions: These are intended to help the client manage their symptoms and uncover the root causes of the issues confronting them.
Length of Sessions: Our individual psychotherapy sessions are a traditional full hour (60 minutes) - which is not the norm, as most therapists these days limit their sessions to 45 or 50 minutes. Our group therapy sessions are typically an hour and a half (90 minutes) long, though group members are encouraged to get there early to settle in before the session begins.
Frequency of Sessions: It is normal to meet once each week. This frequency strikes a nice balance between giving the client time to process what has happened in the last session and making sure the material from that session is still fresh. However, there are any number of reasons why meeting more or less frequently than this may be appropriate.
Length of Therapy: Clients often want to know how long it is going to be until they begin to see benefits from their therapy. This is understandable. Anxiety and its consequences are often miserable. As someone suffering from anxiety, you want to find a treatment that will help you feel better and help you overcome your personal and professional obstacles as soon as possible. The treatments we use, such as Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy, work well - and for many of our clients, they provide substantial relief of symptoms after just a handful of sessions.
Keep in mind that differences in the length of therapy often reflect differences in the depth and complexity of issues faced by those who are seeking therapy - differences which may not be apparent to either the client or their therapist at the outset of therapy. The upshot of this is that those who require more therapy often stand to gain more from their treatment. We will check in with you regularly about where you are at and what your goals are, to make sure that time is not wasted on issues that are of no or little importance to you.
We offer a blend of psychotherapy, mental health counseling, and life-coaching that is backed by the latest scientific research and which is specifically designed for treating anxiety and stress. Issues we provide treatment for include work and school related stress, Social Anxiety (social phobia), panic attacks (panic disorder), Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD), Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD), specific phobias, existential anxiety, relationship anxiety, attendant issues that result from stress and anxiety (see below), as well as the Cluster C Personality Disorders, including Avoidant Personality Disorder, Dependent Personality Disorder, and Obsessive Compulsive Personality Disorder.
Issues resulting from stress and anxiety that we treat include trouble sleeping (insomnia), depression (including Major Depressive Disorder), burnout, trouble adjusting to new environments or to new phases in life (adjustment disorder), chronic distraction or tech addiction, substance abuse, and alcohol or cannabis dependence. Evidence based forms of therapy, such as Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Contemporary Psychoanalytic Therapy, and Existential Therapy are offered.
We run therapy groups and may also occasionally organize events for our clients to socialize and share their experiences with one another. These groups are not mandatory, but can be very helpful. Group members who have similar experiences are often able to learn a great deal from one another.
Please inquire if you are interested in attending a regularly scheduled group.
If you are seeking advice on how to help anxious individuals, you may schedule time to meet with us and learn about the causes of anxiety and about how you can help those who suffer from it. Consultations are often helpful for other mental health or primary care professionals, for parents and family members of anxious individuals, as well as for managers and human resource representatives.
Tele-therapy (via the phone), and e-therapy (via electronic messaging and video chat) are made available on a case by case basis (at the same standard rate). Not all phone calls and emails are billed, only those that are considered therapy. Home and office visits are also made available on a case by case basis. If you are interested in home or office visits, please contact us to discuss additional fees associated with transit.
Seattle Anxiety, PLLC
National Provider Identification Number: 1629512066
Copyright © 2016 by Blake Thompson, LMHC
All Rights Reserved
All text on seattleanxiety.com, unless otherwise indicated, is copyrighted and may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed in whole or in part without the express written permission of the author.
Contact: info@seattleanxiety.com for more information.
If you or someone you know is presently unsafe or experiencing a medical emergency, please call 911.
If you are in crisis, don't hesitate to reach out to one of these resources:
King County Crisis Hotline at: 866-4-CRISIS (866-427-4747)
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline: 1-800-273-TALK (8255)
National Hopeline Network: 1-800-SUICIDE (800-784-2433)
Lifeline Crisis Chat (Online live messaging): contact-usa.org/chat
Crisis Text Line: text "START" to 741-741
Self-Harm Hotline: 1-800-DONT CUT (1-800-366-8288)
Suicide Prevention Wiki: suicideprevention.wikia.com
Young People of Color can text "STEVE" to 741-741
Veterans Crisis Line: veteranscrisisline.net
Family Violence Helpline: 1-800-996-6228
National Domestic Violence Hotline: 1- 800-799-7233
Planned Parenthood Hotline: 1-800-230-PLAN (7526)
National Council on Alcoholism & Drug Dependency Hope Line: 1-800-622-2255
American Association of Poison Control Centers: 1-800-222-1222
National Crisis Line for Anorexia and Bulimia: 1-800-233-4357
LGBTQ+ Hotline: 1-888-843-4564
TREVOR Crisis Hotline (for LGBTQ+ youth): 1-866-488-7386
Trans Lifeline: 877-565-8860
AIDS Crisis Line: 1-800-221-7044
Please note that we do not provide crisis management, housing, legal (evaluations for court or other judicial proceedings) or medication services. If this is the type of care you need, we can provide you with a referral.
Learn about the underlying causes of anxiety and about how you can take control.
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