When worry takes over, therapy can help
Therapy for Anxiety in San Francisco & Online Throughout California
Anxiety is part of being human. It alerts us to danger and helps us stay attentive. But when anxiety takes over, it stops serving its purpose and begins to run your life. You may find yourself in a state of constant vigilance, unable to rest. Small concerns spiral into endless worry. Panic can erupt seemingly out of nowhere. Or you may live with a diffuse sense of dread, always expecting something bad to happen but never knowing exactly what.
Sometimes anxiety feels like an emergency siren; other times it is a constant hum in the background. Either way, it can leave you exhausted, distracted, and less able to live fully.
At Amphora Psychotherapy, we offer depth-oriented, relational psychotherapy for anxiety to adults in San Francisco and online throughout California. Our work attends not only to symptoms, but to the deeper emotional and relational roots of anxiety, so it can become more understandable and less consuming over time.
How Anxiety Shows Up
Anxiety can take many forms, including:
Restlessness, irritability, or feeling “keyed up” much of the time
Racing thoughts or worry that won’t quiet down
Panic attacks with shortness of breath, a pounding heart, or dizziness
Physical tension, tightness, or stomach pain with no clear medical cause
Avoidance of situations that trigger fear
Difficulty sleeping or concentrating
A persistent sense of dread, as though something bad is always about to happen
However it appears, anxiety tends to narrow freedom—shaping where you go, what you do, and how much of life you allow yourself to experience.
A Depth-Oriented Understanding of Anxiety
From a depth-oriented perspective, anxiety is not only a symptom to eliminate; it is also a signal. It often arises when something inside feels too threatening to acknowledge directly—anger that feels dangerous, desire that feels forbidden, grief that feels unbearable, or uncertainty that feels intolerable.
In this way, anxiety can function as a form of protection. It diverts attention from feelings or conflicts that feel unsafe by flooding the body and mind with fear. While this strategy may once have helped, the cost is often high: life becomes constricted, and the underlying feelings remain unresolved.
Therapy helps by listening to anxiety rather than fighting it. Within a steady therapeutic relationship, anxiety can be approached with curiosity and care, allowing the deeper conflicts beneath it to become thinkable and workable rather than endlessly avoided.
How Therapy Treats Anxiety
Finding steadiness in the present
In the early stages of therapy, many people experience relief simply by being listened to carefully and taken seriously. Naming what has felt unmanageable alone can help you feel steadier and less overwhelmed. When helpful, we may also explore grounding strategies to support you during periods of heightened anxiety.
Understanding what drives anxiety
Over time, therapy looks beneath the surface of anxious symptoms. What feels so threatening that anxiety steps in? What is being avoided, protected, or held at bay? Understanding these dynamics helps loosen anxiety’s grip.
Expanding freedom
As underlying conflicts and patterns come into view, anxiety often becomes less dominant. Many clients describe feeling more able to make choices, tolerate uncertainty, and live with less fear of collapse.
Supporting lasting change
The goal of therapy is not to eliminate anxiety entirely—that would be neither possible nor desirable. Instead, therapy helps you relate to anxiety differently: less as an overwhelming force, more as a meaningful signal that can be understood and responded to.
Why Amphora Psychotherapy?
We do not approach anxiety as something to suppress or control, but as something to understand within relationship.
Our work with anxiety emphasizes:
A secure therapeutic base — a steady, reliable relationship that can hold anxious experience without rushing to fix it
Active, attuned engagement — careful listening, reflection, and responsiveness over time
Depth of exploration — attention to what anxiety may be protecting you from, and what becomes possible when it no longer dominates
This approach may be especially helpful for people who feel that symptom-focused treatments have not fully addressed what lies beneath their anxiety.
I think I grow tensions
like flowers
in a wood
where nobody goes
Robert Creeley, “The Flower”
Therapy for Anxiety at Amphora Psychotherapy
Living with anxiety can feel like being caught in a loop you can’t break. Therapy offers a way forward—not through quick fixes, but through understanding, patience, and sustained relational work.
At Amphora Psychotherapy, we provide a serious, reflective space where anxiety can be faced, understood, and gradually transformed.
If you’re ready to begin, we invite you to schedule a consultation.