Anxiety Therapy in Indianapolis • In-Person + Online
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Evidence-based anxiety therapy in Indianapolis for adults, teens, and young adults.
Anxiety can take up a surprising amount of room in your life.
You may be functioning just fine on the outside.
You go to work. You answer the texts. You take care of people. You make the lists. You think through every possible scenario—sometimes twice.
And somehow your brain is still saying:
Yes, but have we considered everything that could go wrong?
At High Thrive Counseling, we provide anxiety therapy in Indianapolis for adults, young adults, and teens who are tired of spending so much energy trying to feel okay.
Anxiety can look like panic and obvious fear. But it can also look like overthinking, perfectionism, irritability, trouble sleeping, replaying conversations, constantly preparing, needing reassurance, avoiding things, or simply never feeling fully settled.
Our Indianapolis anxiety therapists help you understand what is keeping the anxiety going, learn practical ways to respond differently, and work toward a life that is not organized around fear.
And no, the goal is not to turn you into a person who never worries.
Anxiety can be obvious. It can also be remarkably sneaky.
Sometimes your heart races, your chest tightens, and your mind immediately begins searching for an escape route.
Other times, you look completely competent from the outside while internally running seventeen different contingency plans.
You might even wonder whether you “qualify” as anxious because you're still getting things done.
You do.
Anxiety is not measured by how impressive you look while experiencing it.
You do not need to experience every symptom on this list.
And you do not need to wait until anxiety completely disrupts your life before asking for help.
What kind of anxiety are you dealing with?
There is no single anxiety personality.
Two people can both struggle with anxiety and look completely different.
Understanding your particular anxiety pattern helps us figure out what kind of treatment is most likely to help.
Generalized Anxiety & Chronic Worry
Your mind moves quickly from one concern to another.
Work. Money. Your kids. Your health. Your relationship. Something you said Tuesday. Something that might happen six months from now.
You may know intellectually that worrying isn't actually solving the problem.
Your brain remains unconvinced.
Therapy for generalized anxiety can help you recognize worry patterns, become more comfortable with uncertainty, and stop treating every anxious thought as something that requires immediate investigation.
Panic Attacks & Fear of Panic
A panic attack can feel terrifying.
Your heart races. Breathing changes. You feel dizzy, disconnected, trapped, or convinced something terrible is happening.
And then another problem develops:
You become anxious about becoming anxious.
You start monitoring your body.
Avoiding certain places.
Making sure you can leave.
Wondering whether another panic attack is coming.
Anxiety therapy can help interrupt the cycle of fearing the sensations of anxiety themselves and gradually rebuild trust in your body.
Social Anxiety
Social anxiety isn't necessarily being shy.
It can be spending an enormous amount of time wondering how you came across.
Did I talk too much?
Was that weird?
Do they think I'm annoying?
Should I have said something different?
You may avoid social events, speaking up, dating, networking, conflict, or anything else that carries the possibility of being judged.
Therapy can help you spend less energy monitoring yourself and more energy actually participating in your life.
High-Functioning Anxiety & Perfectionism
Some anxious people are extremely productive.
Actually, anxiety may be one of the reasons they are so productive.
You prepare.
Overprepare.
Double-check.
Anticipate problems.
Try not to disappoint anyone.
And accomplish quite a bit while privately feeling as though you're always slightly behind.
High-functioning anxiety can become difficult to recognize because many of the behaviors get rewarded.
Therapy isn't about making you care less or lowering every standard you have.
It is about figuring out when conscientiousness has quietly become fear.
Anxiety Connected to Trauma
Sometimes anxiety is not primarily about what is happening now.
Your nervous system learned from something that happened before.
You may understand logically that you are safe while your body continues reacting as though the danger is still present.
When anxiety is connected to trauma, painful experiences, or persistent triggers, trauma-focused therapy or EMDR may be part of treatment.
Explore Trauma & EMDR Therapy in Indianapolis →Anxiety therapy should involve more than telling you to breathe.
Breathing can be useful. We are fans of oxygen.
But if deep breathing had completely solved your anxiety, you probably wouldn't be reading a therapist's website at 11:47 p.m.
Good anxiety treatment starts with understanding your particular anxiety cycle.
What triggers it? What happens in your thoughts? What happens in your body? What do you do next?
Does that response actually help—or does it give you temporary relief while making anxiety stronger over time?
Together, we'll build a treatment plan around what is actually happening rather than handing you a generic list of coping skills.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
CBT can help you recognize patterns of anxious thinking, examine the assumptions underneath them, and respond to thoughts differently.
The goal isn't to convince yourself that nothing bad will ever happen.
It's learning that every anxious thought does not automatically deserve the role of Chief Executive Officer.
Gradual exposure & reducing avoidance
Anxiety often grows when life gets smaller.
When appropriate, therapy can help you gradually approach situations, sensations, conversations, or experiences you have been avoiding.
The goal is not to throw you into something terrifying. It is to help your nervous system learn that discomfort and danger are not always the same thing.
Learning to tolerate uncertainty
A surprising amount of anxiety is an attempt to answer a question that cannot be answered with complete certainty.
Therapy can help you get better at saying:
I don't know exactly what will happen—and I can handle not knowing.
Working with the nervous system
Anxiety is not happening exclusively in your thoughts.
We may use grounding, mindfulness, body awareness, breathing, and other strategies to help you recognize and respond to physiological anxiety.
EMDR & trauma-focused therapy
When anxiety is connected to previous experiences, trauma, triggers, or memories that still feel unusually present, EMDR may be incorporated into treatment.
Learn About EMDR Therapy →Changing what happens outside the therapy room
Ultimately, the goal is not for you to become excellent at discussing anxiety with your therapist.
The goal is for your life to change.
What can an anxiety treatment plan actually help you do?
Anxiety treatment is not about eliminating every nervous thought or turning you into someone who never worries.
Some anxiety is part of being human.
We're aiming for something more realistic—and considerably more useful.
Over time, you may begin to notice that you:
That is progress.
Anxiety therapy for adults, young adults & teens in Indianapolis
Anxiety does not belong to one age group.
Sometimes anxiety is the primary problem. Sometimes it overlaps with something else.
Anxiety commonly shows up alongside depression, ADHD, trauma, grief, relationship problems, sleep difficulties, burnout, and major life changes.
Part of good therapy is figuring out what you're actually treating.
Adults
Work. Relationships. Parenting. Health concerns. Burnout. Changing bodies. Aging parents. Major life transitions.
You may be doing all of it quite competently while your brain remains convinced you need to anticipate every possible problem.
Young Adults
College, careers, money, relationships, independence, identity, and the pressure to somehow know exactly what you're doing before you've had time to figure it out.
Anxiety during this stage can become exhausting very quickly.
Teens
School pressure, friendships, social anxiety, performance anxiety, family stress, ADHD, perfectionism, and feeling overwhelmed can all contribute to anxiety in teenagers.
Therapy can help teens understand what is happening and develop skills that actually fit their lives.
Smart therapy. Human therapists.
Therapy for anxiety should not feel like someone reading coping strategies to you from a laminated handout.
At High Thrive, our therapists are active, curious, collaborative, and willing to tell you what we're noticing.
We want to understand why something is happening.
And then we want that understanding to become useful.
Sometimes the strategy you've been using to control anxiety is accidentally helping keep anxiety alive.
You can ask questions.
You can disagree.
You can be candid.
You can tell us something isn't helping.
You do not have to perform being “good at therapy.”
You already have enough things to overthink.
Anxiety counseling in Indianapolis, Indiana
High Thrive Counseling is located in Broad Ripple, Indianapolis.
Indianapolis, IN 46220
We provide in-person anxiety therapy for clients throughout Indianapolis and surrounding communities, including Broad Ripple, Meridian-Kessler, Carmel, Fishers, Zionsville, Brownsburg, Avon, and nearby areas.
We also offer online anxiety therapy throughout Indiana, making it possible to meet with your therapist from home when getting across town feels like one more thing you don't particularly need on your schedule.
Prefer in-person therapy?
Our Broad Ripple office is convenient to Indianapolis and surrounding communities.
Get Directions to High Thrive Counseling →Prefer online?
Online therapy is available throughout Indiana. Depending on the therapist, telehealth may also be available in Florida.
Questions about anxiety therapy
How do I know if I need therapy for anxiety?
You do not need to wait until anxiety becomes unbearable.
Consider talking with an anxiety therapist when worry, fear, panic, overthinking, avoidance, irritability, physical anxiety, or difficulty relaxing is beginning to affect your relationships, work, school, sleep, decision-making, or ability to enjoy your life.
Another perfectly legitimate reason?
You're tired of dealing with it.
What type of therapy is best for anxiety?
There is no single therapy that is best for every person or every type of anxiety.
Research-supported anxiety treatment commonly includes Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, behavioral and exposure-based approaches, mindfulness strategies, and work focused on reducing avoidance and improving tolerance of uncertainty.
When anxiety is connected to trauma or distressing past experiences, EMDR or other trauma-focused therapy may also be useful.
Your therapist will help determine an approach based on your symptoms, history, goals, and the patterns keeping the anxiety going.
Can therapy help with panic attacks?
Yes. Therapy can be very helpful for panic attacks and the fear of having additional panic attacks.
Treatment often focuses on understanding the body's alarm response, changing catastrophic interpretations of physical sensations, reducing avoidance, and helping you become less afraid of anxiety itself.
Can anxiety cause physical symptoms?
Yes. Anxiety activates the body's stress response and can cause symptoms such as a racing heart, tight chest, muscle tension, dizziness, nausea, sweating, shaking, headaches, gastrointestinal symptoms, shortness of breath, or feeling disconnected from your surroundings.
New or concerning physical symptoms should be discussed with an appropriate medical provider rather than automatically assuming anxiety is the cause.
What if I'm functioning well but still feel anxious all the time?
This is extremely common.
You can have a successful career, maintain relationships, manage your responsibilities, and still spend an exhausting amount of energy worrying, preparing, overthinking, or trying to control outcomes.
Sometimes this is described as high-functioning anxiety.
How well you perform externally does not tell us how much anxiety is costing you internally.
How long does anxiety therapy take?
It depends.
Some people come to therapy for a relatively specific anxiety problem and make meaningful progress in a shorter period of time.
Others are working with long-standing anxiety, trauma, relationships, ADHD, depression, or patterns that developed over many years.
We most commonly recommend beginning therapy weekly or biweekly so you have enough continuity to build momentum. Your therapist will talk with you about progress and adjust the plan as needed.
Our goal is not therapy forever. Our goal is useful therapy.
Do you offer anxiety therapy for teens and young adults?
Yes.
High Thrive therapists work with teens and young adults dealing with anxiety, stress, perfectionism, school or college pressure, social anxiety, ADHD, depression, overwhelm, relationship difficulties, and life transitions.
Treatment is individualized based on age, symptoms, and what is actually interfering with day-to-day life.
Do you offer online anxiety therapy in Indiana?
Yes. High Thrive Counseling offers online therapy for clients throughout Indiana in addition to in-person counseling at our Broad Ripple office in Indianapolis.
Online therapy can be especially convenient for clients balancing work, college, parenting, transportation, or schedules that make getting to an office difficult.
Do you take insurance for anxiety therapy?
Insurance participation varies by therapist.
Several High Thrive clinicians are private-pay or out-of-network providers. When appropriate, we can provide a superbill that you may submit to your insurance company for possible out-of-network reimbursement.
Visit our Fees & FAQs page for current therapist fees and insurance information.
View Fees & FAQs →You don't have to wait until anxiety gets worse.
Maybe you've been living with anxiety for years.
Maybe it suddenly became louder.
Maybe nothing dramatic happened at all—and you've simply realized that spending this much of your life worried, braced, checking, planning, replaying, or trying to control the uncontrollable is exhausting.
Our Indianapolis anxiety therapists can help you understand what's happening, develop a treatment plan that fits you, and begin changing the patterns that have been keeping anxiety in charge.
In-person anxiety therapy in Broad Ripple + online counseling throughout Indiana.