Anxiety therapy
8 Best Anxiety Therapists in NYC
Does any of this sound like you?
You find yourself lying awake at night worrying, feeling helpless as your imagination runs wild with the worst-case scenario ‘what-ifs’ of every situation. You’re constantly making lists to try to keep track of everything in your brain but somehow the lists only ever get longer, not shorter.
You’re anxious and stressed out, struggling with feeling unsatisfied and unfulfilled, constantly replaying everything (both big and small) that you think you did wrong.
Thankfully, anxiety therapy in New York City can help.
Start feeling hopeful, empowered, and confident with anxiety therapy in NYC.
Why work with us:-
We prioritize matching you with a therapist who you can connect with and who understands your unique needs.
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We focus on creating a treatment plan specific to you and your goals, not some cookie cutter approach.
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Our goal is to develop a long-term therapeutic relationship that helps you understand your past, navigate your present, and work towards a positive future.
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Our clients describe our therapists as caring and empathetic, stating that they never feel judged or misunderstood.
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Whether you’re an investment banker, a corporate ladder-climber, an aspiring Broadway performer, a nonprofit professional, or something in between, we understand the hustle of what it takes to succeed in New York, and we’ll never minimize that, no matter what field you’re in.
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About our approach to anxiety therapy
We know that it’s easy to dismiss anxiety. It seems like everyone is suffering from anxiety these days, but that doesn’t make it any less serious.
Taking care of yourself is not a luxury–it’s essential in a fast-paced world like ours. Working with an anxiety therapist helps you manage the symptoms that are impacting your quality of life.
That’s where we come in.
Through a combination of Psychodynamic Therapy and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, we provide a targeted, but organic approach to therapy that gets results.
Therapy for anxiety can help you feel less overwhelmed, more relaxed, and more like yourself - the self you want to be and know you could be if all of the noise would just stop.
You are worth investing in. By gaining control of your anxiety through therapy, you can…
Increase your self-awareness by gaining a deeper understanding of your own communication styles, needs, and triggers in relationships.
Improve your own emotional self-regulation by learning healthier ways to manage difficult emotions and express yourself effectively.
Enhance your personal satisfaction by setting and maintaining healthy boundaries within relationships to protect your emotional well-being.
Boost your self-confidence by feeling more secure and empowered in your interactions with others.
Develop healthier coping mechanisms by identifying and using personalized strategies to navigate your relationship challenges.
Meet our top-rated NYC therapists for anxiety
Work with one of our therapists and let us help redirect anxious energy and channel it into something helpful instead of harmful. No matter how severe, if you’re ready to take charge of your anxiety, we have the right therapist for you.
1. JULIA LAPLAZA, LMHC
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As a therapist, Julia supports college students and young adults navigating the complex transition into professional life. She creates a safe space where clients can explore the intricate layers of their experiences, particularly those feeling disconnected from their authentic selves. Using a holistic approach, Julia helps her clients uncover deep-rooted challenges, examining how family dynamics and past experiences shape their current struggles. Through creative exploration and compassionate guidance, she assists her clients in breaking down barriers, rebuilding self-esteem, and developing communication skills that empower them to reclaim their narrative and create meaningful, long-term personal growth.
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Credentials: Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC)
Education: MA, Baruch College
Specialties: Trauma, Anxiety, Relationships, Transitions, Boundaries
Modalities Used: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Person-Centered Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Therapy, Psychodynamic
2. Maggie McCarthy, LMSW
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As a therapist, Maggie supports adults in their 20s and 30s navigating unresolved pain through a deeply empathetic and holistic approach. Recognizing the complex intersections of personal experiences and systemic oppression, she creates a nurturing therapeutic space where her clients can explore their deepest vulnerabilities. Using mindfulness, CBT, somatic, and narrative therapies, Maggie helps her clients reimagine past experiences and challenge negative thought patterns. She partners with her clients to understand how intergenerational and interpersonal harm impacts their mental health, prioritizing their safety and autonomy. Maggie's mission is to guide her clients towards healing, empowering them to restore their sense of self, uncover personal strengths, and cultivate inner peace.
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Credentials: Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW)
Education: MSW, Columbia School of Social Work
Specialties: Trauma, Anxiety, and Depression
Modalities Used: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Somatic Therapy, Narrative Therapy
3. Laina Mason, LCSW
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Laina has a long history of supporting her clients through navigating the complex landscape of historical and recent traumas, including sexual violence and destabilizing life transitions. She creates a compassionate, non-judgmental space where her clients can explore their experiences of anxiety, sadness, and disconnection that often prevent them from fully embracing their authentic selves. Laina's approach focuses on empowering her clients to reclaim their narrative by challenging negative self-talk, developing self-affirming practices, and recognizing their inherent strengths. Through gentle guidance, she helps her clients rebuild self-esteem, set healthy boundaries, and cultivate a sense of joy and wholeness that honors their complete, multifaceted experiences.
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Credentials: Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)
Education: MSW, University of Albany
Specialties: Sexual Trauma, Anxiety, and Depression
Modalities Used: Internal Family Systems (IFS), Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (TF-CBT), Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT), Schema Therapy, Compassion-Focused Therapy (CFT), Cognitive Processing Therapy (CPT), Polyvagal and Somatic Experiencing
4. Allison Soss, LMHC
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Allie supports adults navigating complex life challenges, including relationship struggles, career transitions, and persistent self-doubt. She creates a nurturing, non-judgmental space where her clients can explore the intricate layers of their experiences, from challenging communication patterns to deeply rooted imposter syndrome. Through a collaborative approach, Allie helps her clients reframe internalized negative beliefs and develop a compassionate understanding of self. Her therapeutic process focuses on fostering internal trust and personal empowerment, guiding her clients to address societal pressures that feed into their identity struggles. Allie's approach empowers her clients to build long-lasting skills, enhance self-worth, and cultivate a more authentic, confident sense of self for the rest of their lives.
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Credentials: Licensed Mental Health Counselor (LMHC)
Education: MA, Baruch College
Specialties: Trauma, Anxiety, Relationships, Transitions, Boundaries
Modalities Used: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Person-Centered Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Therapy, Psychodynamic
5. Greta Weiss, LMSW
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As a therapist, Greta supports young adults navigating the complex terrain of identity formation and self-discovery. She creates a supportive, empathetic space where her clients can explore the intricate pressures of young adulthood, from family expectations to societal comparisons. Using a blend of Psychodynamic and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Greta helps her clients process emotions, understand past experiences, and develop concrete skills for empowerment. Her LGBTQ-affirming approach provides a safe haven for her clients to embrace their true selves. Greta guides her clients in building confidence, improving communication, and developing a clear sense of purpose during this transformative period of personal growth.
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Credentials: Licensed Master Social Work (LMSW)
Education: MSW, Columbia University
Specialties: Young Adulthood, Life Transition, Family Systems, Trauma, Anxiety, Relationships, Transitions, Boundaries
Modalities Used: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Person-Centered Therapy, Mindfulness-Based Therapy, Psychodynamic
6. Lily Ostler, LCSW
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Lily takes a trauma-informed, collaborative approach to anxiety therapy, helping clients understand how past experiences impact their current worry patterns. She's particularly skilled at working with anxiety around relationships and life transitions in your late 20s.
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Credentials: Licensed Clinical Social Worker (LCSW)
Education: NYU Silver School of Social Work (MSW); Northwestern University (BS)
Specialties: Relationship anxiety, life transitions, trauma responses, sexuality concerns
Modalities Used: CBT, DBT, Attachment-based therapy, Mindfulness practices, Narrative therapy
7. Johanna Bellorin, LMSW
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Johanna specializes in anxiety related to major life changes—from immigration stress to post-college transitions. As a bilingual therapist, she understands cultural anxiety and helps young adults develop practical tools to manage overwhelming emotions during times of uncertainty.
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Credentials: Licensed Master Social Worker (LMSW)
Education: Columbia University (MSW); University of Central Florida (BA)
Specialties: Cultural stress, life transitions, immigration anxiety, young adult concerns
Modalities Used: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness, grounding techniques, trauma-informed therapy
8. Miranda Savage, MHC-LP
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Miranda specializes in helping young adults who feel caught in cycles of anxious thoughts, perfectionism, and self-doubt that make it hard to feel grounded in daily life. Using CBT and psychodynamic therapy through a holistic, client-centered lens, she helps clients understand their anxiety patterns, develop practical coping tools, and reconnect with a sense of calm and confidence.
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Credentials: Mental Health Counselor - Limited Permit
Education: New York University (Master’s in Counseling for Mental Health and Wellness); New York University (Bachelor of Fine Arts in Theatre)
Specialties: Young adults, self-worth, identity exploration
Modalities Used: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), psychodynamic therapy
When another practice might be a better fit for your needs
You need someone to call in a crisis.
We work with our clients experiencing anxiety in sessions that occur during business hours and only with advance scheduling, so we are not able to provide crisis management services if you’re feeling that overwhelmed, but we’d be happy to provide you with referrals to resources that can!
You want quick fixes.
Though there are some challenges that benefit from a brief, solutions-focused approach, all interventions will take dedication to change and time to assess what’s working and what’s not. Our therapeutic approaches are based on your presenting symptoms, and sometimes the traumatic experiences, negative thoughts, and chronic anxiety you describe to your therapist will not be best served by a short timeline.
You’re looking for medication management.
We are happy to partner with your medical provider as you seek treatment to make sure that talk therapy and medication are working in tandem, but we purely provide evidence-based techniques for behavioral anxiety therapy interventions here.
You’re not ready to be honest, vulnerable, or transparent.
Therapy can bring up a lot of uncomfortable feelings, and if you’re not ready for that, that’s okay! It can sometimes feel worse before it feels better, but if you are ready to stick with it, you can start to feel better very quickly. However, if you leave therapy in the first few sessions, you’ll often feel as though you spilled your guts to a stranger and got nothing in return. If you’re not ready to commit to consistent, weekly work, you likely won’t find the results you’re looking for.
You want a very regimented type of therapy like psychoanalysis.
While all of our therapists use psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapy frameworks, they also bring in other evidence-based approaches like somatic work, dialectical behavior therapy, acceptance and commitment therapy, feminist therapy, and various other lenses based on the unique needs, goals, and preferences of each client to create individualized treatment plans for each client.
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A big part of overcoming anxiety involves a willingness to get uncomfortable by facing the anxiety head on and looking at the origins of where it comes from and how it shows up in your life. Because anxiety is so scary, we often avoid thinking about what the sources of our anxiety are and this avoidance is exactly what perpetuates the problem.
Although it sounds terrifying, facing your anxiety directly is the most empowering place to be because it puts the control back in your hands rather than you being controlled by it. When we do this, we teach our brains that we can absolutely handle whatever life has to throw at us, which can affect future response prevention for people dealing with anxiety. By working with your therapist on uncovering the causes of your anxieties, how they show up in your everyday life, and what new tools and skills you can develop to combat them, you can start to feel better and more in control of your life.
Stop experiencing symptoms like freezing, overthinking, and dealing with constant doubt. Start anxiety treatment and learn coping skills to manage your anxiety so that you can pursue the opportunities that will lead to the next phase of your life.
You’ve worked so hard to get where you are. Now let us work with you to treat anxiety and build the life you want and be able to enjoy it!
Fill out the contact form below to get started. We’ll reach out to you within one business day to schedule a consultation. If you have any questions in the meantime, please send an email to contact@newyorkcitypsychotherapists.com.
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A: Not necessarily, but also maybe, if you want to! If you’re looking for brief, solutions-focused therapy, then your therapist will work with you on concrete goals within a set timeline to manage anxiety. If you’re looking for a thought partner for the long haul, someone who will be with you through life transitions, aging, and circumstance changes, your therapist can do that, too! The relationship between you and your therapist is collaborative and individualized.
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A: We don’t believe there’s anything fundamentally wrong with you, so we don’t look at you as a sickness to be cured. Instead, we use a technique called sublimation, which takes your anxiety symptoms that are currently harming you and identify ways to channel them into healthier alternatives that feel productive and meaningful to you.
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A: We hate to break it to you, but no, probably not. The goal of therapy is not to completely change who we are, and why would we want that? You are unique, interesting, and complex! What we will do is help you channel your intense anxiety into healthy, productive, and motivating actions that actually bring you joy and fulfillment instead of rumination and catastrophizing.
FAQs about anxiety therapy
How to start anxiety therapy
Fill out our contact form. Share some information about you so that we can match you with the perfect therapist for your needs. You can submit your insurance information prior to the call so we can verify your benefits and copay.
Book a free consultation. After you fill out our form, have a low-pressure, 20-minute call with your therapist to make sure they are the right fit.
Start anxiety therapy. Schedule your first therapy session and start on your journey to feeling better right away.