How Therapy Can Help You Reduce Anxiety Suffering
2025.02.21
One of the most common questions I receive is about anxiety and how to manage it. In this blog, I’d like to discuss how therapy can help reduce anxiety suffering.
1. Understanding the Causes of Anxiety
As human beings, we have a natural desire to understand why things happen the way they do. If we don’t have an explanation, it can be difficult to reach that moment of clarity— the “Oh, I get it now” feeling. Understanding the causes of anxiety can be incredibly helpful, as this awareness alone can contribute to reducing anxiety suffering.
Most of the time, anxiety arises from multiple factors. However, when you’re caught up in your own thoughts, everything can feel tangled—like a pair of knotted earphones—making it difficult to sort things out on your own.
In therapy, I provide a judgment-free space where clients can openly express whatever their heart and mind lead them to discuss. (Even though this might sound cliché, finding a space like this is surprisingly rare these days.) Through this process, you can discover for yourself what has been contributing to your anxiety.
2. Seeing Reality from Different Perspectives
During therapy, as you openly discuss your anxiety, I listen to how you perceive reality. This is important because people often get stuck in a single way of viewing a situation, making it difficult to see things from a different perspective.
Gaining a new perspective can help deepen your understanding of reality. This shift in perception can lead to an “Oh, I get it now” moment, ultimately reducing anxiety.
3. Learning Helpful Tools
As I mentioned in a previous blog, there are countless online resources—blogs, YouTube videos, and self-help guides—offering advice on managing anxiety. However, when I ask my clients to demonstrate how they practice techniques such as deep breathing, 95% of the time, they are doing it incorrectly. If coping skills are not used properly, they may not help at all—in fact, they could even worsen anxiety.
In therapy, I offer hands-on guidance, ensuring that you learn and apply coping techniques correctly. I provide real-time feedback to help you refine your skills, making them truly effective in managing anxiety.
It’s important to note that I don’t believe in suppressing anxiety—because that approach simply doesn’t work. Instead, therapy helps you understand, process, and manage anxiety in a way that fosters long-term relief.
I hope this blog helps you better understand how therapy can support you in overcoming anxiety suffering.
Tatsuya Arakawa, LMFT 82425