Anxiety Specialists of Atlanta

Atlanta anxiety specialists offering CBT, ERP, and DBT for anxiety, panic, and OCD. More than just worry — expert care in Buckhead and online across Georgia.

Anxiety can be overwhelming, affecting both your mental and physical well-being. You might experience persistent worry, irritability, or physical symptoms like headaches and fatigue. For some, perfectionism—the need to meet impossibly high standards—can be a significant source of anxiety.

Anxiety Disorders We Treat: Understanding the Subtypes

Anxiety is not a single condition — it is a family of related disorders, each with distinct features and optimal treatments. At Sea Change Psychotherapy, we specialize in the full range.

Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD) is characterized by persistent, difficult-to-control worry across multiple areas of life — work, health, relationships, finances — most days for at least six months. GAD often presents alongside physical tension, fatigue, and sleep difficulties. Many of our high-achieving clients meet criteria for GAD while appearing entirely functional from the outside.

Social Anxiety Disorder goes far beyond shyness. It involves intense fear of scrutiny, humiliation, or judgment in social or performance situations, with significant avoidance that limits professional and personal life. Social anxiety is one of the most underdiagnosed conditions in high-functioning adults who compensate through overpreparation or alcohol use before social events.

Panic Disorder involves recurrent, unexpected panic attacks — sudden surges of intense fear with physical symptoms including racing heart, chest tightness, dizziness, and a sense of unreality — followed by persistent worry about future attacks and behavioral changes to avoid triggering them. Many clients with panic disorder visit urgent care or the ER before receiving the correct diagnosis.

Specific Phobias are intense, disproportionate fears of specific objects or situations — heights, flying, needles, driving, medical procedures, animals — that cause significant distress or avoidance. Phobias respond quickly to ERP-based exposure therapy, often resolving within eight to twelve focused sessions.

Health Anxiety involves persistent preoccupation with having or developing a serious illness despite medical reassurance. The checking behaviors (body scanning, online research, repeated doctor visits) temporarily relieve anxiety but maintain the cycle. Treatment targets the checking and reassurance-seeking directly.

Separation Anxiety in Adults is more common than recognized and often appears in the context of attachment injuries or loss history. Adults may experience intense anxiety when apart from a partner, child, or significant person, often impairing their ability to function independently.

Common Symptoms of Anxiety

Constant Worry: Persistent thoughts that something bad will happen, even when there’s no real threat.
Perfectionism: An unyielding drive to meet unrealistic standards, leading to stress and fear of failure.
Physical Symptoms: Tension, headaches, fatigue, and even digestive issues.
Emotional Instability: Irritability, mood swings, and feelings of being on edge.
Sleep Disturbances: Difficulty falling or staying asleep due to racing thoughts.

Causes of Anxiety

Anxiety often has deep-rooted causes that vary from person to person. Emotional abuse, early attachment injuries, and trauma are among the most common contributors — experiences that teach the nervous system to stay on alert long after the threat has passed. Genetics, chronic stress, and certain medical conditions such as thyroid problems can also play a role. For many of our clients, anxiety is not a character flaw or a sign of weakness — it is a learned protective response that has outlived its usefulness.

Functional Anxiety: The Hidden Struggle

For many successful professionals, anxiety doesn’t look like fear or panic — it manifests as functional anxiety. These individuals appear highly capable, organized, and driven, but underneath the surface they are constantly battling stress, worry, and a need to stay in control. Because their anxiety produces results, it often goes unaddressed for years.

Functional anxiety commonly includes over-preparation and an inability to delegate, difficulty relaxing or enjoying downtime without guilt, a relentless fear of failure driving achievement at the cost of wellbeing, and coping mechanisms like overworking, alcohol use, or disordered eating. If this sounds familiar, you are not alone — and this is very treatable.

Our Anxiety Specialists

Our therapists bring deep expertise in anxiety across its presentations:

Pamela Madsen, MS, LPC, ACS specializes in anxiety in high-achieving adults, including the perfectionism and emotional overcontrol patterns that drive functional anxiety. She is trained in DBT, RO-DBT, EMDR, and ERP.

Melissa Velliquette, Ed.S., LPC specializes in OCD, neurodivergent anxiety presentations, and anxiety in adults navigating ADHD. She is trained in ERP, EMDR, and IFS.

Elizabeth Ceuninck, M.Ed./Ed.S. works with anxiety across the lifespan, with particular expertise in anxiety in adolescents and young adults navigating family systems.

Anna Griggers, MS, APC treats anxiety alongside relational trauma, codependency, and attachment injuries, with training in EFT and IFS.

What Anxiety Treatment Looks Like at Sea Change

A first session focuses on understanding your specific anxiety — what triggers it, how it shows up in your body and behavior, and what avoidance patterns have developed. We do not use one-size-fits-all treatment. The right approach depends on the anxiety subtype, the presence of trauma, your goals, and your history.

For most anxiety presentations, treatment draws from CBT and ERP to challenge avoidance directly, EMDR when anxiety is rooted in specific traumatic experiences, IFS to work with the anxious “part” without shaming or fighting it, and DBT skills for emotional regulation and distress tolerance.

Treatment is available in person in Buckhead and via telehealth throughout Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, and Colorado.

Effective Treatment Approaches for Anxiety

At Sea Change Psychotherapy, we take a holistic approach to treating anxiety, addressing both the symptoms and the underlying causes. Our therapies are designed to meet you where you are, offering tools and strategies to help you manage and reduce anxiety effectively.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): A cornerstone of anxiety treatment, CBT helps you identify and challenge negative thought patterns and behaviors, replacing them with healthier ways of thinking and acting.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP): The gold-standard treatment for OCD and phobias, ERP uses structured, gradual exposure to feared situations to break the avoidance cycle and reduce anxiety over time.
Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR): Particularly effective for anxiety rooted in trauma, EMDR uses guided bilateral stimulation to help you process and integrate distressing memories, reducing their power to cause anxiety.
Internal Family Systems (IFS): IFS helps you explore and heal the different “parts” of yourself — the anxious part, the inner critic, the part that seeks to protect — building compassion and inner harmony rather than fighting the anxiety.
Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): DBT provides practical skills for emotional regulation, distress tolerance, and interpersonal effectiveness — tools that directly address the overwhelm anxiety creates.
Attachment-Based Therapy: For anxiety rooted in early relational trauma, this approach focuses on healing attachment injuries and building a more secure sense of self in relationships.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR): Encourages present-moment awareness, helping reduce the automatic, reactive responses that often accompany anxiety.

Why Choose Sea Change Psychotherapy?

Our approach at Sea Change Psychotherapy is client-centered and holistic. We recognize that anxiety is complex, with many contributing factors. Our therapists are highly trained in a variety of evidence-based practices, ensuring that you receive the most effective treatment tailored to your needs. Whether your anxiety stems from past trauma, relational issues, or current life stressors, we are here to help you navigate these challenges with compassion and expertise.

Begin Your Journey to Healing with an Atlanta Anxiety Counselor Today

Don’t let anxiety control your life any longer. At Sea Change Psychotherapy, we are committed to helping you regain control, reduce your symptoms, and improve your overall well-being. Contact us today to schedule a consultation and take the first step towards a calmer, more balanced life.