Anxiety Therapy In Person and Online
Foster Counseling and Therapy provides individual therapy to empower you no matter how anxiety is showing up in your life. In-person services are accessible to the communities of Lake in the Hills, Algonquin, Crystal Lake, Huntley, and McHenry County, and online services are provided throughout Illinois.
Types of Anxiety
Worry/Generalized Anxiety
This often looks like worrying more often than not, finding it hard to relax, often feeling irritable, and struggling to find peace and calm.
Specific Fears/Phobias
Our clue to a specific phobia or fear is often our avoidance of it. When met with the feared object/event/situation our fear response overreacts leaving us uncomfortable and eager to get out of the situation as soon as possible.
Panic Sensations/Panic Attacks
Shortness of breath, heart racing, palms sweaty, fear of dying or heart attack, heart palpitations, derealization, dizziness, hot flashes, wobbliness and many other physical symptoms are experienced when one is having a panic attack. After having one, you may become afraid of having another.
Social Anxiety
Experiencing yourself as though in the spotlight at social events, feeling inhibited around others, worrying about what others think about you before, during and after an interaction, ruminating on something you said or did long afterwards, avoiding interactions with people even when you like them, as well as increased physiological sensations in the presence of others or at the thought of being around others.
Anxious-Avoidant Attachment
This is a pattern of insecurity in our relationships that looks like anxious attachment but with the addition of intermittent avoidant behaviors. People with anxious-avoidant attachment may avoid connecting with others, usually for fear of getting hurt/abandoned/rejected, and may have a hard time expressing their emotions. If feeling threatened that they will experience rejection, hurt or abandonment, someone with this attachment style may emotionally withdraw.
Performance Anxiety
Difficulty in concentrating and the experience of heightened, often unshakeable anxiety when having to perform for work, school, athletics, or speaking in front of others. This level of anxiety inhibits and/or worsens performance rather than enhancing it and can become quite problematic. Often this goes hand-in-hand with social anxiety.
Perinatal/Postpartum Anxiety
This is anxiety that is experienced during the perinatal period which is during pregnancy and up through one year postpartum. Perinatal/Postpartum Anxiety can be very heightened especially around times of hormonal shifts and adjustment to the addition of baby. Themes in perinatal anxiety are not limited to worries about the baby and adjustment, but often have a strong focus there. Additionally, it is common to feel a sense of isolation, overwhelm and irritability with perinatal/postpartum anxiety.
Anxious Attachment
Seeking excessive reassurance with partner, feeling insecure in their fondness/attraction/desire/love of you, feeling the need to work out disagreements or arguments immediately, struggling to feel confident in yourself in the context of relationships.
Health Anxiety
This form of anxiety often looks like the fear of having or developing a health or medical condition, heightened vigilance around any possible symptom or sign of a health condition, making frequent doctor visits, only to be reassured for a short-period before something else comes up. Alternatively, one with health anxiety may consistently avoid doctor visits out of fear their worries will be confirmed. Health Anxiety can also manifest as Health OCD.
Anxiety therapy can help you to feel better by helping you to understand your anxiety as well as providing you with tools to improve your relationship with it and significantly reduce its grasp on you. By taking a holistic view of recognizing contributing factors to your anxiety as well as the patterns that continue to perpetuate it, we will address both root causes and present symptoms, equipping you with a renewed mindset and practical tools for your everyday life. Our therapists will tailor their anxiety treatment to your specific experience with it, and will help you to access empowerment for you to build up psychological flexibility and strong confidence.
How Anxiety Therapy Can Help
Anxiety Specialists
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Katie Higgins, LCPC, PMH-C
Katie works with you to both recognize the roots of your anxiety and to create a more empowered relationship with your anxiety, reducing the role anxiety has in your everyday life and helping you to access calm and confidence.
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New Clinician Coming Soon
A new anxiety specialist coming soon!