Anxiety Therapy In Walnut Creek

Cari Browning, RN, LCSW

Anxiety can make everyday life feel harder than it should—keeping you up at night, holding you back from opportunities, or leaving you stuck in patterns you can’t shake. Therapy can help you calm racing thoughts, take on the difficult things that matter, and rediscover a more confident version of yourself.

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Compassionate, Science-Backed Anxiety Therapy in Walnut Creek

I provide anxiety therapy that blends science-backed tools with compassionate care to help you feel calm, confident, and more in control:

Here are some ways anxiety therapy can help you:

  • Stop the endless cycle of stress, overwhelm & worry

  • Find relief with powerful techniques to calm anxiety symptoms quickly

  • Overcome social anxiety, panic attacks & phobias

  • Go for what really matters to you in work, school, life & relationships

  • Improve your health, sleep better & restore your energy

  • Understand the root cause of anxiety, process past contributing experiences and move forward in your life

Here’s what we’ll do together

Anxiety Therapy Walnut Creek, Resilience Focused Therapy.

Anxiety therapy designed to help you overcome anxiety through personalized care that supports lasting change:

  • Research-Based Therapies: Using proven therapies including ACT, DBT, and Compassion-based approaches, I’ll tailor each session to meet you exactly where you are.

  • Mindfulness Practices: By learning to develop mindfulness you can increase focus, reduce stress and feel more calm and centered.

  • Eye Movement Desensitization & Reprocessing (EMDR): EMDR is effective at processing experiences from the past that are leading to fear and anxiety today.

  • Stress Management Strategies: You’ll gain practical tools to shift your response to stress and balance your demanding schedule, allowing you to function at your optimal level.

  • Lifestyle Factors Assessment: We’ll also explore how lifestyle factors—like sleep, nutrition, movement, relationships and ongoing pain—might be influencing your anxiety, and find ways to support your overall well-being.

Drawing from my experience in both nursing and therapy, I offer a compassionate, whole-person approach that addresses your unique needs. I’ll help you find relief with science-based tools to calm anxiety symptoms, reframe challenges, effectively process experiences from the past that are contributing to fear today, and build resilience through self-compassion. You’ll learn how to work with your anxiety rather than against it, so it doesn’t stand in the way of what matters most to you.

Together, we’ll create a path forward that helps you feel more grounded, confident, and in control.

The change you wish to see is possible.

If you're wondering whether anxiety therapy could help, we can talk through what you're experiencing and see if this feels like a good fit.

I offer in-person sessions in downtown Walnut Creek, along with virtual therapy throughout California.

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Questions?

FAQs

  • Anxiety is a normal emotional response that helps us cope with threats and challenges in our environment. It is characterized by feelings of worry, restlessness, or unease about what may happen in the future. Anxiety is a natural part of life and can be helpful in motivating us to take action in stressful situations.

    When anxiety becomes excessive, persistent, or begins to interfere with daily life functioning (job/school performance, relationship challenges, health issues, impaired sleep), it may indicate an anxiety disorder. Common anxiety disorders include: generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), panic disorder, social anxiety disorder and specific phobias.

    Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health disorders in the United States, with 1 in 5 adults struggling with anxiety daily.

    Anxiety can show up as:

    • Excessive worrying

    • Racing heart rate, shaking, feeling short of breath

    • Sleep problems

    • Concentration difficulties

    • Restlessness

    • Muscle tension

    • Avoiding situations that increase anxiety & panic attacks

    • Headaches

    • Digestive issues

    If you notice these symptoms are affecting your daily-to-day life, therapy can help.

  • Stress and anxiety are similar, and in fact share many of the same symptoms.

    Stress is a normal response to an external demand or pressure that requires you to react (urgent deadline, financial strain, or conflict with someone important to you). Stress is typically a short-term reaction that can assist you in overcoming challenges, including problem solving and motivating action. People under stress may experience irritability, anger, fatigue, muscle pain, digestive issues, and sleep difficulties.

    Anxiety can begin as a normal response to stress and can develop into an extended feeling of generalized unease, fear, or excessive worry. Anxiety symptoms can continue even in the absence of a demand or stressor and can include insomnia, difficulty concentrating, restlessness, fatigue, muscle tension, irritability, headaches, digestive issues and avoiding situations that increase anxiety or panic.

    Stress and anxiety are a normal part of life. Often, we experience these feelings when dealing with something that we deeply care about.

    Therapy is highly effective at treating stress and anxiety, so that they do not negatively impact your life.

  • I am dually trained in nursing and therapy, which provides me with a deep understanding of general health issues, neuroscience, psychology and the potential impact on mental health.

    Together we will also explore whether sleep, social connection, restorative time, nutrition or movement may be contributing to anxiety in your life.

    My approach is integrated, considering both physical and mental health factors, and focuses on lasting change.

  • Anxiety disorders are highly treatable. Most people are able to reduce or eliminate anxiety symptoms with effective therapy and many notice improvement after just a few sessions.

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