Anxiety therapy in Brighton and East Sussex

What is anxiety?

Anxiety is the body’s alarm system working overtime: a persistent sense of worry, dread or physical tension that continues even without an immediate threat. It can settle in as constant background unease or arrive in sharp physical surges. Clinical psychologists work with adults in Brighton and East Sussex to understand what is driving it.

Some worry is ordinary and even useful, sharpening focus before a deadline or a difficult conversation. Anxiety becomes a clinical concern when it is disproportionate to the situation, when it persists for weeks or months, or when it starts shrinking someone’s world, work, relationships or daily routine. Most adults experience some form of anxiety at points in life, and most anxiety responds well to structured, evidence-based support.

Symptoms of anxiety

Anxiety shows up differently from person to person, but it usually combines physical sensations, patterns of thinking and changes in behaviour.

Physically, people often describe a racing or pounding heart, tight chest, shallow breathing, muscle tension, restlessness, nausea or digestive upset, and disrupted sleep. Some notice these sensations building gradually; others are hit by them suddenly, which can feel alarming in itself.

On the thinking side, anxiety tends to bring repeated worry loops, catastrophic predictions about what might go wrong, difficulty concentrating, and a mind that jumps ahead to worst-case outcomes. Concentration and memory can both suffer when a lot of mental effort is going into managing worry.

Behaviourally, anxiety often leads to avoidance: putting off a phone call, cancelling plans, checking things repeatedly, or seeking reassurance from other people. These responses bring short-term relief but tend to keep the anxiety going, because the underlying fear never gets tested.

Types of anxiety

Anxiety is not one condition but a group of related presentations, and getting the type right shapes what therapy focuses on.

Generalised anxiety disorder involves persistent, free-floating worry about several areas of life at once, work, health, money, relationships, often without a single clear trigger. Social anxiety centres on a fear of being judged, embarrassed or scrutinised in social or performance situations, and can lead to avoiding gatherings, meetings or everyday interactions. Health anxiety involves a preoccupation with the possibility of serious illness, frequently checking the body for signs of it, or seeking repeated reassurance from doctors or the internet. Panic disorder involves sudden, intense episodes of fear accompanied by strong physical symptoms, sometimes followed by a fear of the panic attacks themselves. Specific phobias are marked, persistent fears of a particular object or situation, such as flying, injections or enclosed spaces. Agoraphobia involves anxiety about being in places or situations where escape might be difficult, which can restrict how far someone feels able to travel from home.

Many people experience a mix of these, and anxiety often sits alongside low mood. Part of an initial assessment is working out which patterns are most active, since this affects what an effective treatment plan looks like.

How therapy can help

Cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, is the treatment most consistently recommended by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence for generalised anxiety disorder, social anxiety, panic disorder and specific phobias. It works by identifying the thoughts, beliefs and behaviours that keep anxiety going, and building more accurate, workable ways of responding instead. For some presentations, particularly where avoidance is a strong pattern, this includes structured, paced exposure to feared situations, done gradually and with the person’s agreement at every stage.

Acceptance and commitment therapy is another approach with a growing evidence base for anxiety, focusing less on eliminating anxious thoughts and more on reducing their grip on behaviour, so someone can keep doing what matters to them even when anxiety is present.

Therapy does not aim to remove anxiety completely, since some anxiety is a normal part of life. The aim is to reduce its intensity and frequency, and to build skills that make it easier to manage when it does show up.

Our approach

This practice provides clinical psychology support for adults across Brighton and East Sussex, delivered entirely online, with a structured, evidence-based approach to anxiety. Every plan starts with time spent understanding the specific pattern of someone’s anxiety, what triggers it, what maintains it, and what they want to be different, before agreeing a way of working that fits.

Sessions draw on approaches with a solid evidence base, principally CBT, adapted to the person rather than delivered as a fixed programme. Progress is reviewed regularly, so the approach can be adjusted if something is not working. This site will be updated as the practice develops.

What does anxiety therapy involve?

Anxiety therapy usually begins with an initial conversation to understand what has been happening, how long it has been going on, and what has been tried already. From there, a psychologist and client build a shared picture, sometimes called a formulation, of what keeps the anxiety in place.

Sessions themselves are structured and collaborative. Early sessions often focus on understanding patterns and building some initial tools for managing physical symptoms and racing thoughts. Later sessions typically involve testing out new ways of responding, whether that is challenging unhelpful thought patterns, reducing checking or reassurance-seeking, or approaching a situation that has been avoided. Between sessions, clients are often asked to try something small and specific, then bring back what happened for the next session to work with.

The number of sessions varies by presentation and by person, and is agreed and reviewed as therapy goes on rather than fixed in advance.

Frequently asked questions

Common questions about anxiety therapy and how it works online are answered below.

When to seek help

It is worth speaking to a psychologist or your GP if anxiety is affecting your sleep, work, relationships or day-to-day life, or if it has lasted for several weeks without easing. Early support tends to make change easier, though there is no wrong time to ask for help.

If you are in crisis or thinking of harming yourself, contact your GP, NHS 111, the Samaritans on 116 123, or attend your nearest A&E.