Approach

At St. Petersburg Anxiety and OCD Counseling, my approach to therapy is warm, direct, and grounded in a deep understanding of how anxiety works. I believe healing happens best when the process is honest and collaborative but that doesn’t mean it has to be heavy. There’s always room for humor, curiosity, and genuine connection along the way.

My goal is to help you truly understand what’s happening in your mind and body when anxiety shows up. When you can make sense of what’s going on, it becomes much easier to respond differently and regain a sense of control.

That’s where Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP) comes in. ERP is a well-researched, highly effective treatment for anxiety and OCD. It helps you gradually face the thoughts, sensations, or situations that trigger anxiety, while learning to resist the habits, like avoidance, reassurance seeking, or compulsions, that keep it going. Over time, your brain learns that discomfort can be tolerated and that anxiety naturally fades without needing to do anything to “fix” it.

I also integrate principles of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), which focuses on learning to make space for uncomfortable thoughts and feelings rather than fighting them. Through mindfulness and values-based work, ACT helps you build psychological flexibility, the ability to stay grounded and take meaningful action even when anxiety is present. In other words, instead of waiting for anxiety to disappear before living your life, you learn how to move forward with it in a healthier, more workable way.

A big part of this process is psychoeducation, taking the time to explain how anxiety operates, why symptoms feel so convincing, and how change actually happens. From there, we’ll work together to build a hierarchy, a roadmap of your fears, organized from least to most distressing, so that exposures can happen at a pace that feels challenging but manageable. This structure helps you build confidence, trust your ability to handle discomfort, and see real, lasting progress.

Sessions with me are active and collaborative. I’m supportive, but I’ll also push you when it’s needed to help you get unstuck and move toward your goals. My aim isn’t just to help you manage anxiety, it’s to help you change your relationship with it, so it no longer dictates your life.

Therapy at St. Petersburg Anxiety and OCD Counseling is about helping you reclaim your freedom, rebuild self-trust, and move toward a more meaningful, connected life with expertise, compassion, and a down-to-earth approach that makes the work both effective and human.