Anxiety can feel like a constant companion you never invited. The knot in your stomach that tightens before a meeting, the racing thoughts that keep you awake at 2 a.m., the way your mind rehearses worst-case scenarios on repeat. Maybe you’ve been told to “just relax” or “stop overthinking,” as if it were that simple. But you know it isn’t. Anxiety isn’t a choice, and you can’t think your way out of it by trying harder.
What you can do is learn to understand it differently, and that changes everything. I’m Christy Ford, a Certified IFS Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor in Manassas, VA. I’ve spent nineteen years helping people move from being controlled by anxiety to having an empowered relationship with it. If anxiety has been running the show in your life, I’d like to help you take back the lead.
Ready to stop letting anxiety run the show? Call (571) 229-3418 or book your first session.
What Is Anxiety?
Anxiety is your body’s built-in alarm system. In the right circumstances, it’s useful: it keeps you alert to real danger, motivates preparation, and helps you respond to genuine threats. But for millions of people, the alarm system fires too often, too intensely, or in situations where there’s no real threat present. When this happens chronically, it becomes an anxiety disorder.
Anxiety disorders take several forms:
- Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD): persistent, excessive worry about a wide range of everyday concerns including work, health, family, finances, and the future. The worry feels difficult to control and is often accompanied by physical symptoms like muscle tension, fatigue, and restlessness.
- Social Anxiety Disorder: intense fear of social situations involving potential scrutiny or judgment by others. This goes beyond ordinary shyness and can significantly limit your personal and professional life.
- Panic Disorder: recurrent, unexpected panic attacks characterized by sudden surges of intense fear with physical symptoms such as racing heart, shortness of breath, chest tightness, dizziness, and a feeling of losing control or dying.
- Specific Phobias: intense, irrational fear of particular objects or situations (heights, flying, medical procedures, animals, etc.) that leads to avoidance.
- Health Anxiety: persistent preoccupation with the fear of having or developing a serious illness, often accompanied by excessive checking, reassurance-seeking, or avoidance of medical settings.
Anxiety frequently co-occurs with depression, OCD, trauma, eating disorders, and other conditions. When multiple concerns are present, a comprehensive approach that addresses the whole person (not just isolated symptoms) produces the best outcomes.
Signs and Symptoms of Anxiety
Anxiety is a whole-body experience. Common symptoms include:
Emotional and cognitive symptoms:
- Persistent worry or dread, often about things that haven’t happened
- Racing or repetitive thoughts
- Difficulty concentrating or mind going blank
- Irritability or feeling on edge
- A sense of impending doom or that something bad is about to happen
- Perfectionism, indecisiveness, or fear of making mistakes
Physical symptoms:
- Muscle tension, headaches, or jaw clenching
- Rapid heartbeat or heart palpitations
- Shortness of breath or a feeling of tightness in the chest
- Stomachaches, nausea, or digestive issues
- Sweating, trembling, or feeling shaky
- Difficulty falling or staying asleep
- Fatigue or exhaustion despite adequate rest
Behavioral symptoms:
- Avoidance of situations, places, or activities that trigger anxiety
- Procrastination driven by fear of failure or judgment
- Seeking excessive reassurance from others
- Difficulty saying no or setting boundaries
- Over-preparing or over-planning to manage uncertainty
If these symptoms feel familiar, you’re not alone. Anxiety disorders are among the most common mental health conditions, and they respond well to treatment.
Anxiety frequently co-occurs with ADHD, autism, and other forms of neurodivergence. As a neurodivergent individual myself, I provide a neurodivergent-affirming environment and adapt my therapeutic approach to honor different processing styles and sensory needs.
How IFS and Mindfulness Help with Anxiety
My approach to anxiety treatment draws on the complementary strengths of Internal Family Systems (IFS) and mindfulness, an integrated framework I’ve developed over nearly two decades of clinical practice.
IFS for the roots of anxiety. In IFS, anxiety is understood as a protective part, one that is working overtime to keep you safe from something it fears. Rather than fighting the anxiety or trying to shut it down, we get curious about it. What is this part afraid of? What is it protecting? What does it need? When we approach anxiety with curiosity rather than resistance, the anxious part begins to trust that it doesn’t have to work so hard. And when we heal the underlying pain or fear that the anxiety is organized around, the part can naturally relax.
Mindfulness for present-moment awareness. Anxiety pulls you out of the present moment, into the future through worry or into the past through rumination. Mindfulness practices help you develop the ability to notice anxious thoughts and sensations without being swept away by them. This creates space between you and your anxiety, allowing you to respond rather than react.
Together, these approaches address anxiety at every level: the deeper emotional roots (IFS) and the moment-to-moment experience of anxiety in your body and mind (mindfulness). You can learn more about these and other modalities I use on my therapeutic approaches page.
My Approach to Anxiety Treatment
As a Certified IFS Therapist and Licensed Professional Counselor with nineteen years of clinical experience, I bring both depth and breadth to the treatment of anxiety. My Master’s in Clinical Psychology from Towson University provided a strong foundation in evidence-based treatment, and my ongoing training in IFS, trauma therapy, and mindfulness has shaped an approach that goes well beyond surface-level coping strategies.
I am especially attuned to the connections between anxiety and trauma. As a Certified Clinical Trauma Professional (CCTP), I understand that for many people, chronic anxiety is a signal that past experiences are still active in the nervous system. When this is the case, I address both the anxiety and the underlying traumatic material, which often leads to more complete and lasting relief than anxiety-focused treatment alone.
Whether your anxiety is situational, longstanding, connected to trauma, or intertwined with other conditions like depression or eating disorders, I tailor my approach to your unique needs. I meet you where you are, with warmth and without judgment. Learn more about my background and clinical philosophy on my about page.
What to Expect in Anxiety Therapy Sessions
First Session. We begin with a thorough assessment of your anxiety, its history, triggers, patterns, and impact on your life. I want to understand not just your symptoms but the story they tell. We’ll discuss your goals for therapy and I’ll explain how our work together will unfold.
Skill-Building and Exploration. Early sessions often focus on developing immediate coping tools while we begin to map your internal system. You’ll learn to identify your anxious parts, understand their protective intentions, and start to build a different relationship with them.
Deeper Work. As therapy progresses, we move toward the deeper layers: the exile parts that carry the fear, vulnerability, or past experiences that your anxiety is protecting. Through the IFS unburdening process, these parts can release what they’ve been carrying, leading to lasting shifts in how you experience anxiety.
Sessions are 50 minutes, available in-person at my Manassas, VA office and via telehealth throughout Virginia and Florida. My fee is $215 per session, and I accept Blue Cross Blue Shield insurance. I offer an initial consultation to help you decide if this is the right step for you.
Why Work With Me?
- Certified IFS Therapist with specialized expertise in understanding anxiety as a parts-based phenomenon.
- Integrated approach combining IFS and mindfulness for comprehensive anxiety treatment.
- Certified Clinical Trauma Professional, equipped to address the trauma roots that often underlie chronic anxiety.
- 19+ years of clinical experience treating anxiety in all its forms.
- Warm, steady presence; you will feel heard and supported from the first session.
- Flexible access with in-person and telehealth options available.
If you’re ready to get started, book a consultation or give me a call at (571) 229-3418. I’d be glad to answer your questions.