Anxiety Therapy
Anxiety therapy at Hearts Aligned Therapy helps clients understand and manage the excessive worry, physical tension, and avoidance behaviors that characterize anxiety disorders. Steven Makulinski, LMFT uses Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), exposure-based techniques, mindfulness practices, and relaxation strategies to help clients reduce anxiety symptoms, challenge catastrophic thinking, and build confidence in their ability to cope with uncertainty. Whether you are dealing with generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic attacks, or specific phobias, therapy provides practical tools for lasting relief.
What to Expect
Understanding Anxiety and When to Seek Help
Anxiety is one of the most common mental health conditions, affecting approximately 40 million adults in the United States each year. While some anxiety is a normal response to stress, clinical anxiety involves persistent, excessive worry that interferes with daily functioning. Signs that anxiety may benefit from professional therapy include constant worry that feels uncontrollable, physical symptoms like racing heart or muscle tension, avoidance of situations or activities, difficulty sleeping, and irritability or restlessness. Hearts Aligned Therapy in Rockwall, TX provides specialized anxiety treatment to help you regain control.
How Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Treats Anxiety
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) is the gold-standard treatment for anxiety disorders and is a core component of anxiety therapy at Hearts Aligned Therapy. CBT works by helping you identify the specific thought patterns that fuel your anxiety — such as catastrophizing, overestimating danger, or underestimating your ability to cope — and systematically replacing them with more balanced, realistic thoughts. CBT also addresses avoidance behaviors that maintain anxiety over time, helping you gradually face feared situations with confidence.
Mindfulness and Relaxation for Anxiety Management
In addition to CBT, Steven Makulinski incorporates mindfulness and relaxation techniques into anxiety therapy. These practices help calm the body's stress response and build your capacity to tolerate uncomfortable sensations without reacting impulsively. Techniques include diaphragmatic breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, grounding exercises, and mindful awareness practices. These skills provide immediate relief during anxious moments and build long-term resilience when practiced regularly.
Types of Anxiety We Treat
Hearts Aligned Therapy treats all forms of anxiety including generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), characterized by chronic excessive worry about multiple areas of life; social anxiety disorder, involving intense fear of social situations and judgment; panic disorder, marked by recurrent panic attacks and fear of future attacks; specific phobias, such as fear of flying, heights, or medical procedures; and health anxiety, involving persistent worry about having a serious illness. Treatment is tailored to the specific type and severity of your anxiety.
Building a Long-Term Anxiety Management Plan
Effective anxiety therapy goes beyond symptom relief — it equips you with a personalized plan for managing anxiety throughout your life. At Hearts Aligned Therapy, Steven works with you to identify your anxiety triggers, develop a toolkit of coping strategies, build healthy lifestyle habits that reduce baseline anxiety, and create a relapse prevention plan. The goal is to help you not only feel better now but also maintain your progress and handle future stressors with confidence.
Frequently Asked Questions
Ready to Get Started?
Take the first step toward healing. Schedule a session to discuss how anxiety therapy can help you.