If you live with anxiety, you've probably already tried the standard advice: relax, exercise, think positive, worry less. If that were enough, you wouldn't be reading this. Real anxiety treatment is more specific than that — it uses approaches with actual research behind them, matched to the kind of anxiety you have. Here's what helps, and how it works online.
First: anxiety isn't one thing
"Worrying a lot" is only one version. Anxiety also shows up as:
- Constant background tension — a mind that won't switch off, even when nothing is wrong
- Panic — sudden surges of fear, racing heart, a sense that something terrible is happening
- Social anxiety — dread of being judged, replaying conversations for days
- Obsessions and compulsions — intrusive thoughts, and rituals or avoidance to keep them quiet (this is OCD, an anxiety-related condition with its own specific treatment)
- Avoidance in general — quietly shrinking your life around the things that scare you
The approach that helps depends on which of these you're dealing with — which is why a real assessment comes before any technique.
The approaches with the strongest track records
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT). The most widely researched approach for anxiety. CBT looks at the loop between thoughts, feelings, and behavior: the catastrophic interpretation your brain jumps to, and the avoidance that keeps the fear in charge. You'll learn to catch distorted thoughts, test them against reality, and gradually face feared situations in manageable steps instead of organizing your life around avoiding them. It's practical and skills-based — most people leave sessions with specific things to practice.
Exposure and Response Prevention (ERP). The specific, evidence-based treatment for OCD. ERP means gradually facing the thoughts, images, or situations that trigger obsessions — while not doing the compulsion that usually follows. It's done in small, planned steps, with your clinician's support, and it's how the brain learns that the feared outcome doesn't happen (or is tolerable). General talk therapy alone is usually not enough for OCD; ERP is the approach designed for it.
ACT and IFS. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) takes a different angle: instead of arguing with anxious thoughts, you learn to notice them without obeying them, and to steer your energy toward what matters to you. Internal Family Systems (IFS) explores the different "parts" of you — including the anxious, protective parts — with curiosity rather than combat. Both are used by clinicians on our team, often blended with CBT, depending on the person.
And when anxiety has roots in past experiences: if your anxiety is tied to specific distressing memories or trauma, EMDR therapy may be part of the picture — it's a structured approach for reprocessing memories that still carry a charge. For some people, medication is also worth discussing alongside therapy; our prescribers cover that on the Psychiatric Medication Management page.
What online anxiety therapy actually looks like
Sessions happen by secure video through SimplePractice, a HIPAA-compliant system built for health care — you click a link at your appointment time and meet face to face with your clinician. The work itself is the same work: assessing what kind of anxiety you have, building skills, practicing between sessions. Online delivery suits anxiety treatment well for a practical reason: much of the practice happens in your real life anyway — at home, at work, in the situations you actually avoid — and your clinician can coach you in the environment where it counts.
We serve teenagers and adults anywhere in Wisconsin, and we currently have immediate availability — no waitlist.
When in-person matters
Online isn't automatically the right call for everyone. Meeting face to face can be the better fit if:
- You don't have a private space at home where you can talk freely
- Your anxiety makes screens themselves hard (it happens), or the connection keeps getting in the way
- You simply know you focus and connect better in the same room
Select clinicians see clients in person, by appointment only, at our offices in Appleton and Mequon — and many clients mix in-person and online sessions. There's no wrong door here; the consultation is where we figure out which fits you.
Cost, and how to start
We're in-network with most major Wisconsin insurers, including Quartz, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, UnitedHealthcare, Forward Health (Wisconsin Medicaid), Molina, Network Health, Chorus Community Health Plans, UMR, and most other major Wisconsin plans, and we verify your benefits before your first session. If your plan is an HMO, we need to check your specific coverage first — HMO plans often require a referral or prior authorization, and in-network details vary by plan — call 920-234-6842 and we'll verify your exact benefits. Self-pay is open and simple too: Individual Intake $145, Individual Session $135.
Start with a free 15-minute consultation — tell us, in whatever words you have, what the anxiety looks like, and we'll match you with a clinician who treats it: https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule/6d4ae04a · 920-234-6842. More on how online care works is on our Telehealth Therapy in Wisconsin page.
If you are in crisis, call 911 or the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Mend Counseling is not an emergency service.
