Controlled, Contained, and Constant
Anxiety Therapist in Brooklyn, NY
Depth-oriented anxiety therapy that works with anxiety in both the mind and the body, online across New York State, for high-functioning people whose minds will not switch off.
Request a Private Consultation
Anxiety Therapy That Asks What Your Anxiety Is Protecting
Most approaches to anxiety start with one question: how do we make it quieter? It is a reasonable hope, and sometimes, for a while, it works. I start somewhere else: what is your anxiety protecting you from? Worry is rarely random. It stands guard against something - disappointment, exposure, stillness, a feeling waiting underneath.
Anxiety also often begins as something else entirely: energy that could move in any number of directions, labeled as anxiety so quickly that we never learn what it wanted to become. When we slow that moment down, the question changes from how do I get rid of this to what is this asking of me. That is where the work begins.
Therapy for High-Functioning Anxiety
High-functioning anxiety does not look like a typical anxiety disorder. It looks like competence - deadlines met, people cared for, a life that works on paper. Inside, it is ruminative: the same loop, rehearsed at 2am and on the walk to the train, no closer to resolution for all the effort. You cannot think your way out of a loop.
Therapy for anxiety of this kind interrupts what willpower alone cannot. And it goes a step further. The states you actually want - presence, gratitude, openness - are harder to inhabit than the worry you know. Part of the work is understanding what it is about those states that some part of you resists. Anxiety is the easier place to live. It does not have to stay the only one.
What Anxiety Treatment Looks Like Here
Treatment here is weekly, relational, and specific to you. We follow the loops as they happen, the moment you brace, the decision you keep postponing, and we find out what the anxiety has been doing for you all this time.
Where a structured tool would help, I bring it in. Elements of CBT are woven into the work. And the work goes further, to the pattern underneath, so that change lasts rather than resets. For some people anxiety exists as a disorder and deserves careful treatment, sometimes in coordination with a psychiatrist. For most of us it is a subtler force, limiting how fully we work, love, and enjoy. Both belong here.
What Anxiety Therapy Helps With
Anxiety is rarely contained to one corner of a life, so therapy for anxiety tends to raise the quality of everything it touched. Every session is online, anywhere in New York State.
- Ruminative loops - the same worry, replayed without resolution
- Work that stalls - starting, finishing, deciding, all uphill
- Friendships and relationships strained by a mind half elsewhere
- Pleasure that never quite lands, and rest that does not restore
- A harsh, negative relationship with yourself
- Morning dread, and a body that will not settle
- Anxiety that performs well in public and costs you in private
- Anxiety alongside ADHD, and the relationship between the two
- Anxiety in neurodivergent minds
How I Work With Anxiety
I am Avi Steinhardt, a licensed clinical social worker. My approach to anxiety draws on Gestalt therapy and relational psychodynamic work. I am also writing a book about anxiety: about why gratitude and vulnerability, the states we say we want, are so much harder to inhabit than the worry we know.
Every session is held online, so you can do this work from anywhere in New York State - Manhattan on a Tuesday lunch break, Queens after the kids are down, upstate where the nearest depth therapist is an hour each way. All it takes is a room with a door that closes. Online suits this kind of anxiety better than people expect. It is rarely loud in a waiting room. It shows up in the hour you set aside and then filled, and people who are used to holding it together in public often drop the performance faster at home.
You can read more about Avi and this practice, explore psychodynamic therapy, the approach underneath this work, or therapy for creatives, where anxiety and creative work often meet.
Common Questions About Anxiety Therapy
What does anxiety therapy with you actually involve?
Do you work with high-functioning anxiety?
Can I work with you from anywhere in New York?
Is online anxiety therapy as effective as meeting in a room?
I have tried CBT and breathing tools. Is this different?
Do I need medication for anxiety?
Do you take insurance?
Begin Anxiety Therapy
I begin with a free 15-minute consultation - a short conversation about what the loop looks like for you, and whether this work feels right.
Limited availability. Online, anywhere in New York State.
Request a Private ConsultationRequest a Private Consultation
You don't need the words ready. Share a little about what's bringing you here, and I'll be in touch personally.
In Their Words
My husband and I found Avi when we were in a dark place. Avi was thoughtful, patient with us - and funny!
My husband and I found Avi when we were in a dark place. Avi was thoughtful, patient with us - and funny! We didn't know what we were looking for, but we found a fellow artist. He's so soulful, and he has this magical ability to help you unwind yourself. For that, we're grateful. We've asked him to work with our teenagers, family members, even friends. He's truly singular.
Since working with Avi, I've grown into the person I want to be - more self-aware, confident, and in touch with my needs.
Since working with Avi, I've grown into the person I want to be - more self-aware, confident, and in touch with my needs. He's truly exceptional, and working with him has been a gift!
Avi Steinhardt was an amazing counselor for myself and my family. His kind understanding, and knowledge helped me.
Avi Steinhardt was an amazing counselor for myself and my family. His kind understanding, and knowledge helped me get through a very stressful part of my life, being a single mom.
When I speak with Avi, I feel more than heard. His patience has allowed that enlightenment to occur organically.
When I speak with Avi, I feel more than heard. His patience has allowed that enlightenment to occur organically, and though the positive impact on my life has been nothing short of massive, the process has always felt simple, human, and caring.
Avi has helped us better understand ourselves and each other, which has had a meaningful impact on our relationship.
We came to Avi because we felt trapped in arguments that would end with neither of us feeling understood. Avi has helped us better understand ourselves and each other, which has had a meaningful impact on the quality of our relationship. We feel more trusting and appreciative of one another and experience less escalation during times of conflict.