Anxiety Counselling Sydney

Are You Struggling to Cope with Anxiety?

At Sentient Professional Wellbeing, we support people from all walks of life. In counselling anxiety, our approach fosters resilience, promotes growth, and supports lasting positive change.

If your anxiety is starting to take control of your life, we can help. Our 360° approach will help you address the causes, triggers and aggravators of your anxiety—whether those issues stem from your personal or professional life.

Because we’ve worked in professional settings ourselves, we understand how personal and professional pressures often blend together, fueling anxiety. Sometimes anxiety is a sign of a skills gap or a mismatch between you and your environment. Our affirming, strengths-based approach complements standard therapeutic techniques by helping you adapt to changing demands—and, if needed, explore new directions that are a better fit for who you are and how you thrive.

You're not just a private individual or a professional—you’re both, and you operate across multiple roles and environments that can trigger or intensify anxiety. That’s why the team at Sentient Professional Wellbeing takes a holistic, whole-person approach. Anxiety therapy isn’t just about emotional insight or shifting thought patterns; it's also about building practical skills across the different areas of your life. We’ll take a close look at how your environment is impacting you—so you can make conscious, empowered choices to better align with it, or move on if needed.

Our specialised team includes psychologists in Sydney, counsellors, executive coaches, and researchers, all highly skilled in helping individuals navigate challenges like stress, anxiety, relationships, depression, life transitions, grief, trauma/PTSD, and neurodiversity. Whether you're dealing with overwhelming emotions, struggling with major life changes, or looking to gain a deeper understanding of yourself, we offer personalised support tailored to your needs.

Anxiety is treatable, and you don’t need to live in a constant state of stress or fear. Therapy can help you understand your triggers, develop healthy coping strategies, and finally feel like yourself again.

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Signs & Symptoms of Anxiety

Anxiety can niggle at the edges of your mind, or it can take over your life. Sometimes it manifests as a response to a threat—your heart rate might pick up, your breathing might shorten, and your sympathetic nervous system might release a sudden surge of stress hormones. This is known as the Fight, Freeze, or Flight Response. Sometimes, this feeling lingers, or comes on when it’s not actually needed.

You might experience anxiety in your mind, in your body, or both.

Mental Symptoms

Excessive worry or fear
Difficulty concentrating or racing thoughts
Feeling restless or on edge
Irritability or mood swings
Sense of impending danger or doom
Trouble sleeping (insomnia, nightmares)
Feeling detached or dissociated
Avoidance of feared situations or places
Overthinking or excessive self-doubt
Feeling easily overwhelmed

Physical Symptoms

Rapid heartbeat (palpitations)
Shortness of breath or hyperventilation
Sweating excessively
Trembling or shaking
Dizziness or lightheadedness
Stomach pain, nausea, or digestive issues
Muscle tension or aches
Fatigue or weakness
Headaches
Tingling or numbness in hands or feet

Types of Anxiety and Treatments

Whether it’s the fear of social situations, constant worries about health, or relationship insecurities keeping you up at night, you’re not alone.

Sentient Professional Wellbeing provides counselling for stress and anxiety that can help you take back control of your life, and get your anxiety down to a manageable level.

Health Anxiety Counselling

Do you find yourself constantly worrying about your health, googling symptoms, or fearing the worst after every headache or stomach ache?

Health anxiety can be exhausting, but Sentient Professional Wellbeing counselling can help by:

✔ Understanding why your brain jumps to worst-case scenarios
✔ Learning how to break the cycle of excessive worry and reassurance-seeking
✔ Managing triggers (like medical news or doctor visits)
✔ Gaining practical tools to trust your body and focus on real well-being

It’s okay to care about your health, but it shouldn’t control your life. Our anxiety management counselling helps you find that balance.

Social Anxiety Counselling

If the thought of socialising makes your heart race, or you deal with excessive worrying post-party, you might be dealing with social anxiety.

It’s more than just shyness—it’s an intense fear of judgment, awkwardness, or saying the "wrong" thing. Sometimes, this fear is so strong that we don’t end up saying anything at all.

Sentient Professional Wellbeing social anxiety therapy helps by:

✔ Building confidence in social settings
✔ Identifying unhelpful thought patterns
✔ Developing coping strategies for real-life situations
✔ Practicing techniques to reduce fear and overthinking

With the right anxiety and stress management counselling, you can start feeling comfortable and in control—whether it’s at work, social gatherings, or even just ordering a coffee without second-guessing yourself.

Relationship Anxiety Counselling

If you feel like you’re overanalysing texts, worrying about whether your partner really loves you, or feeling insecure even when things are going well, then you might have relationship anxiety, and it can put a lot of pressure on both you and your partner.

Sentient Professional Wellbeing’s anxiety counselling services can help by:

✔ Addressing trust issues, attachment styles, and past experiences
✔ Teaching healthy communication strategies so you don’t spiral into overthinking
✔ Helping you separate real concerns from less rational anxiety-fuelled fears
✔ Allowing you to enjoy love without questioning it

You deserve a relationship where you feel secure, valued, and at peace—not stuck in a loop of doubt and overthinking.

Workplace Anxiety Counselling

Workplace anxiety often stems from situations that feel threatening—whether those threats are real or perceived.

This might look like feeling out of your depth, unsafe, constantly behind on deadlines, or dealing with conflict, bullying, or unclear expectations. And because work and life are so intertwined, the stress rarely stays in the office.

Sentient Professional Wellbeing workplace anxiety therapy helps by:
✔ Unpacking the root causes of stress and anxiety at work
✔ Building emotional resilience through practical, skills-based support
✔ Strengthening key skills like communication, leadership, negotiation, and conflict management
✔ Exploring whether your work environment is truly aligned with your values and strengths

Our holistic approach blends psychological insight with professional development, helping you feel more in control, more capable, and more confident in navigating your work life.

Generalised Anxiety Counselling

Having Generalised Anxiety Disorder (or GAD) doesn’t mean something is wrong with you—just that your brain is more prone to worry, and you might benefit from therapy, mindfulness, or lifestyle changes.

Sentient Professional Wellbeing helps by:
✔ Understanding what fuels your worry patterns
✔ Learning how to calm an anxious mind and body
✔ Building daily routines that bring a sense of stability
✔ Equipping you with tools to manage uncertainty and "what ifs"

With the right support, you can turn the volume down on the constant mental noise and feel more grounded, clear-headed, and able to enjoy the moment.

Trauma Anxiety Counselling

Anxiety that stems from past trauma can feel overwhelming. Certain places, people, or situations might trigger intense fear—even if the original threat is no longer present.

Sentient Professional Wellbeing trauma-informed therapy helps by:
✔ Creating a safe, supportive space to process your experiences at your pace
✔ Helping you understand how trauma impacts your brain and body
✔ Teaching grounding techniques and tools to manage anxiety in the moment
✔ Gently building emotional resilience so you can start to feel safe again in your own life

With the right support, it’s possible to acknowledge past trauma, while moving forward with your life.

When Should You Seek Anxiety Counselling?

A certain amount of anxiety is part of life—it’s our body’s stress response, and it helps us know when we’re safe, when to be extra alert, and when we’re in danger. But if the feeling of anxiety is ruling your life, this becomes a crisis of being able to cope.

Here are some signs that an anxiety counselling therapist might be able to help you:

You feel constantly on edge. It’s like your brain won’t switch off, and even when things seem okay, you can’t shake the feeling that something’s wrong.
Your thoughts feel out of control. Overthinking, worst-case-scenario spirals, or feeling trapped in ‘what if’ loops are making everyday life exhausting.
It’s affecting your sleep, work, or relationships, leading to trouble sleeping, difficulty concentrating, or feeling disconnected from people you care about.
You avoid things that trigger anxiety. Whether it’s social events, phone calls, doctor visits, or even leaving the house, avoidance can make anxiety stronger over time.
Your body is feeling the stress. Racing heart, tense muscles, nausea, headaches—when anxiety starts showing up physically, it’s a sign your nervous system needs a break.
You don’t have to wait until things feel unbearable. Help is available whenever you’re ready.

Sentient's Approach to Anxiety Therapy

Our goal is not to pathologise, but to empower. We are your partner and supporter on your journey to healing and are invested in your outcomes.

We aim to provide a holistic service that blends the emotional depth of psychology with powerful executive coaching tools to promote the wellbeing of individuals, working professionals, and couples.

No matter who you are, our approach to counselling someone with anxiety is built on our core values of diversity, compassion and humanity. As a diverse practice, we welcome individuals from all walks of life, of all diverse cultural, gender or sexual identities.

You don’t exist in a vacuum, and neither does your anxiety. Work anxiety can bleed into your personal life, and social anxiety can impact your career. Whatever is causing your anxiety, and however it’s impacting your life, we’ll help you develop the skills you need to cope with everyday anxieties, and bigger fears that build up over time.

So, what does this look like?

This might mean:

Helping you to optimise the inner world of your thoughts and feelings to give you the best chance of feeling most centred and comfortable
Helping you develop skills to better cope with the practical demands of your environment such as leadership training if you’ve taken on a new leadership role at work, or conflict and communication training if changes at home are creating extra friction and extra negotiation with your partner is needed.
Looking at how to optimise your interaction with your environment. If you’re in an unsafe environment for example, then anxiety is an entirely normal response, and we’ll work through next steps with you. Maybe your values aren’t aligned anymore with your environment, or subtle environmental changes might need you to decide how/if you want to adapt or if it’s better to seek other better aligned environments.

This holistic approach will build the skills and resilience you need to make the best of your situation. Or, if the circumstances call for it, to find a better situation.

We provide both anxiety counselling online and in-person anxiety counselling in Sydney CBD.

How We Can Help You

Unlike standard psychology practices, we take a holistic view of your mental health. We understand that you're the expert in your life—Sentient Professional Wellbeing are the experts in how to make it better.

Our specialised team of psychologists, counsellors, executive coaches and researchers are highly skilled and experienced in counselling for depression and anxiety, as well as counselling for relationship stress, life transitions, grief and trauma, PTSD, and neurodiversity.

Our online anxiety counselling is available wherever you are, or you can visit us in person at our practice in the heart of the Sydney CBD.

Frequently Asked Questions

A trained therapist can help you:

Identify triggers and understand what causes or worsens your anxiety.
Develop coping strategies like breathing exercises, mindfulness, or cognitive restructuring to manage anxious thoughts.
Challenge negative thought patterns with therapies like Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT).
Improve emotional regulation and gain skills to manage overwhelming emotions.
Build confidence by working through fears in a safe, supportive space.
Address past experiences and exploring unresolved issues that may contribute to anxiety.

Counselling can be short-term for immediate relief or longer-term for deeper healing, depending on you and your needs.

Anxiety can sometimes feel like it comes out of nowhere, but there’s usually an underlying cause, even if it’s not immediately clear to you in the moment. Here are a few possible reasons:

Your brain is wired for it: Anxiety is part of your body’s fight-or-flight response. Even if there’s no real danger, your brain might still interpret everyday stressors as threats, triggering anxious feelings.
Stress is building up: Sometimes, anxiety hits when you least expect it because your body has been holding onto stress. If you’ve been juggling work, relationships, or life pressures, your nervous system might just be catching up—even if you don’t feel actively stressed in the moment.
Caffeine, sugar, or lack of sleep: Your body’s energy and blood sugar levels can have a big impact on anxiety.
Hormones and brain chemistry: Fluctuations in hormones (like before a period, during pregnancy, or due to thyroid imbalances) can ramp up anxiety. Low levels of serotonin or GABA (calming neurotransmitters) can also play a role.Hidden triggers: Sometimes, a subconscious trigger (like a smell, a memory, or a certain place) can set it off without you realising.

In general, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) is the frontline therapy for anxiety. CBT helps to reframe anxious thoughts and build coping strategies. It’s based on the idea that your thoughts directly impact your actions and how you feel. Therefore, by understanding and taking control of your thought processes, you can change the way you feel. This kind of therapy is particularly helpful if you have problems with catastrophising (assuming the worst possible outcome), personalisation (blaming yourself for everything) or overgeneralising (for example, saying that you are a failure after experiencing one setback). That said, if your anxiety is trauma-related—or if you’ve found CBT too “rational” or just not quite the right fit—there are other evidence-based approaches that may be more effective. Therapies like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Dialectical Behaviour Therapy (DBT), Schema Therapy, or EMDR can be more appropriate, particularly in cases of PTSD or complex trauma. At Sentient Professional Wellbeing, personalisation is one of our core pillars. We tailor our therapeutic approach to suit your unique needs, goals, and history—ultimately what works best is what works for you.

Stress is often the biggest culprit. Whether it’s work pressure, relationship issues, financial worries, or even just an overwhelming to-do list, stress can send your nervous system into overdrive.

Other triggers might be uncertainty or lack of control, unfamiliar social situations, health concerns (for you or a loved one), past trauma resurfacing, or diet issues, like too much coffee, sugar, or skipping meals (as this can mess with your energy and blood sugar levels).

Everyone’s triggers are different, but once you identify yours, you can work on managing them

Take a deep breath and:

Look around. Name three things you see. A desk, a pot, a tree—anything.
Listen. Identify three sounds you hear. Are there birds chirping? A clock ticking?
Move three parts of your body. Wiggle your fingers, roll your shoulders, tap your feet.

The idea is that the 3-3-3 rule engages your senses and your body, and brings awareness back into the present, away from anxious thoughts.

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