A compassionate approach to understanding anxiety and developing a different relationship with it.

Over the years I’ve worked with many people who experience anxiety in very different ways. Some worry constantly. Others avoid situations, overprepare, seek reassurance, struggle with perfectionism, or become frightened by the sensations in their own body.

Although anxiety can look very different from person to person, many of the processes underneath it are surprisingly similar.

Making Sense of Anxiety is a series of eight Conversations exploring some of those processes, bringing together ideas I often use in my work to help people understand their anxiety.

Rather than beginning with:

“How do I get rid of anxiety?”

we begin somewhere slightly different:

“What is my anxiety doing, why might it be doing it, and what keeps the pattern going?”

Because when anxiety begins to make more sense, our relationship with it can begin to change.

Feel free to explore these Conversations in any order – simply begin wherever feels most relevant.

1. Understanding Anxiety

How anxiety begins to make more sense – and why understanding it can make it easier to respond with less fear, shame, and self-criticism

2. The Anxiety Cycle

How anxiety is made up of different, interacting parts – and why understanding each one can make the whole experience feel much less confusing

3. Why Worry Feels Helpful

Why worry often persists, not because it is helpful, but because part of the mind believes it is

4. Safety Behaviours & Avoidance

How anxiety influences our behaviour – and why the things we do to feel safer can sometimes keep anxiety going without us realising

5. Anxiety and the Body

How anxiety involves both the mind and the nervous system – and how the body can become an active part of the anxiety cycle

6. The Many Faces of Anxiety

How anxiety doesn’t always look like fear – it can also appear through preparation, control, responsibility, and the search for certainty

7. Anxiety & Self-Compassion

How self-criticism, shame, and pressure can create a second layer of suffering, making anxiety even harder to carry

8. Where Understanding Leads

What understanding can make possible – and why insight can be the beginning of change rather than the end