Working with Anxiety: A Depth Therapist’s Perspective
Anxiety has become one of the defining emotional states of our time. It hums beneath many conversations, lives in the body as tension, and often arrives without a clear story.
As a Pasadena therapist practicing depth psychotherapy, I approach anxiety with curiosity. In this work, we look beyond symptom management and explore what anxiety may be expressing in the language of the psyche. This post borrows ideas from three of my favorite authors of the depth psychological tradition: Marion Woodman, Clarissa Pinkola Estés, and Barbara Sullivan.
Anxiety as Psychic Pressure
Marion Woodman wrote: “The symptoms we try to get rid of are the very things that lead us to the soul.”
Anxiety carries charge. It mobilizes the nervous system, sharpens awareness, and demands attention. At times, that charge reflects unresolved trauma or chronic stress. At other times, it emerges when an unlived aspect of the personality begins pressing toward expression.
The ego experiences activation as danger. The deeper psyche may experience it as movement.
Depth psychotherapy creates space to discern what kind of anxiety is present — and what it may be asking for.
The Narrowing Effect of Chronic Anxiety
Clarissa Pinkola Estés observed: “Anxiety is a thin stream of fear trickling through the mind. If encouraged, it cuts a channel into which all other thoughts are drained.”
When anxiety becomes chronic, imagination constricts. Life organizes around vigilance and control. Instinct recedes in favor of performance and adaptation.
Many anxious individuals are highly capable and responsible. Over time, that adaptation can distance them from desire, anger, creativity, and rest. It can distance them from themselves.
In depth psychotherapy, we gently inquire: Where has instinct gone quiet? What aspects of the self have been sidelined in order to maintain stability?
This is what it’s like to be in depth psychotherapy — an exploration of what is present beneath the presenting symptoms.
The Body as Messenger
Barbara Sullivan, author of Psychotherapy Grounded in the Feminine Principle, wrote about symptoms emerging when ego direction diverges from the deeper organizing center of the psyche. In other words, symptoms often arise when you are living according to what you think you should do, rather than what your deeper self knows is right for you.
Anxiety frequently registers first in the body:
Tightness in the chest
Constricted breath
Jaw tension
A diffuse sense of dread
In depth psychotherapy, we slow down enough to feel these signals. We attend to dreams, recurring images, and somatic experience. A tight chest may hold grief. Restlessness may hold anger. Persistent worry may guard an unspoken longing.
When anxiety is approached symbolically and relationally, its intensity often shifts. The psyche responds to being taken seriously.
Anxiety at Life Thresholds
Anxiety often intensifies during periods of transition:
Career changes
Parenting milestones
Illness or loss
These moments unsettle identity. The familiar structure of self reorganizes.
As a Pasadena therapist working in depth psychotherapy, I often see anxiety surface when the psyche is asking for realignment. Dreams may become vivid. Old memories return. Creative impulses reappear. Something inside is seeking a new configuration. Depth work allows us to engage that process thoughtfully rather than rushing past it.
A More Spacious Relationship to Anxiety
Relief does not always appear as the total disappearance of anxiety. Often it shows up as:
Greater tolerance for uncertainty
Stronger connection to instinct
Clearer boundaries
A renewed sense of inner authority
In depth psychotherapy, anxiety becomes part of a larger narrative rather than an isolated problem to solve.
Working with a Depth Therapist
If you are looking for a Pasadena therapist who offers in-person depth psychotherapy, and anxiety feels persistent, confusing, or charged with something unnamed, this approach may resonate.
Depth therapy provides space for:
Dream exploration
Symbol and image work
Somatic awareness
Meaning-making during life transitions
Find Support With Depth Psychotherapy in Pasadena
Are you struggling to understand why anxiety seems to be ruling your world? Depth psychotherapy can help you access the deeper parts of yourself often overlooked in talk therapy alone. With the help of Rezak Therapy, you can relieve symptoms and move into a more intentional and meaningful life. Follow these three simple steps to get started:
Schedule a free 20-minute consultation to see if depth psychotherapy is right for you.
Start meeting with a skilled depth therapist.
Explore your anxiety through the symbols, sensations, and images beneath your symptoms.
Other Services at Rezak Therapy | Pasadena Therapist
At Rezak Therapy, our work centers on helping you live in closer alignment with your authentic self. While depth psychotherapy forms the foundation of the practice, therapy here is integrative and responsive to the whole person.
In addition to depth therapy, services include:
Individual therapy for burnout, life transitions, relationship struggles, and questions of meaning
Couples therapy for partners seeking deeper communication, repair, and emotional connection
Somatic therapy, incorporating body awareness and nervous system regulation
A Women’s Intimacy Group, a safe container where women gather to deepen self-understanding and grow in community
If you’d like to learn more about depth psychotherapy and the range of services offered, you’re invited to explore the blog or reach out directly to begin a conversation.
