Surrey Hills and Coburg North

Therapy for Anxiety and Social Anxiety

Anxiety and Social Anxiety Therapy in Melbourne

Anxiety therapy helps you understand where the worry is coming from, not just how to quieten it. Our psychologists work with anxiety, social anxiety and panic at our Surrey Hills and Coburg North clinics, and online. Medicare rebates are available with a referral from your GP.

Is it bad enough to see someone?

There is no threshold you need to reach first. If you had an ache in your elbow that kept hanging around, at some point you would get it looked at. A worry that keeps hanging around deserves the same attention, and you do not need to be in crisis before you are allowed to ask.

Most people take a while to get here. The thought that usually holds them up is some version of “I should be able to work this out myself”, and it is easily the most common reason people put off making the call. Waiting until you can no longer cope is common, but it is not necessary. We service our cars before they break down, and your mind deserves the same care.

What anxiety actually is

Anxiety is your body’s threat response doing its job at the wrong moment. It is meant to be useful, and in short bursts it is. The trouble starts when it stays switched on: when the worry outlasts the situation, turns up without an obvious reason, or starts making your decisions for you.

It lives in the body as much as the mind. A tight chest, a churning stomach, shallow breathing, broken sleep, and a jaw and shoulders that never quite let go. Many people see their GP about the physical symptoms first, without connecting any of it to worry.

Anxiety also looks different from one person to the next. Two people can carry the same amount of worry, and one of them will look visibly on edge while the other gets through the whole week at work without anyone noticing. The quiet version is the one that tends to go unrecognised, sometimes for years.

What social anxiety looks like

Social anxiety is a fear of being judged by other people. It is not shyness, and it is not a flaw in your personality. It is a threat response that has attached itself to other people’s attention, and it can be strong enough to shape where you work, who you see and what you agree to.

It usually comes with a lot of preparation and a lot of replaying. Rehearsing what you will say before a meeting, then going back over what you did say for hours afterwards. Turning down invitations you actually wanted to accept, then feeling worse for turning them down. Avoiding helps in the moment, and over time it quietly makes life smaller.

Signs you might recognise

• Dreading meetings, phone calls, or being asked a question in front of other people
• Going back over conversations looking for what you got wrong
• Blushing, sweating, shaking or going blank in social situations
• Turning down invitations, then feeling left out afterwards
• Finding socialising far more tiring than other people seem to
• Worrying for days about something most people would not think twice about

How anxiety might be showing up for you

Why am I struggling with this when I am doing everything right? That question comes up constantly, and it is usually the thing underneath the worry rather than the worry itself.

Most people do not arrive saying they have anxiety. They arrive saying they cannot switch off, or that they are short with the people they love, or that they have stopped enjoying things they used to look forward to. The name for it usually comes later.

Some of the ways people describe it:

• Not being able to switch your brain off, especially at night
• Spinning your wheels and knowing that nothing is actually changing
• Feeling paralysed by decisions that ought to be simple
• Going through the motions and losing your spark
• Knowing the worry is out of proportion, and finding that this changes nothing
• Thinking you should be able to sort this out on your own

How we work with anxiety

We use evidence-based psychological approaches, and we pair them with understanding where your anxiety came from. Strategies to bring the worry down matter, and they hold up much better when you also understand what your anxiety is responding to.

Think about a rescue dog that flinches at loud noises. Nobody decides the dog is broken. We understand straight away that something in its history taught it to react that way. People are not so different. Your nervous system has been shaped by what you have lived through, and it holds a template that says this is dangerous, so you react. Once you can see where that template came from, you can start to work out whether it still serves you, and what you want to do about it.

For some people, part of the answer turns out to be undiagnosed neurodivergence. If the world is built as though everyone runs the same operating system, and yours runs differently, then following everyone else’s menu will keep failing you no matter how hard you try. Your system is not broken. It just works differently, and once you understand how it works, you know how to look after it. Years of asking why everyone else finds this easier take a toll, and anxiety is often what that toll looks like. Where it would help to have a clearer answer, we also offer ADHD assessments and broader psychological assessments.

We are also not trying to get you back to zero. Bringing the worry down is a fair place to start, and it is not the whole goal. What we are working towards is your being able to make choices that fit what actually matters to you, with enough awareness to notice when anxiety is the one making them.

How long does therapy take?

Longer than a few sessions, and less than you might fear. The patterns that keep anxiety going were built over years, often without you noticing, and unlearning them takes time in the same way.

Anyone who promises to fix this in a set number of sessions is guessing. Your psychologist will talk with you about what a realistic timeframe looks like for you, and that conversation continues as you go rather than being settled on day one.

What to expect at your first appointment

Your first session is a conversation, not a test you can fail. Your psychologist will ask what brought you in, what has been happening and for how long, and what you would like to be different. You set the pace, and you decide what you talk about and when.

Towards the end, the two of you will talk through what an approach might look like and how often you would meet.

Nothing you bring will shock us. If you have tried therapy before and came away feeling like you had talked a lot and changed nothing, say so early. It tells us something useful about what you need this time.

Who we work with

We work with children from around six years of age, teenagers, and adults of any age. Anxiety in an eight-year-old looks very different to anxiety in someone of forty-eight, and we match the practitioner and the approach to the person.

• Medicare rebates are available with a Mental Health Care Plan or a Chronic Condition Management Plan referral from your GP
• We work with NDIS participants who are self-managed or plan-managed
• Telehealth sessions are available if getting to a clinic is difficult
• You can book without a GP referral if you are not claiming a Medicare rebate or using private health insurance

Worry and low mood often travel together. If both feel true for you, it is worth reading about therapy for depression as well, or looking through everything we offer on our services page.

Common questions about anxiety therapy

Is social anxiety the same as being shy?

No. Shyness is part of someone’s temperament and it does not usually stop them doing what they want to do. Social anxiety is a fear of judgement strong enough to shape your decisions, and it often brings physical symptoms along with a lot of worry before and after social situations.

How much does anxiety therapy cost with Medicare?

With a referral from your GP, Medicare rebates part of each session and you pay the difference. The number of rebated sessions depends on which referral pathway you are on. Our reception team can give you current fees and rebate amounts before you book.

Will I have to talk about my childhood?

Only if it is relevant, and only when you are ready. Some people find that understanding earlier experiences explains a great deal about their anxiety now. Others stay focused on the present. You set the direction and your psychologist follows your lead.

What if I have tried therapy before and it did not help?

Tell us about it in the first session. Feeling like you vented for an hour and left with nothing is a common experience, and it usually points to something specific, whether that is fit with the practitioner or the approach itself. It says very little about whether this will be useful for you.

Can I have sessions online instead of coming to the clinic?

Yes. We offer telehealth sessions by video, which suits people juggling work hours, travel or caring responsibilities, and people for whom leaving the house is part of the problem. Medicare rebates apply on the same terms as in-person sessions, and you can choose telehealth when you book an appointment.

Where to find us

We have two Melbourne clinics and see clients from across the surrounding suburbs.

Surrey Hills
Suite 4, 407 Canterbury Road, Surrey Hills VIC 3127
Serving Box Hill, Camberwell, Balwyn, Blackburn, Mont Albert, Mitcham and surrounds.

Coburg North
120 Sussex Street, Coburg North VIC 3058
Serving Coburg, Pascoe Vale, Brunswick, Preston, Northcote, Fawkner and surrounds.

Speak with our team

If you would like to talk to someone about anxiety, you can book an appointment online or call us on 03 7002 6030. If you are not sure where to start, call us and we will talk you through the options.