Anxiety Care
Specialized telehealth care for anxiety, for adults, adolescents, and children across Maryland, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania. CBT, ACT, exposure-based, and trauma-informed approaches, for anxiety that runs cognitively, somatically, or both.
Juniper Blu Collective provides specialized online anxiety therapy across Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. Our team works with adults, adolescents, and children navigating generalized anxiety, social anxiety, panic, health anxiety, and performance anxiety, including the "high-functioning" anxiety that looks fine from the outside. We use evidence-based approaches including CBT, ACT, exposure therapy, mindfulness, and trauma-informed care, with neurodivergence-affirming support when anxiety intersects with autism or ADHD.
- Anxiety is the most common mental health concern in the United States (NIMH), and it responds well to evidence-based care.
- Different types of anxiety respond to different approaches, so treatment is matched to what is driving yours, not to a single method.
- Much of anxiety lives in the body, not only in worried thoughts, which is why we combine cognitive and somatic work.
- "High-functioning" anxiety is real and often missed, because the person keeps performing while privately exhausted.
- You do not need a formal diagnosis, or to be in crisis, to reach out. We work with people across Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania by secure telehealth.
Anxiety Care at Juniper Blu
Anxiety is the most common mental health concern in the United States (NIMH), and it is also one of the most responsive to care. The work isn't about eliminating anxiety entirely (some anxiety is part of being human and helps us stay safe), but about reducing the kind of anxiety that has taken over too much of your life.
At Juniper Blu, anxiety care is one of our broadest specialty areas. Most of our clinicians work with anxiety in some form, because anxiety so often runs underneath everything else (eating disorders, trauma, OCD, depression, ADHD, autism). Whether your anxiety is the main thing or part of a bigger picture, we can help, most often through individual psychotherapy shaped to what you're navigating.
Types of Anxiety
Anxiety isn't one thing. Different anxiety conditions look different, feel different, and respond to different treatment approaches. The useful question is usually not "which label" but "what is driving it," because that is what shapes treatment.
| Type of anxiety | How it tends to show up | Approaches often used |
|---|---|---|
| Generalized anxiety (GAD) | Persistent, hard-to-control worry across many everyday areas (work, health, family, the future), often with muscle tension, fatigue, and disrupted sleep. The worries shift; the worrying stays constant. | CBT, ACT, and mindfulness to change the relationship with worry; somatic work for the physical tension. |
| Social anxiety | Intense fear of being judged or negatively perceived. Can look like avoiding events and public speaking, or replaying conversations for hours afterward. Often misread as shyness or introversion. | CBT and graded exposure to reduce avoidance; skills for self-focused attention and post-event rumination. |
| Panic disorder | Sudden, intense surges of fear with physical symptoms (racing heart, shortness of breath, dizziness, a sense of doom), often followed by fear of the next one. The panic itself is not dangerous, but the fear of it can take over. | Exposure-based approaches and nervous-system regulation to interrupt the fear-of-fear cycle. |
| Health anxiety | Persistent worry about having a serious illness, with body-checking, reassurance-seeking, or compulsive symptom-searching. Overlaps clinically with OCD. Reassurance helps briefly but tends to feed the cycle. | Exposure and response-prevention-informed work; reducing reassurance and checking loops. |
| Performance anxiety | Anxiety tied to performing in front of others (presentations, exams, athletics, music, intimacy). Can be situational or pervasive enough to narrow careers and relationships. | Graded exposure combined with regulation skills for the acute moment. |
Most people don't fit neatly into one category, and that's normal. Anxiety conditions frequently overlap. Treatment is shaped to what you're actually living with, not to which label fits best. If your anxiety runs alongside compulsions or intrusive thoughts, our OCD care page may fit better; if it grew out of frightening or overwhelming experiences, see PTSD and trauma therapy.
Panic Attacks and Panic Disorder
Yes, Juniper Blu works with panic attacks and panic disorder, and it is one of our most-requested areas of anxiety care. Founder Jamie L. Jones, LCPC, LPC, LCPAT, ATR-BC, C-DBT, TBHP, is a Certified Anxiety, OCD, and Panic Specialist, and several of our clinicians work regularly with panic across Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania.
A panic attack is a sudden surge of intense fear with physical symptoms such as a racing heart, shortness of breath, dizziness, or a sense of doom. The attacks themselves are not dangerous, though they can feel terrifying. Panic disorder develops when the fear of having another attack becomes its own problem, and people start reorganizing life around avoiding it. This "fear of fear" loop is what treatment targets. Panic tends to respond well to exposure-based approaches paired with nervous-system regulation, which help the body relearn that the sensations of panic are not a threat to escape. If your panic is tied to a fear of illness, our work on health anxiety may also apply, and if it grew out of frightening experiences, trauma therapy may be part of the picture.
If you are in the middle of a panic attack right now and frightened for your safety, the crisis resources above and at the bottom of this page are available any time.
How the Anxiety Cycle Keeps Itself Going
Anxiety tends to run in a loop: something triggers it, the mind predicts danger, the body sets off its alarm, and we do something to escape the discomfort. That escape brings relief in the moment, which quietly teaches the brain that the threat was real and that avoidance is what kept us safe, so the loop tightens. A lot of anxiety treatment works by interrupting this cycle rather than by arguing with the worry.
What Anxiety Feels Like in Your Body
One of the most useful things to understand about anxiety is how much of it lives in the body, not just the mind. People often come to therapy expecting to talk about their worried thoughts, only to realize that what's been driving them is actually a nervous system stuck in alarm mode. Some of the most common somatic experiences of anxiety:
Cardiovascular and respiratory:
- Racing or pounding heart
- Shallow or rapid breathing
- Chest tightness or chest pain
- Feeling like you can't get enough air
Muscular and physical:
- Chronic muscle tension, especially in jaw, shoulders, and neck
- Trembling, shaking, or restlessness
- Tension headaches or migraines
- A persistent low-level feeling of being on edge
Digestive:
- Stomach pain, nausea, or "butterflies"
- IBS-like symptoms (bloating, diarrhea, constipation)
- Loss of appetite or anxious overeating
- Acid reflux
Cognitive and sensory:
- Racing thoughts that won't slow down
- Difficulty concentrating, brain fog
- Heightened sensitivity to sound, light, or touch
- Dissociation, derealization, or feeling "outside yourself"
Sleep:
- Trouble falling asleep due to racing thoughts
- Waking in the middle of the night
- Sleeping but waking exhausted
- Nightmares or vivid anxious dreams
When anxiety lives in the body, talk-only approaches often don't reach it. This is why we integrate somatic and body-based work alongside cognitive approaches, especially when anxiety has been chronic.
High-Functioning Anxiety
"High-functioning anxiety" isn't a formal clinical diagnosis, but it describes something real that's missed by traditional assessment because the person looks fine from the outside.
If you're a high performer at work, a reliable friend, the person other people lean on, the one who has it together (and yet you're privately exhausted, can't quiet your mind, can't shut off the worry, can't sleep, can't relax, can't stop preparing for what might go wrong), you may be carrying a form of anxiety that providers and even loved ones routinely miss. The performance is the protection. The worry is the engine.
In Jamie L. Jones's clinical experience, many people arrive for "stress" or "burnout" and discover the underlying pattern is anxiety they have compensated for so well that even they didn't fully recognize it. This is common, and it's workable. You don't have to be falling apart to deserve help.
How We Approach Anxiety Care
Anxiety responds well to care when the approach matches what's actually driving it. We think of it as finding the engine: some anxiety is cognitive (the thoughts are the engine), some is somatic (the body is the engine), some is rooted in trauma, and some sits underneath neurodivergence. Most is a combination. We work across modalities so the approach fits the person, not the other way around.
Depending on what you need, our therapists draw on:
- Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT): the most researched treatment for anxiety, focused on identifying and shifting the thought patterns that fuel anxious cycles
- Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT): for working with values, defusion from anxious thoughts, and building psychological flexibility
- Exposure-based therapies: a first-line, well-supported approach for panic, social anxiety, phobias, and health anxiety, where avoidance is keeping the anxiety alive (APA)
- Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT): when anxiety is tied to emotion regulation, distress tolerance, or interpersonal patterns
- Mindfulness-based approaches: for noticing anxiety as it arises without getting hooked by it
- Somatic and body-based practices: for anxiety that lives in the nervous system more than in cognition
- Trauma-informed care: for anxiety that developed alongside or after traumatic experiences
- Neurodivergence-affirming care: when anxiety intersects with autism, ADHD, or sensory processing differences
Anxiety care is not the right fit for every situation on its own. Some people also benefit from a medical evaluation or from medication. We don't prescribe directly, but we coordinate closely with psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, and primary care providers when integrated care is helpful. Where a higher level of care would serve you better, we will say so.
Other places to look
Anxiety overlaps frequently with other concerns. If you want to read about how we work with a related condition, our OCD, PTSD, Trauma Therapy, Eating Disorder Therapy, and Neurodivergence-Affirming Therapy pages might be useful.
Why People Choose Juniper Blu for Anxiety Care
People choose Juniper Blu for anxiety because anxiety is one of our core areas of focus, care is led by licensed clinicians with anxiety-specific training, and treatment is matched to what is actually driving your anxiety rather than delivered as a single protocol. A few things that shape the care here:
- Specialist-led. Founder Jamie L. Jones is a Certified Anxiety, OCD, and Panic Specialist with advanced DBT training, and clinicians are matched to your concern by specialty rather than by whoever is next available.
- Named, verifiable clinicians. Every therapist on this page is licensed, with credentials and license numbers you can look up, not an anonymous network.
- A range of evidence-based approaches under one roof. CBT, ACT, exposure, DBT, somatic work, IFS, EMDR, and trauma-informed care, so if one approach has not reached your anxiety before, another can.
- Built for telehealth across three states. Secure virtual care for people located in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, with the same clinician wherever you are in the state.
- Collaborative, not siloed. With your written consent, we coordinate with prescribers and other providers so therapy and any medication work together.
We are currently accepting new patients across all three states.
Signs of Anxiety
Anxiety can be hard to recognize, particularly when it's been chronic enough that it feels like just "who you are." These are common signs, offered as information rather than a diagnosis:
Cognitive and emotional signs:
- Persistent worry that's hard to control or quiet
- Catastrophizing or assuming the worst will happen
- Difficulty making decisions due to fear of the wrong choice
- Rumination, mental rehearsal, or replaying past interactions
- Irritability or feeling on edge
- Difficulty concentrating or feeling "scattered"
- Anticipatory anxiety about future events, even good ones
Behavioral signs:
- Avoidance of specific situations, places, or people
- Excessive reassurance-seeking from others
- Overpreparation, list-making, or "just in case" planning
- Compulsive checking (texts, locks, work, body sensations)
- Restlessness, fidgeting, or inability to sit still
- Procrastination driven by fear of failure
Physical signs:
- Racing heart or chest tightness
- Shallow breathing or feeling unable to take a deep breath
- Muscle tension, especially in jaw, shoulders, or neck
- Stomach issues or appetite changes
- Sleep disturbance
- Fatigue that doesn't resolve with rest
- Sensory hypersensitivity
When to Reach Out
If anxiety is taking up significant space in your life, narrowing what you do or where you go, disrupting your sleep, your relationships, or your sense of yourself, those are reasons enough to reach out. You don't have to be in crisis to deserve help.
You also don't need a formal diagnosis to start. Plenty of people who reach out aren't sure whether what they're experiencing fits a category, and figuring that out together is part of the early work.
If you've been quietly managing anxiety for years (high-functioning, getting things done, looking fine on the outside) and you're tired, that's also a reason. Performing well is not the same as feeling well.
What to Expect from Anxiety Care
Understanding your anxiety
The first few sessions are about understanding what kind of anxiety you're navigating, where it shows up, what's been making it worse, and what's been helping. We map patterns together rather than rushing into change, and we start building the relationship that the rest of the work depends on.
Skill-building and exposure prep
This is where we build practical tools (cognitive skills, nervous system regulation, mindfulness, exposure planning) that fit your specific anxiety. For social anxiety or panic, this often includes planning gradual exposures together. For generalized anxiety, this often focuses on shifting the relationship with worry itself rather than trying to stop it.
Active treatment
This is where the work moves from understanding to applying. Practicing exposures. Building new patterns. Reducing avoidance. Working through the deeper layers if trauma, attachment, or perfectionism are part of what's driving the anxiety. Progress often comes in waves rather than a straight line.
Generalization and life integration
As anxiety becomes less central, the work shifts to consolidating what you've built, planning for setbacks (anxiety can flare during stress and transitions), and reclaiming parts of life the anxiety had narrowed. Many of the people we work with continue with less frequent sessions to stay grounded long-term.
Therapists Who Work with Anxiety
Most of our clinicians work with anxiety. The therapists below have specific training and experience with anxiety as a primary focus. To meet our full team, visit the Our Team page.
Jamie L. Jones
Founder · LCPC, LPC, LCPAT, ATR-BC, C-DBT
Certified Anxiety, OCD, and Panic Specialist with advanced DBT training and 17+ years of clinical experience. Works with adults and adolescents across the full anxiety spectrum, including the high-functioning anxiety that often hides behind perfectionism and performance.
View full bio →
Megan M. Herbets
Licensed Professional Counselor
Advanced DBT training combined with ACT, IFS, and trauma-informed approaches. Works with adults and adolescents on anxiety, panic, OCD, and the mood and personality concerns that often co-occur with chronic anxiety.
View full bio →
Malca R. Gottlieb
LICSW (D.C.) · LCSW-C (MD) · C-DBT
Certified Dialectical Behavior Professional and EMDR-trained. Independently licensed. Works with anxiety alongside trauma, family relationships, and a wide range of life challenges.
View full bio →
Annie M. Sousa
Licensed Graduate Professional Counselor
EMDR-trained with extensive somatic trauma training. Specializes in anxiety that intersects with trauma, ADHD, autism, and burnout. Draws on ACT, IFS, EMDR, and body-based approaches. Bilingual in English and Spanish.
View full bio →
Stacey C. Cooperman
Licensed Graduate Professional Counselor
Certified Trauma, Mindfulness, and Grief-Informed Professional with specialized training in anxiety, depression, and trauma. Bilingual in English and French, supporting adolescents through older adults.
View full bio →
Batya H. Erickson
Licensed Graduate Professional Counselor
Attachment-based, mindfulness-informed support for anxiety alongside life transitions, burnout, grief, and the relational patterns that often fuel it. Works with children, adolescents, young adults, and adults.
View full bio →
Jenna D. Howard
Licensed Graduate Professional Counselor
National Certified Counselor drawing on attachment-based therapy, CBT, DBT, and mindfulness-based approaches. Works with anxiety alongside depression, grief, life transitions, and relationship concerns.
View full bio →Insurance, Cost & Where We Work
We see people via secure telehealth across Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania, and we are currently accepting new patients in all three. We accept CareFirst directly, including the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans CareFirst administers in this region. For other plans, we offer concierge support to help you make the most of your out-of-network benefits; a superbill lets you seek reimbursement, and the amount depends on your specific plan. We do not accept Medicaid or Medicare.
For full details on insurance, payment, session fees, and scheduling, visit our Insurance & Payment Options page or reach out.
Anxiety-Specific Questions
No. You don't need a diagnosis to start therapy at Juniper Blu. Many people reach out because they recognize a pattern (constant worry, panic, social fear, racing thoughts) without being sure what kind of anxiety they're experiencing. Your therapist can help you understand what you're navigating as part of the early sessions.
Stress tends to resolve once the stressful situation ends. Clinical anxiety persists even when there's nothing concrete to be anxious about, or shows up disproportionately to the situation. Stress and anxiety also feel different in the body: stress is usually more situational, while anxiety has a kind of underlying hum that doesn't fully settle. That said, the distinction isn't always clean, and you don't have to know which one you're experiencing to come in. Sorting that out is part of the early work.
Maybe, depending on what kind of anxiety you're navigating. Exposure is a first-line, well-supported treatment for panic disorder, social anxiety, phobias, and health anxiety, because avoidance is what keeps these anxiety types alive (APA). For generalized anxiety or anxiety rooted in trauma, exposure may not be the right approach. We'll talk through what would actually help for your situation, and exposure work (if we do it) is structured, paced to you, and never done in a way that floods you with anxiety.
The most common reason previous anxiety therapy didn't help is that the approach didn't match what was actually driving the anxiety. Generic talk therapy often helps you understand your anxiety without fully shifting it. CBT alone works well for some types of anxiety but doesn't reach anxiety rooted in trauma, attachment, or neurodivergence. We work across modalities (CBT, ACT, exposure, somatic, IFS, EMDR, trauma-informed care) so the approach fits the person. If you've felt "stuck" before, that's often a modality mismatch, not a sign that you're untreatable.
Yes, and a significant portion of our anxiety work is with high-functioning people. People who look fine on the outside, perform well at work, are reliable in relationships, and are privately exhausted from the work of holding it all together. High-functioning anxiety is real, and the fact that you're managing well doesn't mean you should have to keep carrying this alone.
Yes. Several of our therapists work with children, adolescents, and young adults experiencing anxiety. Treatment is adapted to developmental stage, and family-based work is often integrated when it supports the child's progress. We work with school-related anxiety, social anxiety, separation anxiety, performance anxiety, and the anxiety that often accompanies neurodivergence.
We don't prescribe medication directly, but many people benefit from medication alongside therapy, particularly for moderate-to-severe anxiety, panic disorder, or anxiety that's been chronic. With your written consent, we coordinate closely with psychiatrists, nurse practitioners, and primary care providers so the medication and therapy work together rather than in parallel. Your prescriber makes all medication decisions.
It varies based on the type of anxiety, how long it's been there, and what else is going on. For specific, focused anxiety conditions like panic disorder or social anxiety, CBT and exposure often produce meaningful change over a relatively focused course of care. Generalized anxiety or anxiety rooted in trauma typically takes longer. Your therapist will discuss a realistic timeline during the assessment phase.
Yes. CareFirst is our primary accepted insurance, and it administers the Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in Maryland and the Washington, D.C. region, so those are accepted directly. For plans we're not in-network with, we offer concierge support to help you use out-of-network benefits; a superbill lets you seek reimbursement, with the amount depending on your plan. We do not accept Medicaid or Medicare.
Yes, we're currently accepting new patients across Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Pennsylvania. Because care is fully virtual, sessions are often easier to fit around work than in-person visits. For current availability, including any evening options, the quickest path is to reach out and ask.
You can begin by visiting our contact page or calling (202) 244-0818 to schedule an initial consultation. We'll talk through what you're experiencing, answer your questions, and help you decide if one of our therapists feels like a good fit, with no pressure to commit before you're ready.
This page is for general education and isn't a substitute for personalized care. Reading it doesn't create a therapist-client relationship. If you're struggling, connecting with a licensed professional can help.
If you're in crisis or thinking about harming yourself, help is available right now.
- 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: call or text 988, or chat at 988lifeline.org (U.S., 24/7).
- Crisis Text Line: text HOME to 741741 (U.S., 24/7).
- If someone is in immediate danger, call 911 or your local emergency number.
Start Anxiety Care with Juniper Blu Collective
If anxiety has been narrowing your life or quietly exhausting you, you don't have to keep figuring it out alone. Reach out today and we'll talk through what specialized care could look like for you.
Connect With Us